We’re the #1 commercial real estate appraisal firm in San Jose for individual property owners and their advisors 
There are only two types of commercial real estate appraisal companies. Not knowing which type you’re talking to may result in a bad appraisal, costing you time and money—I’ll explain why in a moment.
For now, let’s look at the two types of commercial appraisal companies:
- Those that primarily serve institutions (such as banks and mortgage companies).
- Those that primarily serve individual property owners and their advisors.
We’re the latter of the two.
So, if you are a big traditional bank, hedge fund, or mortgage company, we are not the right firm for you. We simply prefer not to work with these types of organizations.
You’ll understand why as you read on.
However, if you are a consumer who needs an appraisal of commercial property, or you’re an attorney, accountant, financial planner, or realtor representing a property owner, you’ve come to the right place.
If You’re Wondering Why This Matters to You, Here’s Why…
We are not an appraisal-factory for banks and mortgage companies
Since most appraisers—from the local solo operator to the big national firm—rely on banks and mortgage companies for most of their appraisal orders, these institutions naturally become their most important clients.
This is bad for you for at least two reasons:
- Because these appraisal firms consistently get dozens of orders every month from each institutional client, your business frankly means very little to them—as a result, you can expect poor service (unreturned phone calls, missed deadlines, and an unreliable appraisal).
- And because these appraisal firms do most of their work for [1] banks who knowingly sacrifice quality and accuracy for an ultra-fast turnaround at a rock-bottom price, they have no choice but to become an assembly-line-like factory producing low quality, often inaccurate appraisals.
To maintain our service and quality standards, as well as our independence, we avoid working with institutional clients such as banks and mortgage companies.
Instead, we prefer to service individual private clients like you, as well as a host of legal, financial, and tax professionals and their individual clients.
As a result, most appraisals we do are used for a variety of personal, legal, or tax-related issues, rather than mortgage financing. That’s why we have better familiarity with your needs and situation.
Also, we haven’t developed the bad habits that come from constantly prioritizing speed and cost over quality and accuracy—habits that inevitably result in low quality, unreliable appraisals.
[1] You would think that banks and other mortgage lenders would care more about the appraisal being accurate. The truth is that they don’t, and here’s why.
Firstly, most commercial lenders give themselves a built-in margin of error of at least 20%, by lending only 80% of the property’s appraised value. That may work for them but can you afford to hire an appraiser whose value is wrong by 20% or more?
And secondly, most (nearly all) new mortgage loans are quickly sold into the secondary mortgage market – this means that the bank which originally made the loan isn’t on the hook if the loan ever defaults.
And if the bank appraisal was wrong and the property turns out to be worth far less than they thought when they made the loan, it’s not their problem anymore.
This is why banks only care about the speed and cost of an appraisal, at the expense of accuracy – because they just want to sell as many loans as possible, as quickly and cheaply as they can.
We never use trainee appraisers—all our appraisers have at least 15 years’ experience
Want to know an industry secret?
Many appraisal firms use inexperienced appraiser trainees, also known as ‘licensed appraiser assistants,’ to do your appraisal start to finish—with little or no supervision.
Upon completion, your appraisal is basically rubber-stamped with the signature of the senior appraiser you thought you hired to do the job.
Why? Because trainees work cheap—and sometimes they even work for free. This is how many appraisal firms cut costs to maximize profit, at your expense.
It’s a disturbingly common practice.
You see, trainees are supposed to be apprentices. But it takes years of oversight and hand-holding to correctly learn the trade and earn an appraisal license—most firms can’t be bothered with that.
Institutional clients like banks and mortgage companies have no problem with this practice because it enables appraisal firms to dramatically cut costs and speed up turnaround time.
As a result, banks get what they really want – cheap, fast appraisals. And as you just learned in the section above, banks don’t really care that this practice often leads to low quality, inaccurate appraisals.
But what about you?
Do you need a reliable, thoroughly-researched, accurate appraisal of your property? If so, you should avoid hiring an appraiser that primarily serves institutions.
We never use trainees or licensed appraiser assistants in any capacity. All our appraisers are CA State Certified and have at least 15 years’ experience.
When you work with us, you’ll have one highly skilled and experienced appraiser who works on your appraisal all the way through, from start to finish.
We guarantee our work
Most appraisers don’t. Having read the points above, you can probably understand why.
Knowing that your appraisal will not be challenged or rejected is as important as knowing it is accurate.
We guarantee your appraisal report will meet the standards and requirements of the authority you’ll be submitting it to (court, IRS, or government agency), and be accepted by that authority.
Superior service, with a personal touch
When you hire a company for an important job, you should expect to be treated like an important person.
We know from experience this is not the case at many appraisal firms—where institutional clients are doted on, while individual property owners like you are pushed to the back of the line and unapologetically treated as less important.
Our clients have our office numbers, cell phone numbers and personal e-mail address. We make ourselves available day and night. When you call, we answer. Not a secretary or a pushy salesman.
We offer you a unique level of access and commitment—and we can usually do so at a lower rate than bigger firms, because we don’t have to charge extra to cover bloated operational costs.
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Emily K.
I had the good fortune to work with this company and was pleasantly surprised with their speed and professionalism. They provided among the most reasonable bids and were very responsive to my questions and concerns. Thank you Marc and Jack.
#1 of 24 reviews
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Effie Y.
Marc and his team did a great job with our appraisal! It took less than 3 weeks and it felt great knowing I was supporting a small business. Everything felt very personal and detailed. Highly recommend!
#2 of 24 reviews
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Mel K.
Great customer service. Excellent work. Will for sure use them in the future and refer them to people. Marc was very helpful, professional and very good with returning phone calls/follow ups, etc.
#3 of 24 reviews
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Larry L.
Very detail oriented and super easy to work with.
#4 of 24 reviews
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Patricia F.
Had an excellent experience with this company. They were very professional, courteous answered all our questions. Appraisal was very detailed and was completed very quickly.
#5 of 24 reviews
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Kambiz H.
I was very pleased with the professionalism of the company. Very helpful and effective in doing my appraisal in a timely manner. I highly recommend them.
#6 of 24 reviews
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Carmen B.
#7 of 24 reviews
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Mary B.
The appraisal was thorough and completed when promised.
#8 of 24 reviews
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Susan D.
They did a wonderful job on appraising my commercial property. They were very prompt, accurate and professional. I would highly recommend using this company if a commercial appraisal is needed!!
#9 of 24 reviews
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Kaitlin O.
Superb service and overall fantastic experience! Definitely recommend.
#10 of 24 reviews
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Frank F.
Very easy to work with. Made the process painless.
#11 of 24 reviews
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Jason S.
#12 of 24 reviews
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Rosalie R.
They did a very good job and I would use them again.
#13 of 24 reviews
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Ronald D.
Great company to work with.
#14 of 24 reviews
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Alejandra O.
These commercial appraisers were professional, courteous, and quick to provide a full report. I would definitely recommend them.
#15 of 24 reviews
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Eric K.
Very easy to deal with, helpful and made the entire process painless. Excellent service all the way through!
#16 of 24 reviews
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Yoon L.
Brian was attentive and professional!! Excellent firm. I recommend very highly.
#17 of 24 reviews
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Ena J.
Very professional! Great and timely service…thanks guys! Antoinette was awesome!
#18 of 24 reviews
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Frank M.
The whole experience was phenomenal! The service was prompt, professional, and most of all fair. I was most impressed with Marc and his work ethic of not only being the owner, yet yielding his time to be thorough, and extremely customer service driven. The appraiser (Larry) was also knowledgeable, experienced, led us throughout the whole process, and executed the job in a way where we were pleasantly pleased. I would recommend this company to any and all who need the services they render.
#19 of 24 reviews
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Alexey T.
Professional and fast service, highly recommended.
#20 of 24 reviews
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Allen G.
Marc was very helpful and exceptionally kind. They were even able to appraise a building in (another state) for us! Their prices were half of another quote that I received!
#21 of 24 reviews
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Carlos P.
#22 of 24 reviews
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Cody H.
Marc and Larry made this process very seamless for us. The appraisal report provided was very detailed and professional. I would use them for future commercial appraisals and would recommend to others.
#23 of 24 reviews
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Raquel L.
It is infrequent to come across a company that is genuinely honest and considerate of their non-customers. I called with an inquiry and immediately they found faults in my interests. They took time to point out issues and resolutions to my concerns. It was clear that they could not turn me into a customer. Nonetheless, a couple of days later they followed up with me and helped me further to resolve my issues. Although I never became a customer, they helped me tremendously. Thank you so much! I highly recommend this company for their time and honesty!
#24 of 24 reviews
Call now for a FREE quote:
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(408) 935-2256
Give us a call—it’s the easiest way to get answers to your questions including info on appraisal pricing and timing. So why not give us a call now—during normal business hours, we always answer.