FEATURED ARTICLE

Quality Condition Adjusted Mean Methodology: A Comparative Valuation Tool for the Appraiser
This paper explores the process of using a quality/condition adjusted mean methodology (Q-CAMM) to determine value of a subject property. A quality/condition adjusted mean regulates comparable values based upon condition level and quality points, and arrives at a final value conclusion relative to the subject property’s intrinsic features and state of preservation. Q-CAMM continues to rely upon the personal opinion and experience of the appraiser while introducing additional mathematical components to basic statistical averaging. Click the image to read the article by Todd W. Sigety, ISA CAPP.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Reconceiving Connoisseurship, by Carol Strone
Connoisseurship is a dead language and a dead art. Or so art theorists with disdain for aesthetic judgments would have us believe for some 40 years now. Indeed, connoisseurship has long languished — unfashionable and unpracticed — in academic circles and beyond. But still it matters for many people, and there are signs of a renaissance, even in the most unlikely realms of the art world. The time is ripe for reconceiving connoisseurship as relevant to furthering culture and seeing with maximum powers of observation that which humankind creates. Click the image to read the article by Carol Strone of Carol Strone Art Advisory, NY.

ISA Annual Conference - Toronto, Canada

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 Reporter: Todd W. Sigety, ISA CAPP 0 Comments
On April 30 - May 3 ISA will celebrated its 30th anniversary with its annual conference, Assets 2010 in Toronto, Canada.  Over the past few years ISA has become known as leader in presenting some of the best personal property appraisal conference programs in the profession. Speakers at the recent Baltimore and Charleston Conferences included author and arts scholar Wendell Garrett, author and dealer Sumpter Priddy, Tom Savage of Wintethur, Andrew Brunk of Brunks Auction, Wes Cowan of Cowans Auction, Janet Moffitt of the IRS, Ron Fuchs of the Reeves Collection, Art Law author Judith Bresller, Lita Solis Cohen from Maine Antique Digest, and author and scholar Carrie Rebora Barratt from the Maryland Historical Society.

The Toronto Assets 2010 continues in the same tradition.  The conference will have strong programs for fine art, jewelry and antiques and residential contents. The Conference is open to non members and of course members from other appraisal organizations.

The recent press release on the conference follows:
(Toronto, Canada) The International Society of Appraisers will celebrate its thirtieth birthday with an in depth three pronged Conference in Toronto on April 30-May 3. The Conference, entitled “Assets 2010”, will consist of programs in Fine Arts, Antiques and Residential Contents and Gems & Jewelry. Conference coordinator Kathryn Minard, ISA, CAPP, and conference co-chairs Irene Szylinger and Catherine Williams and Jim Poag, Gems and Jewelry program coordinator have arranged a lineup of credentialed powerhouse presenters for each session, a pair of dynamic keynote speakers, Robert Ramsay and David Ben, and scheduled tours of such important venues as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics, the Bata Shoe Museum, the Textile Museum of Canada, Corona Jewelry Company, the Stephen Bulger Gallery and a tour of a private residence featuring Jamieson Tribal Art.

According to Minard one of the main points of emphasis for this Conference is affordability and flexibility. ISA has arranged very generous rates for participants at the host hotel, the Park Hyatt Toronto in downtown Ontario. It is close to convenient public transportation and is surrounded by a wide variety of eating establishments for all tastes and budgets.

While the Conference will have three distinct sections, participants will be encouraged to pick and choose among sessions to accommodate the cross-over interests of many attendees.




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Appraisers Post Analytics

Sunday, January 24, 2010 Reporter: Todd W. Sigety, ISA CAPP 0 Comments
The Appraisers Post continues to draw strong visitation numbers. Even though we have not been as active in posting as I would like to see, and that includes myself, the Appraisers Posts continues to have strong web visitation from our target audience, personal property appraisers.  I know I have been very busy over the past two months between several appraisals, antiques shows and the holidays and it has been difficult to find the time to post.  I soon hope to increase the new postings as well as do some active marketing of the site.

The website analytics for the past month show 1,003 visitors to the site. There were 589 individuals visiting, revealing that many are coming to the site more than once per month.  There were 1,657 individual page views, with 1.65 page views per visit.  This means visitors are clicking the "read more" links on the articles.  California, Florida and New York have the most visitors, closely followed by Virginia  and Texas.

Site visitors come from search engines 58.23%, referring sites 24.83% and direct traffic 16.95%.

The keys to more visitors is fresh content, and as we move deeper into 2010 I hope to see more postings and even more visitors.  I would like to thank all Appraiser Post contributors as well as the numerous appraisal groups who have supported the site.  ASA has been very active in sending me educational offerings and I have been pleased to post them on the site.

If you are an Appraisers Post contributing author, please post when you have time, if you are not an author and have something to contribute please let me know.

Todd



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Critical Changes to USPAP Tele-seminar Set for Monday

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Reporter: Brian Kathenes 0 Comments
Join Leon Castner, Ph.D., AAA, ISA CAPP, Senior Partner of National Appraial Consultants,
for an imporatant teleseminar:

Critical Changes to USPAP -- A Personal Property Perspective”

Learn about these critical changes and how they will impact your success in 2010.

Only $15.00. Monday, January 18, 2010, 8 PM Eastern.

Learn more at: www.BestAppraiserProfits.com

Join Leon and receive a special issue of the NAC Appraisers’ Marketing Newsletter containing more than 37 appraisal marketing tips you can instantly use to make this your best year ever. Don’t delay; the number of participants is limited.

Reserve your seat TODAY, and receive your special "Signing Bonus" worth $29.00, yours free

Claim your seat, your NAC marketing newsletter subscription,
AND your special bonus at:

www.BestAppraiserProfits.com



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Book Review: Appraising Personal Property: Principles and Methodology, 3rd Edition by David J. Maloney, Jr., AOA, CM

Monday, January 11, 2010 Reporter: Stephen P. Sweeting 0 Comments
.....................................................................................

Reviewed by Stephen P. Sweeting, ASA, MRICS

As professional personal property appraisers most of us are interested in quality publications on the theory and practice of valuation as well as on the business of appraising. Unfortunately, given the small size of our discipline within the valuation community, new and relevant publications are few and far between. Unlike the larger and more fully capitalized real property, business, and technical sectors of the valuation community, we often have to rely on outdated publications or course-related handouts produced on a relatively small scale. The result is that our profession does not have of a particularly large body of literature.

One of the few bright spots in the personal property valuation publications sphere is Maryland’s David J. Maloney, Jr., an appraiser, educator and writer who has committed to follow-up editions of “ a course book and reference guide” originally published in 2007. The recent publication of the third edition takes the excellent format developed in the first two editions and grows it into an outstanding resource and learning tool for all personal property appraisers.

I first ran one of the earlier editions of Appraising Personal Property: Principles and Methodology less that a year ago when our office borrowed a colleague’s copy. I leafed through the book and saw much of interest, finding it to be comprehensive, logically organized, and well written. But as we were busy at the time the volume ended up in one of those ubiquitous piles of books and journals that characterize the offices of all busy appraisers.

A few weeks later I started working my way through an extraordinarily complex loss-of-value appraisal report involving a high six-figure value work by a pivotal mid-twentieth century American artist. Although I have done plenty of loss-of-value work in the past, I wanted to ground my efforts in as much relevant literature as possible and went back to the volume sitting in my office. What I found was perhaps the most thorough and practical articulation of the loss-of-value concept I had ever seen. As I worked through my appraisal report, the relevant sections on loss-of-value in Appraising Personal Property et. al. served as both a conceptual template and a road map for handling the project.

After finishing my report, I went through Appraising Personal Property more closely. Using the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) as its foundation, and integrating theory and praxis, the volume covered appraisal terminology, appraisal principles, USPAP, ethics, property description, research techniques, and appraisal report-writing with considerable depth. The fully indexed book finished off with a highly relevant section on business practices and a number of useful document examples and templates. I concluded that it was very probably the most thorough book on appraising personal property available in the marketplace today. Moreover, because the volume was built around USPAP, it did not get bogged down in the competing terminologies used by various appraisal societies in their education programs. The book was relevant to all personal property appraisers using USPAP as their practice guideline.

So the question arises, is it possible to improve on the excellent second edition of Appraising Personal Property? In short, the answer is yes. The third edition adds 130 pages of relevant material including a much-needed plain English guide to USPAP, useful commentary on the most recent edition of USPAP, additional sample documents and templates, discussions of recent American legislation of particular interest to appraisers in the US, a chapter on legal issues affecting the appraiser, and expanded (and in some cases modified) discussions on pivotal concepts used in the valuation of personal property.

(Click Read More below for the rest of the Article)




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ASA Course Offerings

Monday, January 11, 2010 Reporter: Todd W. Sigety, ISA CAPP 2 Comments

Sharon Rollins, ASA the personal property chair at the American Society of Appraisers has sent me the upcoming ASA course offerings. Please note the special one hour webinar being held on February 12, 2010.  Additional information is listed at the bottom of the post.  For additional information on the classes, contact ASA on the personal property pages at  http://www.appraisers.org/PPHome/PPHome.aspx, or call 703-478-2228 or 800-272-8258.

The class schedule is as follows:
January 2010

22-23 Oriental Rug Appraisal* RISD
February 2010

5-6 Native American Art: Identification RISD
& Appraisal*

12 Folk Art Webinar by Susan Golashovsky, ASA Your Office!
12-15 PP/GJ POV 203 RISD
25-28 PP/GJ POV 203 NWU

March 2010

4-7 PP/GJ POV 203 Pratt
4-7 PP/GJ POV 201 UCI
8-9 Inspecting and Describing Fine Art UCI
8-9 Strategies for Handling and Managing
Difficult Appraisals* Pratt

11-14 PP/GJ POV 204 RISD
15-16 USPAP for PP RISD

April 2010

9-10 The Bauhaus* RISD
15-18 PP/GJ POV 204 NWU
19-20 USPAP for PP NWU
29-(May) 2 Intro to Appraising Antiques and Dec Arts RISD

May 2010

13-16 PP/GJ POV 202 UCI
17-18 Turning Gold and Silver into Green UCI
21 Resources for Appraisers (Beacon Hill, Boston) *RISD
20-23 PP/GJ POV204 Pratt
24-25 USPAP for PP Pratt
24-25 The Logic of the Argument* Pratt

June 2010

3-6 Appraising Fine Art* RISD
4-5 USPAP for PP UCI
16-17 Business of Contemporary Art* Pratt


ASA PRESENTS ...


Antique Folk Art and the Modern Interpretations WEBINAR

Whether you’re a generalist, fine arts or decorative art appraiser, don’t miss this affordable opportunity to increase your knowledge while also obtaining the education credits needed for reaccreditation. Learn first-hand from an expert with more than 20 years of experience in the field of antiques and folk art.

Susan Golashovsky, ASA, is an accredited specialist in American Folk Art, Antique Furniture and General/Residential Contents. She has interviewed artisans and examined their work to determine:

• How they interpret antiques
• What they do to make them appear “aged”
• The values of antiques versus new interpretations

This one-hour webinar, offered for the first time, will allow you to:

• Learn just how closely some artisans interpret antique objects
• See examples of antiques against revival and more recent examples
• Gain an understanding of the interpreter’s work through interviews with artisans currently making these objects
• And more


Date: Feb. 12, 2010
Time: 2 p.m. EST (one-hour duration)

Register NOW.

(NOW will link to this: http://www.appraisers.org/Education/ViewClass.aspx?ClassID=2362




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IRS Definitions of "Qualified Appraiser" and "Qualified Appraisal" Continue to Evolve

Monday, January 11, 2010 Reporter: Dave Maloney 0 Comments
From initial Act to final regulations: important appraisal-related issues continue to be refined

A taxpayer is generally permitted a deduction for noncash charitable contributions subject to certain limitations depending on the type of taxpayer, the nature of the property contributed, and the type of donee organization. When the deduction is permitted, taxpayers are required to obtain a qualified appraisal from a qualified appraiser for donated property for which a deduction of more than $5,000 is claimed.

Since tax deductions reduce the amount of tax collected by the federal government, Congress has tightened the rules governing appraisals in recent years in quest of discouraging valuation abuse, i.e., overstating the value of the contributed property. To accomplish this, relevant statutes were introduced embedded within the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (Jobs Act) and the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA).

As of this writing, proposed Treasury regulations adopted in 2008 clear up many of the lingering issues, but they have yet to be finalized. Go here for a comprehensive review and current status of the regulations that will be defining the terms "qualified appraiser" and "qualified appraisal" for donation appraisals.



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Antiques Roadshow: Behind the Scenes

Friday, January 08, 2010 Reporter: Jerry Sampson 0 Comments

An American TV Classic

This is an English hit transformed into an American passion. If Antiques Roadshow has done only one thing, and they have done many, one thing is that this TV show has changed the way that American Citizens look at antiques and collectibles. Before"Roadshow" people often thought nothings of removing a finish, cutting down legs, replacing parts of, in fact, just simply throwing it away.

Today, however, because of this show and the appraiser's who have been given icon status, people often pause to consider what an appraiser would say or do on "Roadshow' and this is a very good thing. I have to say that at first I was biased when it came to this book and the cult TV classic, thinking that the appraisals were pie in the sky estimates done more for showmanship as opposed to actual field work. All of that was laid aside when I turned the last page.

This book really gives a true behind the scenes look at how this show operates. You'll get a look at how the executive producer Marsha Bemko and her staff have worked to adapt the British TV show for the American market. You'll meet the appraisers and learn early childhood influences as to why they choose this career. The set-up requirements, security and lay-out of auditoriums are explained in a way that makes it easy to understand why "Roadshow" doesn't come to every town. Of course, you'll get information from all the past years' highlights of interesting objects and you'll receive follow-ups as to what happened to several items after the cameras shut off. You'll understand and appreciate the articles pertaining to the "watermelon sword" and the Poe image. One of many interesting topics was learning how objects are selected for the camera. One chapter that I loved was "Missing Masterpieces;" it focused on what various appraisers longed to have walk onto the set of "Roadshow."

I have to say that as an appraiser, the one chapter that excited me was the chapter titled "The Final Reality." This chapter gave easy step-by-step hints and information for people looking for appraisals. Though there was no mention of The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), I thought that the information provided in this chapter was very useful and factual.

All in all, I found that this book was very enjoyable and informative and should be included on your book shelf. It is softbound, with 181 numbered pages, full color illustrations and loads of information. It had a MSRP of $16.99 and is available online and at your local booksellers.



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Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies