A sale between private parties — parent to child, between siblings, between friends or business partners — skips the price discovery an open-market listing provides. That raises the question the IRS cares about: was this an arm's-length price? Where the transfer price sits meaningfully below market value, the difference can be treated as a taxable gift.
Gift Tax Exposure in a Bargain Sale
A transfer at below-market price is, in substance, part sale and part gift. Documenting the property's fair market value at the time of transfer establishes the size of that gift so it can be reported correctly on Form 709 — or shows that no gift occurred at all because the price was in fact market.
Sibling and Co-Owner Buyouts
When inherited property is kept by one heir and the others are bought out, the buyout price is the whole negotiation. An independent appraisal gives every co-owner the same starting number and tends to shorten the argument considerably.
Establishing Basis for the Buyer
The family member acquiring the property needs a documented basis for eventual capital-gains purposes. A contemporaneous appraisal is far better evidence than a reconstruction attempted years later.
Fractional and Partial Interests
Transfers of a percentage interest rather than a whole property raise additional valuation questions. Tell me the structure your attorney or CPA has in mind and I will scope the assignment to it.
Where I Can Take This Assignment
Two counties — San Diego and Riverside — I cover in person, which opens up the inspection-based report types. Everywhere else in California I work by desktop appraisal, and that reaches every one of the state's 58 counties. This site carries dedicated pages for 126 communities in 17 of them.
Getting a Figure From Me
The schedule opens at $299 and I pin down your number before any work begins. The whole fee schedule is published here; alternatively, describe the property and why you need it valued and I will come back with a price.