USPAP: Questions and Reflections – TAA Podcast 138

This podcast sports a metaphysical title.  “USPAP:  Questions and Reflections”.  Why this title?  Who in their right mind wants to think about USPAP?  B-O-R-I-N-G!  I’ll concede that point.  But somebody has to think about it.  And, as a USPAP instructor, I get paid to think about it.  Really, I get paid to teach it.  But before I can teach it, I choose to think about it first.  Choose all the ways there are to explain it so that it is clearer and more persuasive than it is written.  And, frankly, it is not written overly well.  But that’s the topic of another podcast.  I can say that with impunity since nobody reads these show-notes.  So, let’s get a little metaphysical, shall we?

“USPAP:  Questions and Reflections” is primarily the results of some of the questions that come in to me as a USPAP instructor.  But Reflections comes from the processes I go through in order to be able to answer those questions.  I want to answer them cogently, persuasively, and completely.  Or, at least as cogently, persuasively, and completely as I can.  Take as one example, the first question on the podcast:  “Can I use the extraordinary assumption that the present use of the property is its highest and best use?  Like, there’s a lot of work that can go into highest and best use.  But with a $450 fee and a 48-hour turn-around time, I’d go broke – FAST! – if I had to do a real highest and best use analysis every time.  So, can I?”

So, as I reflected on that appraiser’s questions, the title “USPAP:  Questions and Reflections” just leaped into my mind.  Actually, this is a great question, worthy of deep reflection since there is not a cut-and-dried answer to it.  Even USPAP admits this.