Six Areas of Practice, One Standard of Rigor.

It depends on why the value is required, not on the property itself. A sale, a separation, an estate, a tax filing, and a legal proceeding each call for a different effective date, a different intended user, and in some cases a different form of report. If you are unsure, a short conversation will establish which applies.

CUSPAP is the Canadian Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice — the national standard governing how appraisals are prepared, documented, and reported. A compliant report sets out the intended use, the effective date, the evidence relied on, and the reasoning behind the conclusion.

An appraisal is a formal report from an independent professional with no interest in the outcome, prepared to a national standard and documented so the conclusion can be examined. An agent's opinion is a pricing recommendation from a party to the transaction. An automated estimate is a statistical model with no inspection behind it.

Generally, no. Every report names its intended use and intended user, and the analysis is prepared for that purpose. An appraisal prepared for a sale is not interchangeable with one prepared for a tax filing or a court proceeding, even where the property and the date are the same.

With a conversation about the property, the purpose, and the date the value is required. From there, the scope and fee are confirmed before any work begins.