Home appraisal services in Claremont come as assignments, each defined by its purpose, its effective date and its client, the party who engages the appraiser. Lenders order the appraisals behind purchase and refinance loans, usually through an appraisal management company. Owners, buyers, heirs, trustees, conservators, spouses, attorneys and CPAs order the rest: pre-listing, pre-purchase, date-of-death, trust, divorce, tax appeal, litigation, review and rent assignments. The standard and the independence are identical in every one; what changes is who the report is written for.
Appraisals on this site are prepared by Gordon Hall, California Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, BREA No. AR003877 (license lookup), for houses in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
Assignment, client and intended user
Three terms carry this page. An assignment, in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), is a valuation service an appraiser provides as a consequence of an agreement with a client. The client, as the federal appraisal guidelines quote USPAP, is "the party or parties who engage(s) an appraiser by employment or contract" for that assignment. Intended users are the people entitled to rely on the report, and they can include more than the client: an estate appraisal engaged by an executor may name the heirs and the CPA as well.
The client is not always the person living in the house. On a mortgage appraisal the client is the lender, even though the borrower usually pays for it and federal Regulation B requires the lender to give the applicant a copy of "all appraisals and other written valuations" developed for the application.
The assignments, grouped by who usually orders them
AssignmentUsually engaged byWho else reads it
Purchase or refinance loan
The lender or its appraisal management company
Underwriters, investors such as Fannie Mae, the borrower
Two-to-four-unit property for a loan
The lender
Underwriters, the borrower
Pre-listing
The owner
The owner, sometimes the owner's agent
Pre-purchase
The prospective buyer
The buyer
PMI removal or home equity
The owner or the servicer, as the servicer's rules allow
The loan servicer
Date of death or estate
The executor, administrator or trustee, often through an attorney
Heirs, the CPA
Trust or conservatorship
The trustee or conservator, or the attorney
Beneficiaries, the court where one is involved
Divorce
One spouse, both jointly, or an attorney
The other side, a mediator, the court
Property tax appeal
The owner or the owner's representative
The assessor, the appeals board
Litigation support
An attorney
Opposing counsel, the court
Appraisal review
Whoever holds an existing report
The client, possibly the lender
Market rent analysis
An owner or investor
The owner, sometimes a lender
The matching service pages describe each one: lending and refinance, two-to-four-unit, pre-listing, pre-purchase, PMI removal and home equity, estate and date of death, trust and conservatorship, divorce, property tax appeal, litigation support, appraisal review and market rent analysis.
Why the lender's appraisal is a separate assignment
California's appraiser law defines an appraisal management company as a firm that, among other conditions, provides appraisal management services to creditors or secondary market participants and oversees an appraiser panel. On a loan, that company or the lender itself picks the appraiser, and Fannie Mae's Selling Guide puts appraiser selection squarely on the lender. That is why a report a borrower commissioned cannot be swapped into the loan file. A buyer can still order a pre-purchase appraisal for their own decision; it simply serves a different client.
Assignments that turn on the date or the condition
Some assignment types are defined less by who orders them than by when, or in what state, the house is valued.
- Retrospective, an appraisal whose effective date is in the past: date-of-death and estate work, and some divorce and litigation matters.
- Lien date: a tax appeal appraisal speaks to January 1, the lien date in Revenue and Taxation Code section 2192.
- Prospective, a value as of a future date: an ADU or addition not yet finished, usually valued under a hypothetical condition, a condition assumed for the analysis that is known to be contrary to what exists today. The new construction and ADU page covers that work.
Property types that shape the assignment
A second layer sits on top of the purpose: the kind of house. In Claremont that layer is busy. Hillside and custom homes in Claraboya and Padua Hills need comparables from a wider foothill band, described on the hillside and custom home page. Pre-1940 Craftsman and Spanish Colonial Revival houses near the Village and the Colleges call for era and style matching, covered under historic pre-1940 homes. Mills Avenue and Claremont Boulevard mark the county line with Montclair and Upland, so two houses a few blocks apart can sit under different assessors and appeals boards. None of these is a separate purpose; each changes the scope of work, the type and extent of research and analysis.
Which assignments Claremont owners order most
These are the kinds of assignments that come in from Claremont. Long-held houses in the Village and north of Foothill reach estates and trusts, where heirs and CPAs need value as of the date of death. Sellers of unusual houses want a value built from their own pocket before choosing a list price. Family law matters often involve houses that fit no tract pattern, read by two sides. Owners compare their assessment, the county's taxable value and not an appraisal, with similar houses across the line in Upland and Montclair before deciding whether to appeal.
What every assignment shares
- Developed and reported under USPAP, which California Business and Professions Code section 11319 makes the minimum standard for every licensee.
- The appraiser is independent of every party, including the one who pays.
- Fees are set by the scope of the assignment and quoted before work begins, and they do not depend on the value.
- The inspection is 30 to 60 minutes for a standard single-family home, longer for hillside, custom, multi-family or homes with additions; the report is typically three to five business days from the inspection.
To decide which assignment your decision calls for, start with which kind of home valuation a Claremont owner needs; for what the finished report contains, see the report page by page.
Next step
The full list of assignments is on the appraisal services page, the Claremont area page describes the local pockets, and the home appraisal in Claremont knowledge center holds the rest of this series. To scope an assignment, request an appraisal or call (909) 324-6122. Nothing here is legal or tax advice; your CPA or attorney decides how a value is used.
Sources
- The Appraisal Foundation, Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP): appraisalfoundation.org (accessed November 6, 2026)
- Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines, 75 FR 77450 (December 10, 2010), glossary (client, effective dates, hypothetical condition): govinfo.gov (accessed November 6, 2026)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Regulation B, 12 CFR 1002.14: consumerfinance.gov (accessed November 6, 2026)
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-1.1-03, Appraiser Selection Criteria: selling-guide.fanniemae.com (accessed November 6, 2026)
- California Business and Professions Code section 11302 (appraisal management company): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed November 6, 2026)
- California Business and Professions Code section 11319: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed November 6, 2026)
- California Revenue and Taxation Code section 2192: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed November 6, 2026)
- California Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers, license lookup: brea.ca.gov (accessed November 6, 2026)
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
Who is the client on a mortgage appraisal?
The lender, often working through an appraisal management company. The borrower usually pays, and federal Regulation B requires the lender to give the applicant a copy of the appraisal, but the lender selects the appraiser and decides how the report is used.
Who orders a date-of-death appraisal in Claremont?
Usually the executor, administrator or trustee, often through the estate's attorney. The report can name the heirs and the CPA as intended users, the people entitled to rely on it. Your CPA or attorney decides how the value is used.
Can a divorcing couple share one appraiser?
Yes. One spouse, both spouses jointly or an attorney can engage the appraiser, and the report can name both sides as intended users. The appraiser is independent of every party, including the one who pays.
Is an appraisal review a new appraisal?
No. An appraisal review develops an opinion about the quality of another appraiser's work. It examines an existing report's data, comparables and reasoning; a new value opinion is a separate assignment.
Does the type of assignment change the fee?
The scope of work does. Fees are set by the scope of the assignment and quoted before work begins, and they do not depend on the value. A hillside, retrospective or multi-unit assignment usually involves more research than a standard current-value report.
