As an accredited professional appraiser who has been around a long time, I have taken a liking to working on valuation consulting projects to shake up the routine of the day-to-day standard appraisal work. I have found that the more experience you have, the more opportunities arise, providing opportunities to think outside the box a bit more than usual.
Valuation consulting can mean different things; however, the basic premise of these assignments is to provide insights and opinions to clients that are specific to valuation without the necessity of a formal appraisal report. These may be relevant for business and legal disputes, leasing and financing transactions, internal tax and accounting requirements, or even insurance cases. Typically, consulting projects will involve providing opinions of contractual documentation language, or the review of other valuation reports, where the knowledge and experience the consultant has specific to valuation and related topics can be relied upon.
Similar to valuation reporting, consulting provides an independent third-party assessment that can assist in internal decision-making or support litigation case arguments for your clients. It is important to consider bolstering your opinions with source material, just like you do for an appraisal, but also look to create a thoughtful and reasonable assessment of the opinions being requested.
Consulting assignments provide the chance to bring some of your unique experience and perspective to the table and allow you to elaborate on the relevant topics by drilling down on the specific points of contention. Consider gaining a broad understanding of the overall situation and the goals of the client to potentially create other opportunities to expound upon.
The more you understand the big picture, the better prepared you will be to provide further thoughts and opinions that may assist even further than initially anticipated. Just like any personal or work-related experience, the more you know about it, the better your response will be.
In summary, valuation consulting is probably not going to be a primary driver for an appraiser’s business, as the projects generally are few and far between. When they do arise, however, take full advantage of the opportunity as you will not only be helping your clients, but furthering your expertise as well.