About Us

About

I want to congratulate you for exploring this website. You are seeking to enhance yourself. But more than that, for each new professional with proper training the profession benefits. The basic purpose for creating this website was to provide a series of courses for specific assignments as well as a concentrated valuation course. There will be no product knowledge training. The training is only valuation methodology.

Why?

There are courses available for personal property appraisers. These course claim to be the ultimate courses. Although the ultimate professional designation usually state that the graduated student is "certified" that is questionable. In the courses, they lack any mention of dissolution of marriage, civil or criminal fraud, trusts, etc. Thus, the need for a course that fills the gaps.

There are books available as well, but they tend to spend little time with methodology and instead teach product knowledge. Since almost every appraisal assignment results in a legal document (the appraisal), the legal arena has mandatory requirements. These change often. Consequently, the courses and other references must be constantly researched to ensure they are reliable.

Who?

Who are these courses for? Both highly trained and untrained appraisers. Should one get training before availing themselves of these courses? Yes and no. Yes, take the insurance course at least since it reveals a lot of basic valuation procedures and principles used in the other courses. Of course, if you elect to take the Advance Personal Property Appraisal (APPA) course, it will present everything you need to tackle any appraisal assignment. On the other hand, if you just want to take the specialty appraisal courses, start with the insurance course.

Your Journey

First decide what you want to be as an appraiser. You do not need to write your decision in stone. You change your mind as you learn more about appraising. If you are retailer who renders appraisals as a side business, then take the insurance course. If you aspire to render the money generating appraisals such as estate, trusts, etc. Take the estate tax liability course.

Costs

It would be costly to take the courses, one at a time and then decide that the APPA courses was the one you should have taken. What if you could get credit for taking those courses off the APPA cost? Yes, tht is an option.

History

Each of these courses has a history. Rather than detail each course, an "about" page exists for each course detailing the history as well as any issues. The appraisal arena is really an arena with politics and competition. Unlike medicine, which publishes a discovered cure or whatever, for everyone in the filed of medicine to read and use - worldwide. The appraisal profession discoveries are guarded like isolated oasis in a desert and you pay to drink the water even if it is not purified. They do not share and instead, pickpocket intellectual discoveries from each other. Unfortunately, new information is merely a regurgitation of previous information. This series of courses’ goal is to first, add new information (fill the gaps) and second, to offer those selling only a basic course for Insurance, the opportunity to get educated without taking expensive courses. Not matter what your decision is, please learn to render a proper appraisal. This website is offering you that opportunity.