Appraisal Institute’s New Guidance Helps Real Estate Appraisers Analyze Exposure Time

CHICAGO, IL – February 12, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — The Appraisal Institute, the nation’s largest professional association of real estate appraisers, published guidance today to help appraisers understand exposure time and how to incorporate its analysis into an appraisal.

The Appraisal Institute’s “Guide Note 14: Concept of Exposure Time” addresses how appraisers should link exposure time to their value opinion and comply with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. Exposure time refers to the time a property remains on the market.

The Guide Note states, “An analysis and opinion of Exposure Time is required for appraisals where the definition of value is tied to a reasonable or stipulated exposure time. A discussion of Exposure Time allows the intended user(s) to put the appraiser’s value opinion into context. It also serves as the foundation on which appraisers describe market conditions, analyze comparable sales, and reconcile an opinion of value to the actual sale price.”

As defined in The Dictionary of Real Estate, 5th Edition (Appraisal Institute, 2009), exposure time is “the estimated length of time the property interest being appraised would have been offered on the market prior to the hypothetical consummation of a sale at market value on the effective date of the appraisal; a retrospective estimate based on an analysis of past events assuming a competitive and open market.”

According to the Appraisal Institute’s Guide Note, USPAP requires that “when an opinion of reasonable exposure time has been developed in compliance with Standards Rule 1-2(c), the opinion must be stated in the report.”

The Guide Note states that exposure time is not a fixed period and can differ for various types of property and under diverse market conditions. It is a function of price, market conditions and property characteristics, and the basis for an opinion of exposure time should include one or more of the following:

• statistical information about days on market for similar types of property;
• information gathered through sales verification;
• interviews of market participants;
• market information from data collection services.