posted 08-05-2000 10:44 AM            

Did you see the 8/4/2000 Wall Street Journal Article, "Online Appraisals: Out of Line?"?

Although the article seems to support my view that an online "e" appraisal is NOT a real appraisal, I still feel it missed the mark and I had other issues as well.

As you know, anyone can hang out an appraisal shingle. The article makes it sound like all live "in person" appraisal are the same. You know that there are often significant differences between the "anyone" appraiser, a dealer appraisal, auction house appraiser, an apprenticed appraiser, a trained appraiser, a member AAA/ISA/ASA appraiser and a certified AAA/ISA/ASA appraiser.

The article overlooks the "most appropriate market" and issues surrounding the purpose of the appraisal. It never mentions comparative market values, research or documentation to support a value determination.

The article would seem to suggest that it is the "live" appraiser's job to do authentication. I have attended many professional appraisal classes, lectures or conferences where the "authentication responsibility" question would become a lively discussion. By the end of the discussion everyone would always agree that it is not the job of the professional appraiser to do authentication. This article seems to suggest otherwise.

Just as it has been previously suggested in this Forum, I also believe the professional appraisal associations need to mount a public awareness campaign about what constitutes a real professional appraisal. Helaine Fendelman is certainly doing a good job of promoting herself and by circumstance is doing something in the public awareness area. But, in her televison appearances and print articles Ms. Fendelman often blurs and seems to cross that fine line of doing a proper appraisal versus a guesstimate/estimate. I suspect this is the reason why (in the WSJ) her appraisals and some of the "e" appraisals values so closely agree.