An Overworked Certified Practising Valuer Could Miss an Accurate Valuation

In the property industry, a Certified Practising Valuer (CPV) occupies a special place. Before they may be accredited with the Australian Property Institute (API), the peak body for property professionals in Australia, an API Certified Practising Valuer must complete tertiary training and serve a probationary period in the industry followed by passing a professional interview. Following accreditation, a CPV regularly takes professional development courses through the API to keep their expertise current. This means that a Certified Practising Valuer uses a hands-on, professional approach and work with well-established processes and standards to create values that are solid, dependable, and independent rather than focusing only on data or depending on "gut feeling" or intuition. <More>

But a CPV is also human! The sixth key factor for a valuation not to be accurate is an over-stretched or over-worked valuer. A Certified Practising Valuer doing a rush job due to tight deadlines for the current valuation assignment and a pipeline of other jobs could miss important details during the property inspection, or not verifying important details about the property or the comparable sales.

Examples of missed or mistaken details during the inspection:

Rendered brick walls mistaken for rendered fibro walls
Look-a-like marble or stone surfaces mistaken for the real thing
Solid (or double brick) walls mistaken for brick veneer walls
Laminated wooden flooring mistaken for solid timber flooring
An inferior extension with a corrugated 'tin" roof mistaken as part of the original home
A missed butler's pantry in the kitchen

Examples of not verifying important details of the property being valued:

Incorrect zoning and planning overlays
Missed easements
Overlooked covenants and restrictions

Examples of unsuitable comparable sales used:

Not comparable location
Not comparable physical characteristics
Different zoning
Out-dated sales

Therefore, a Certified Practising Valuer must be alert at all times throughout the valuation process, that is, from the property inspection to the research, analysis and report preparation stages. Given that there are so many “moving parts” to complete a valuation report, there are many opportunities for a CPV who is over-stretched or over-worked to make mistakes, thereby not producing an accurate valuation.