Appraisers' Free Forum

**Jim Plante**

In an earlier thread in this section, I quoted a section of an appraisal report. Many responses complained that it showed personal bias. It also had an adjustment based on appraiser's judgment, and everyone who responded agreed that was OK if it were properly explained.

So what's the difference between personal bias and appraiser's judgment? Both are based on the appraiser's personal impressions.

Any thoughts?
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Jim Plante

**Edd Gillespie** · Certified General Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Posts: 2282

One follows feelings the other does not. One is rational and can be documented, the other is not and cannot.
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Edd “In the real estate economy, there are no guarantees that reason will prevail in a market where emotions run high and the amount of misinformation runs deep.” Jonathan Miller in The Matrix. So what’s an appraiser to do?

WM · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:33 am Post subject:

A blatant personal bias would be things like disliking a house for it's blue carpet or a nasty owner. Pretty easy to identify and avoid this type of bias.

A more subtle form is disliking a house for it's type or layout because it is just not your favorite. Many of us have probably succumbed to this bias on a sub-conscious level without even realizing it.

Note I use the negative above but bias can be positive too.

Judgment to me falls more into the area of knowing something is positive or negative, but not being able to quantify it with hard evidence.

Judgment of a feature to be positive or negative can usually be backed up by a simple poll of market participants. IE:No one can really say a dollar figure or if they would even pay for a feature, but they all say that they would prefer (or dislike) house A over house B because of X.

I think that judgment should almost always be qualitative and is often the more applicable adjustment than we care to acknowledge.

In my limited experience, judgment comes into play on unique and/or uncommon features.

One of the enduring problems with both bias and judgment is the tendency to confuse design elements with real features. Just because I like the 30' tall field stone fireplace does not mean the next person will.

**Otis** · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:51 pm Post subject:

**M L** · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject:

Many years ago (early 1990's) we had a decorator put in a carpet that was somewhere between a crimson and violet. She said it needed some color, and to match the bold wall paper in the secondary bath off the hall. Dad and I hated it, and was worried about how it would affect the sale. Some loved it, some hated it... but it wasn't on the market but 60 days before it sold to an older lady who loved the bright colors. Would I do that again? No, I've found that a house sells no matter if it has custom colors or is builder white... so why pay extra for the custom colors? All buyers want is a clean house that looks and smells fresh and new. But despite that house not being of my personal taste, it fit the bill for this buyer. So I lean more towards condition than I do decor... so long as they didn't do something really stupid like painting the roof with yellow brick road oil based paint.
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Ya can't keep trouble from visitin, but you don't have to offer it a chair.

**Joker** · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:14 pm Post subject:

It's semantics.

Personal bias, not ok. Professional judgement (or professional bias) is ok.
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**skibs** · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:37 pm Post subject:

Bias is from the heart, judgement is from the head.
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Everybody grab your torches and pitchforks!

santa · Member Joined: 11 Aug 2007 Posts: 205

**Edd Gillespie** · Certified General Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Posts: 2282