In everyday terms an Appraisal is generally used in real estate to indicate a reasonable value for a property, or more specifically, what an educated buyer who is knowledgable of the market would reasonably pay for a property.
If you have been a property seller in the past couple years, you know that this definition just doesn't slice it anymore. The definition of appraisal has really changed recently to be more down the lines of this: an estimate of the value of asset to be used as collateral for securing a loan. Now on face value those two definitions could be similar, however, there are very specific differences. With the first definition, an appraisal is what a buyer would pay, with the second, it is an assessment of what a lender is willing to
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