Extraordinary Assumption

An assumption, directly related to a specific assignment, which, if found to be false, could alter the appraiser’s opinions or conclusions. Extraordinary assumptions presume as fact otherwise uncertain information about physical, legal, or economic characteristics of the subject property or about conditions external to the property, such as market conditions or trends, or the integrity of data used in an analysis.

Fee Simple

The highest and most complete ownership of real estate permitted by law, the sovereign, and/or the government. It is said to consist of a bundle of rights, including: ownership, occupancy and use, the power to bequeath or give away, unlimited duration, the power sell in whole or part, due of process of law, and the power to lease or rent. It is considered to be absolute ownership unencumbered by any other interest or estate, except for limitations imposed by government or the property owner himself.

FEMA

Federal Emergency Management Agency. This is the agency charged with implementing the National Flood Insurance Program.

Floodplain (Zone A)

Any normally dry land area that is susceptible to being inundated by water from any natural source. This area is usually low land adjacent to a river, stream, watercourse, ocean, lake or lakebed.  A 100 year floodplain does not refer to an area that is flooded every 100 years but instead it is an area with a 1% or greater chance of being inundated in any given year.

Floodplain, (Zones C and or X)

Land areas outside the 100 year floodplain boundary. Areas of minimal flooding impact.

Full Cash Value (FCV)

A property value derived by a county assessor in Arizona, which supposedly equals market value, to which various factors (tax rates and assessment ratios) are applied in order to arrive at a tax amount for that property.

Grandfathered Use

An existing use that does not conform to current governmental restrictions, usually zoning, but is allowed by right of its existence prior to the creation of the current restrictions. Issues relating to health and safety are often not grandfathered.

Gross Rent Multiplier (GRM)

A factor derived by dividing the selling price of a property by its gross rents, either monthly or annually, which is used as a unit of comparison to estimate subject value in an appraisal. For example: if a comparable sale sold for $100,000 and its gross monthly rents are $1,000, its gross rent multiplier, on a monthly basis, would, therefore, be 100 times. On an annual basis, it would be approximately 8.3 times.

Highest And Best Use

The use or uses of a property, chosen from various possible uses, that generates the highest most probable market price (that is, market value), as limited by various legal, physical, locational, and market considerations, such as: market demand and supply, the property’s own characteristics, physical and economic feasibility, location, access, utilities, environmental hazards, “grandfathered” rights, and pertinent legal restrictions. Thus, anything that can affect value can affect highest and best use. Further, it is a market driven concept and does not take in to consideration non-economic subject property uses, such as: parks, open space, public schools, libraries, athletic fields, etc., except as they may otherwise impact value. Its focus is upon what the property can sell for in the marketplace, even if a non-economic use is very desirable. Its focus is upon what is realistic or most likely to occur, not what may be otherwise desirous.

 

For example, if it is found that a subject property has 4 potential uses: A, B, C, and D, and that use A generates a most probable market value of $100, use B $90, use C $80, and use D $100, then the highest and best use of this property is both A and D.

Hypothetical Condition

that which is contrary to what exists, but is supposed for the purpose of analysis. Hypothetical conditions assume conditions contrary to known facts about physical, legal, or economic characteristics of the subject property or about conditions external to the property, such as market conditions or trends, or the integrity of data used in an analysis.

Michael Wolff Real Estate Appraisal Services
Appraisal Glossary 4
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