Skip to content
Mr. Cali Appraisals home
Request an appraisal
Call (909) 324-6122
All articles in Choosing an Appraiser in Claremont

Choosing an Appraiser in ClaremontBy Gordon Hall7 min read

Local Real Estate Appraiser on the County Line: Working Both Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties

How one appraiser works both Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties at Claremont: one license, two assessors and appeal boards, cross-line comparables.

Unfinished attic under exposed wood rafters, with a wood railing around the stair opening and a small window at the gable end

A local real estate appraiser on the county line works one housing market under two county systems. Claremont, La Verne and Pomona are in Los Angeles County; Upland, Montclair, Rancho Cucamonga and Chino are in San Bernardino County; and the line runs just east of the Claremont Colleges, at Claremont Boulevard and Mills Avenue. The California license covers both sides. What changes at the line is the assessor and recorder records, the appeals board, the school districts and how comparable sales are chosen and explained.

Where exactly is the line?

The Student Life, the Claremont Colleges' newspaper, places it almost immediately east of the Colleges: cross Claremont Boulevard or Mills Avenue and you are in San Bernardino County, and within half a mile Sixth Street becomes the wider Arrow Route. Claremont McKenna College's Roberts Campus Sports Bowl straddles Claremont and Upland. Montclair's western boundary is Mills Avenue, so Claremont and Pomona sit on the Los Angeles County side of it and Montclair on the other.

The houses do not change at the line. Postwar tracts in east Pomona and west Montclair, or older blocks in Claremont and west Upland, can look alike from the street. Where the county line runs through Claremont and Montclair traces it street by street.

Does an appraiser need a license for each county?

No. Appraisers are licensed by the state, through the California Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers (BREA), and one California license covers property in every county. Gordon Hall's BREA record shows level AR, Certified Residential, with an active status, and the Appraisal Subcommittee's National Registry, the federal list of state-credentialed appraisers, carries the same credential.

The limit is competency, not the license. USPAP, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, requires geographic competency, familiarity with the market and the area where the property sits. Working both sides of the line is a competency statement: the eastern San Gabriel Valley and the western Inland Empire trade with each other, and one appraiser can know both because buyers shop both.

What changes at the line for the appraiser's research?

ItemLos Angeles County sideSan Bernardino County side

Core cities in this coverage area

Claremont, La Verne, Pomona

Upland, Montclair, Rancho Cucamonga (including Alta Loma), Chino

Assessor

Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor

San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk

Recorded deeds and documents

Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk

The same San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk

Formal assessment appeals

Los Angeles County Assessment Appeals Board

San Bernardino County Assessment Appeals Board, through the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors

School district examples at the Claremont line

Claremont Unified School District

Upland Unified School District; Ontario-Montclair School District

For the appraiser, that means two sets of property records to pull, two recording offices for sale and transfer history, and two sets of assessor characteristics that are compared with what is measured on site. The county assessment, the taxable value set under California's assessment rules, is not an appraisal, on either side of the line.

How does the line change comparable selection?

A comparable sale is a recent closed sale of a similar property that a buyer of the subject would have weighed. Near the line, the nearest similar sale may sit in the other county. The policy is the same on both sides: the subject's own side first, and a sale from across the line only when it is genuinely better evidence, with the location adjustment, the amount a comparable's price is changed for its different location, explained in the report.

  • A Claremont house near the Colleges. Appraised from Claremont sales first. A west Upland sale is used only with the reason stated, because schools, city services and buyer pools differ even where the houses match.
  • A Montclair tract house. Montclair sales first. A Claremont or Pomona sale across Mills Avenue can be valid evidence, but a board or a reviewer will ask why it was used. The Montclair area page describes that side.
  • A west Upland house. Upland sales first, with any Claremont sale explained. See the Upland area page.

What the county line does to comparable sales goes further into the reasoning, and local vs. out-of-area appraisers shows where a radius search goes wrong at the line.

Which assignments cross the line most?

These are the kinds of assignments that come in where both counties are in play.

  • Property tax appeals. Liens attach as of January 1 under California Revenue and Taxation Code section 2192, so appeal appraisals are usually made as of that date. Each county sets and publishes its own review and appeal filing periods; confirm the current period on the county's page before filing. See property tax appeals on the county line.
  • Estates and trusts holding houses in both counties. A Claremont house and an Upland house in one trust are two properties, each appraised from its own side's evidence, often as of the same effective date, the date the value opinion applies to.
  • Divorce and family law matters. The court that hears the case and the county that assesses the house may differ. The report is read by both sides, and admissibility is always the court's decision.
  • Reviews of another appraiser's report. A recurring finding is a report that mixed sales from both sides of the line without explaining the location difference. See appraisal review and second opinion.

Where does the coverage stop?

At the two counties, and inside them, at the markets worked regularly. On the Los Angeles County side that is the eastern San Gabriel Valley and the Pomona Valley, with San Dimas, Glendora, Diamond Bar, Walnut, Covina, West Covina and the Mt. Baldy community as secondary areas. On the San Bernardino County side it is the western Inland Empire, with Ontario, Chino Hills, Fontana and Rialto as secondary areas. Both counties are large, and being inside one is not the test: assignments farther out are accepted only where geographic competency and the data support a credible result.

The full vetting checklist is in the pillar, how to check a Claremont appraiser, and the rest of the series is on the Choosing an Appraiser in Claremont hub.

Next step

Mr. Cali Appraisals is based in Claremont and works both counties under Gordon Hall, California Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, BREA No. AR003877. The about page explains how assignments are accepted, and the Claremont area page describes the line from the Claremont side. To describe a property on either side, request an appraisal or call (909) 324-6122. The fee is set by the scope of the assignment and quoted before work begins, and it does not depend on the value.

Sources

Gordon Hall, California Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, BREA No. AR003877 (lookup: https://www2.brea.ca.gov/breasearch/faces/party/view.xhtml?id=23601). Reports are prepared in conformity with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). Nothing here is legal or tax advice; admissibility is always the court's decision.

Frequently asked questions

Does an appraiser need separate licenses for Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties?

No. California appraisers are licensed by the state through the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers, and one license covers every county. The practical limit is USPAP geographic competency: the appraiser must know the market where the property sits.

Can a Montclair sale be used to appraise a Claremont house?

Yes, when it is genuinely better evidence than the Claremont sales available, and only with the location adjustment explained. The county, the school district and the buyer pool change at the line even where the houses look alike, so a Claremont house is appraised from Claremont sales first.

Which assessor and appeals board apply to a house near Mills Avenue?

It depends on the side. Claremont and Pomona are assessed by the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor, with appeals to the Los Angeles County Assessment Appeals Board. Montclair and Upland are assessed by the San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk, with appeals through the Clerk of the Board. Confirm filing periods on each county's page.

Can one appraiser value houses on both sides for the same trust?

Yes. Each house is a separate property appraised from the evidence on its own side of the line, usually as of the same effective date. The report states the intended use, what it will be used for, and the intended users, the people entitled to rely on it, and the trustee, the attorney or the CPA decides how the values are used.

Gordon Hall

Mr. Cali Appraisals

Call (909) 324-6122Contact

Keep reading