The PairedExpert approach is RealAdvice’s groundbreaking methodology that combines the financial expertise of both the real estate appraisal and business valuation professions to produce an integrated statement of a commercial property’s accurately allocated market value in accordance with state laws. Each RealAdvice appraisal is signed by both an MAI designated appraiser and a CPA/ABV accredited business valuation specialist, with the expert appraiser attesting to the real property value and the expert accountant attesting to the business value. The result is an irrefutable combined valuation that has been developed to a higher standard of financial accuracy and defensibility than any other appraisal in the industry. Over twenty years of development and testing went into creating this methodology which seamlessly bridges these two professionally accepted approaches in a way that is compliant with the Daubert standard1 as well as all applicable professional, federal, and state regulations. RealAdvice services leverage the combination of these two disciplines, exceeding the highest standards of excellence from both professions.
Our approach recognizes the statutory mandate of most states that intangible assets are not taxable for transfer tax or property tax purposes. Recently, court proceedings have agreed.2 A significant portion of a commercial property’s transaction value may stem from nontaxable elements such as, but not limited to, intellectual property (brands, know-how, tradename, technology) tenant relationships, contracts in place, assembled workforce, licenses, unamortized tenant improvements, leasing commissions, and more.
Every RealAdvice appraisal allocates a subject property’s components of value across eighteen or more categories, each mathematically weighted by relative risk and discounted future value. Our Authoritative Allocation Method™ (AAM™) produces an appeal- and litigation-ready document detailing every supporting component of value. It is “authoritative” because each of its individual components and key claims are supported by irrefutable sources. The AAM complies with all current best practices, and with the Codes of Professional Ethics of both the Appraisal Institute and the American Institute of CPAs in applying the Cost, Market, and Income approaches to value assets, liabilities, and associated rates of return.
Successful Innovation Takes Time
Our founder had the idea for integrating business intangibles allocations into his appraisals almost twenty years ago, but it took most of that intervening time to develop his concept into a new standard of accuracy which can – and repeatedly has – withstood “trial by fire” in over 1,200 real-world transactions.
The first ten years were invested in working with some of the top professionals in business valuation to conceptually map out how to systematically bridge the two professions, and ten more years were applied in actual client transactions to test and refine the methodology, to perfect the theory and math, and to incorporate every possible assurance for our clients.
RealAdvice’s innovations bring an unprecedented sophistication to client appraisals, with an absolute focus on accuracy and client protection.
Why Should This Be Complicated?
It seems obvious – the appraiser values the real property value, the accountant values the business intangibles, and together they add up to the market value. So why is this process so difficult? Anyone should be able to do this, right?
These two professions often use similar terminology and jargon, but this superficial similarity is misleading. Many of the shared terms are defined and interpreted in very different, and sometimes mutually conflicting, ways.
Most importantly, appraisers and accountants approach valuation from opposite directions and with opposite assumptions; expecting them to “meet in the middle” with no underlying theoretical and mathematical framework is like two gunslingers trying to shoot each other’s bullets out of the air. Without a framework to guide precision, the two approaches never converge, and an unexplainable gap or overlap appears that exposes both the real property appraisal and the business intangibles valuation to rebuttal. Indeed, many of our Founder’s early experiments working to integrate accounting valuations resulted in irreconcilably different interpretations of market value, or with combined valuations that had little relation to a freely negotiated purchase price. It took dedicated work with some of the best minds in both professions to build a “Rosetta Stone” that methodologically bridged the two different approaches to determining a supportable, defensible value conclusion. Like Olympic athletes, RealAdvice professionals make it seem simple for our clients, but like the “tip of the iceberg,” there is a vast amount of complexity and sophistication being harnessed to produce each and every RealAdvice appraisal.
A good innovation always seems obvious and simple, after the fact. We are confident that our innovations will have such an impact that within ten years, the PairedExpert Approach and Authoritative Allocation Methods will not only be best practice, but they will be standard practice across the entire appraisal industry and a part of all university appraisal curricula. Existing tax services providers will be pressured to rush a comparable service to market, but without having the time for testing and development undertaken by RealAdvice, they risk years of client service failures resulting from inferior, incomplete, and inadequate methodologies. Perfection takes time!
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PairedExpert Approach, Authoritative Allocation Method (AAM), and ProperTax Report, and ProperTax Estimate are copyrighted © 2019 and trademarked 2019 RealAdvice.
