As a real estate appraiser, I’ve been asked many times what my approach is to determine fair market value. While there are three main approaches to value (income, cost, and sales comparison), for residential appraisals the sales comparison approach is almost always used. The other two approaches are more often used for income producing properties and unique structures.

It is no secret that residential real estate is up in value. It’s not only people fleeing the city for the suburbs, home values have increased across the nation.