A date of death appraiser in Tempe, Arizona may inspect a property today even though the value belongs to a market years in the past. That makes the surviving documentary record part of the assignment. The appraiser has to separate what can still be proved from what must be reconstructed or disclosed as uncertain.
A date of death home appraiser may be working for an executor. An estate appraiser may be coordinating with counsel or a CPA. A probate appraiser or probate real estate appraiser may have additional readers. In every case, the real-estate opinion has to remain independent from the outcome anyone prefers.
Before researching value, a retrospective real estate appraiser needs four things fixed: the earlier valuation date, the property interest, the intended use and who will rely on the report. The report itself can be completed much later. After that, the appraiser should identify the historical facts that remain unresolved—condition, configuration, permitted work, ownership or another material issue. An appraiser for deceased estate work should research those gaps directly instead of letting the easiest available sales determine the scope.
Tempe Community Development states that single-family residential building plans were not retained until electronic plan submittal became mandatory in 2020. Before that change, those plans were discarded one year after the final building inspection. That fact should alter an appraiser’s expectations immediately. A local date of death appraiser researching an older addition or configuration should not promise a plan set that the City may no longer possess. Tempe can still provide other records, including permits, certificates of occupancy, property records, code-violation files and inspection history, which may establish enough chronology to move the assignment forward.
Tempe routes property cards and address histories, permits, inspection history, planning and zoning documents, historic-designation files, plats, site plans and private-development utility maps or as-builts as distinct record types. A qualified appraiser should know the evidentiary value of each. An address history may connect an older file to the current parcel. A permit can date approved work. Inspection history can show that permitted construction reached a particular stage. A plat may clarify lot or easement facts. None of those records alone proves every appraisal fact, so the historical file should combine sources only where they resolve a material question.
Arizona’s certified-residential credential covers one-to-four-unit residential appraisal and review without a monetary or complexity ceiling. The statute excludes subdivision assignments requiring development analysis. Arizona also identifies USPAP as the state practice standard unless the state objects. A client asking for a certified appraiser can verify that regulatory category, but historical competence is separate. Use the term trusted date of death appraiser only when the appraiser can explain known facts, assumptions, missing evidence and whether the assignment remains inside demonstrated competence.
For probate, counsel may provide the requested date or ownership instructions. An appraiser for probate court use should make those instructions explicit rather than turn them into unstated legal conclusions. For basis work, an appraiser for stepped-up basis support may receive the applicable date from an executor or tax adviser. IRS Publication 551 says the usual basis rule for inherited property uses the property’s FMV on the decedent’s death date; the publication separately covers alternate valuation and other special basis rules. The appraiser supports the real-estate opinion; attorneys handle legal interpretation and qualified tax advisers determine tax treatment.
The intake should establish the Tempe address, requested value date, property type, intended use and known post-date changes. The appraiser should confirm fee, inspection scope, records needed and an expected delivery window before deeper research begins. Tempe currently reports an average processing time of 20 business days for Community Development public-record requests. That does not set the appraisal turnaround, but it can affect a file that depends on City evidence. The client should be told when a pending record is material, whether the due date needs to change and whether the appraisal can proceed with a disclosed assumption instead.
A useful final report identifies the subject, effective date, property interest, material assumptions, principal sources and the reasoning supporting the value conclusion. When the need is an appraiser for an inherited house, the finished report may later be handed to a CPA, attorney, trustee or another reviewer who knows nothing about the original intake. The report should make the historical property understandable without forcing that reader to piece together the assignment from loose records or emails.
This page is for residential property within the City of Tempe in Maricopa County. Municipal jurisdiction should be confirmed before Tempe-specific records are treated as primary. Once the parcel is confirmed inside the city, the appraiser can determine which Tempe, Maricopa County, recorded-document or private records belong in the assignment.
Return to the Maricopa County Date of Death appraisal page.
Retrospective appraisals available throughout Maricopa County and surrounding areas.
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