quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
I would supervise the appraiser the entire time. He might not be an appraisal at all and might be planting listening devices or camera's or who knows that.....or retrieving valuables the wife hid a while ago and forgot.......

Probably a Russian agent trying to gather information to help Trump get elected.

Several lawyers have already posted what I am going to say about what I experienced and what I was counseled on.

She does not want you there because of "power" issues.

If you are not there, no confrontations.

I went through all of this, and in spite of every effort I made to be cordial and non-threatening, I could not "make" my ex any less concerned for the thoughts in her head about it.

It is just how it goes.

If she were to use any listening devices or a PI (or this appraiser) to gather any information, laws of disclosure would not permit her and/or her attorney to simply use such information without you knowing about it.

It will be hard enough dealing with all the legitimate and "real" things in a divorce and putting on the Don Quixote suit and battling windmill dragons is a waste of your life.

You have addressed your concerns with your attorney, and you may get your own appraisal, and unless the judge/court has to do the distribution assessment, your attorney and her attorney will do the accounting analysis and you and she will agree to the "equitable split" anyway.

Plenty of time to address everything.

YMMV in your state, and circumstance.

Hope that helps.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
I would supervise the appraiser the entire time. He might not be an appraisal at all and might be planting listening devices or camera's or who knows that.....or retrieving valuables the wife hid a while ago and forgot.......

Probably a Russian agent trying to gather information to help Trump get elected.

Someone I know is currently getting a divorce because his wife is cheating, he couldn't put the GPS tracking unit on or in his wife's car because it's owned by the corporation she works for. He could and did put it inside the "new" child's car seat that he put in her car as it doesn't belong to the corporation she works for! The PI then uses the tracking device to locate her to get evidence on her (take pictures going in/out hotel, restaurants, etc.), You'd be surprised what people do in divorces as well as the technology you can buy over the counter these days. The GPS tracking unit costs $400 and the monitoring fee is less than $80 a month and shows up on your phone in an app real time.

I'll chime in because it happened to me.
First, if you're keeping the house, there is no reason to get it appraised. If you 2 were selling it, sure.
Second, call your lawyer. She probably has one correct? Lawyers handle this shit.
Tell her no appraisal until you have things sorted out in court or in front of your lawyers.
Third, if this does happen, be there. Ask for credentials from the person, call their office and if it smells bad, ask the person, politely of course, to leave.
Something isn't right here.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
An actual professional appraiser this is no issue. ...

+1. I wouldn't worry about at this time.
And as long as you get a copy, it shouldn't be a problem. Once you and your attorney get a copy, then you can decide if you need to get a second appraisal.

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:
I'll chime in because it happened to me.
First, if you're keeping the house, there is no reason to get it appraised. If you 2 were selling it, sure.
Second, call your lawyer. She probably has one correct? Lawyers handle this shit.
Tell her no appraisal until you have things sorted out in court or in front of your lawyers.
Third, if this does happen, be there. Ask for credentials from the person, call their office and if it smells bad, ask the person, politely of course, to leave.
Something isn't right here.

Equitable division of property.
The house will need to be appraised, kept, transferred to the other spouse or sold. It's law.

(yeah, different states, different laws, but the crux of divorce is about separating two people who, by marriage, are seen as a "single entity", by the courts, becoming "two" and each entitled to the equitable distribution of assets and liabilities as it relates to time in the marriage, what may be considered "separate property" (not to be considered as marital assets) and any issues over "wasting" or the "wrongful taking" of assets, to include "hiding assets".

The extensive reporting of property, liabilities and assets, as well as all financial records for 3 or more years makes it very difficult to "game" anyone.

And pissing off a judge in such manner, will really screw up one's standing with the judge in any judgment.

I agree with those who advise against trusting your about-to-be-ex, her lawyer, her appraiser, or her cat.

Be present at the inspection, and I'd advise having a trusted friend with you as well, or ask your lawyer to recommend somebody to accompany you.

Finally, make sure the appraiser you hire, and your lawyer, both understand the difference between appraised value and an actual selling price. In my limited Real Estate experience several years ago, appraised value, selling price, and a bank's valuation for a mortgage, are entirely unrelated. There's no point in settling for an appraised value that is unrealistic if you have to sell later for any reason.

quote:

I'd get my own appraiser to counter.

This is what I did several years back while in your situation. And it was worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by golddot:
gotchya, the idea of some stranger having access to my house freaks me out LOL, thanks fellas.

More precisely, a stranger selected and paid by a soon-to-be-adversary in a legal matter. In your situation, I would be there at his/her shoulder - my house, my rules. But that's me.

And, yes, I'd be getting my own appraiser and would offer to let her accompany them around. Fair's fair.

Put your own security cameras in the house! I've had 3 divorces, each one got messier than the last. CYA Marine!

In addition to getting your own appraisal as many have suggested, you might want to consider asking several real estate agents to prepare comparative market analyses on the house. This document is intended to demonstrate a reasonable selling (and/or asking) price for the property based on the selling price of comparable homes in your area. A "comps" report might well be considered a more accurate estimate than even a professional appraisal.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:
I'll chime in because it happened to me.
First, if you're keeping the house, there is no reason to get it appraised. If you 2 were selling it, sure.
Second, call your lawyer. She probably has one correct? Lawyers handle this shit.
Tell her no appraisal until you have things sorted out in court or in front of your lawyers.
Third, if this does happen, be there. Ask for credentials from the person, call their office and if it smells bad, ask the person, politely of course, to leave.
Something isn't right here.

Equitable division of property.
The house will need to be appraised, kept, transferred to the other spouse or sold. It's law.

(yeah, different states, different laws, but the crux of divorce is about separating two people who, by marriage, are seen as a "single entity", by the courts, becoming "two" and each entitled to the equitable distribution of assets and liabilities as it relates to time in the marriage, what may be considered "separate property" (not to be considered as marital assets) and any issues over "wasting" or the "wrongful taking" of assets, to include "hiding assets".

The extensive reporting of property, liabilities and assets, as well as all financial records for 3 or more years makes it very difficult to "game" anyone.

And pissing off a judge in such manner, will really screw up one's standing with the judge in any judgment.

Absolutely Monkey, but without his lawyer and her lawyer (if they have them) putting this together, it's a bad idea.
Maybe her lawyer told her to do this possibly. In any case, both parties must agree on things.
I sat down with my lawyer and she got her car (even though it was in my name), I got my car and then we divided things up. The house was a different story.
I was going to keep it and the loan had both of our names on it. There was a clause that if the house was ever sold, she was due a certain percentage.
Of course when you sell, it gets appraised and inspected. I did end up selling it and moving back to my home state. The percentage agreed upon in the divorce settlement was paid to her.
I still think this should be a no go until he gets representation and things are agreed upon.

In a neighborhood that is active with sales, there will be a range of values.

As her appraiser he will pick the 3 highest reasonable comps to give the house the highest reasonable value.

Your appraiser will pick the lowest 3 reasonable comps to give it the lowest reasonable value.

In both cases its just a guess what the house would sell for at that moment.

Be sure to get one done for you and tell the appraiser what it is being used for.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
In addition to getting your own appraisal as many have suggested, you might want to consider asking several real estate agents to prepare comparative market analyses on the house. This document is intended to demonstrate a reasonable selling (and/or asking) price for the property based on the selling price of comparable homes in your area. A "comps" report might well be considered a more accurate estimate than even a professional appraisal.

What do you think an appraiser uses?

Appraisers don't use real estate agents to provide comps. They are almost always associate menbers of the local MLS, have access to listing data, as well as official records, deeds etc that show transactions. Many states charge a transfer tax based on selling price shown in the deed, and a careful appraiser often calls the brokers or parties to verify the terms. They also have access to property tax records.

Armed with these facts, they then make adjustments for size, location, quality, condition and other factors relevant in their professional judgment. It then becomes a SWAG instead of merely a WAG!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JALLEN,

The valuation aspect has been covered.
From the security aspect I'd insist on being present and I'd have an independent third party present as well. Basically a witness to make sure no crazy accusations can be made by her or her appraiser.
No way I'm giving unsupervised access to my home in this situation. More out of principle than anything else.

Remember, when you sell a home there are closing costs and realtor fees. Those need to be deducted from the anticipated proceeds when determining equity.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
In addition to getting your own appraisal as many have suggested, you might want to consider asking several real estate agents to prepare comparative market analyses on the house. This document is intended to demonstrate a reasonable selling (and/or asking) price for the property based on the selling price of comparable homes in your area. A "comps" report might well be considered a more accurate estimate than even a professional appraisal.

What do you think an appraiser uses?

Appraisers don't use real estate agents to provide comps. They are almost always associate menbers of the local MLS, have access to listing data, as well as official records, deeds etc that show transactions. Many states charge a transfer tax based on selling price shown in the deed, and a careful appraiser often calls the brokers or parties to verify the terms. They also have access to property tax records.

Armed with these facts, they then make adjustments for size, location, quality, condition and other factors relevant in their professional judgment. It then becomes a SWAG instead of merely a WAG!

Amen JALLEN! A Broker Price Opinion (BPO) is one of the lowest value opinions in the spectrum. I use the term value opinion all the time in analysis at work and it used to piss my old boss off. When I told her appraisals, evaluations, etc. were value opinions and just that and actual values were yield driven (same with cap rates), she shut her yap.

Another thought....

If ex requires that you not be present, it might be a good idea to require that she not be present.

If court proceedungs are underway, the court can make an order with this and any other matters that need attention.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
You'd be surprised what people do in divorces as well as the technology you can buy over the counter these days. The GPS tracking unit costs $400 and the monitoring fee is less than $80 a month and shows up on your phone in an app real time.

I wouldn't be surprised, since I handle divorces every day of the week.

Divorce is a significant part of my practice. There is so much crazy advice and misapprehension of what an appraisal is and why and when you need one in a divorce in this thread that I wouldn't even know where to start. (Not to mention generally wrong ideas about a lot of things that happen in divorces.)

I don't want to call anyone out in particular, but about half the things people have said in this thread are either flat wrong, half wrong, or meaningless without context. Any divorce lawsuit is a complicated event, and most people, even lawyers who don't handle divorce, know almost nothing about it.

Go by what has been said here at your peril.

When involved in a divorce, use the lawyer (she is the one with the law license and years of experience), not what your friends and the internet tell you.