Service 01
Valuations & appraisals
Three different numbers for three different purposes, and a house that will not pretend they are the same one.
Auction estimate
What we think a lot will fetch at open sale, given as a range. Free, without obligation, and prepared by the specialist who would catalogue it. It is not a promise; it is an opinion supported by what comparable property has done, adjusted for condition, freshness to the market and the state of the season.
An estimate range is deliberately wide enough to be honest. A house quoting a narrow range on an object it has seen only in a photograph is guessing with more confidence than the evidence allows.
Insurance valuation
What it would cost to replace the object in a retail setting. A single figure, normally higher than the auction estimate, and charged for at an hourly or percentage rate agreed in advance. Insurers require a written schedule with photographs; we produce one.
Insurance valuations should be reviewed every three to five years. In some categories — coloured stones, mid-century design, certain areas of Asian art — the market moves faster than that, and we will say so.
Probate and estate appraisal
A valuation of the property in an estate at the date of death, prepared to the standard the Internal Revenue Service and the courts expect, with a signed statement of qualification. This is a formal document with legal consequences and is charged for accordingly.
We can also value for division between beneficiaries, which is a different exercise again: the question there is not what a thing is worth, but how to make several shares of unequal objects feel fair.