For a date-of-death assignment in Mobile, local market boundaries matter because the value belongs to an earlier date. Mobile is a sparse desert market where access, utilities, terrain, and the scarcity of comparable sales can drive the appraisal more than a conventional neighborhood model. A later inspection does not move the effective date forward; the analysis must return to the market conditions on the date of death.
The valuation question belongs to the date of death, even if the property is inspected and the report is written later. Comparable sales, listings, market conditions, and the subject's condition should be organized around that historical date rather than today's market. For Mobile, the appraisal should consider terrain only when it changes the subject's competitive position.
When the value date is the date of death, water source, septic, electricity, fencing, and detached improvements can materially change residential utility. For a date-of-death opinion, the point is whether that feature changed the subject's buyer alternatives on the date of death.
On the date of death, gross acreage can overstate utility when drainage, slope, or improvement placement limits use. The comparable set should preserve that market distinction rather than flatten it into a generic citywide adjustment.
The property observed now may not be the property that existed when the owner died. Renovations, deferred maintenance, additions, pools, roof work, site changes, or a changed use should be assigned to the historical property only when the evidence supports doing so.
Prior listings, photographs, permits, deeds, renovation records, and family documentation can help establish condition and configuration near the date of death. The goal is to resolve material differences between the home as it exists now and the home that existed on the date of death.
A supported date-of-death conclusion should be explainable from the historical property condition, competitive market, and sales evidence without relying on today's value or a later transaction.
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