As a car lover, you must have spent inconsiderable amount of time and quite a fortune in tuning up your car to the point that it completely fulfills your dream. Even after the dream has been realized, you’ll still shower it with constant care in terms of time and money so that it remains a beauty. Some car collectors, however, forget to do something very important to protect their precious investment. They fail to conduct a custom car appraisal.
A custom car appraisal is relevant for a lot of reasons. A properly conducted appraisal by a professional will provide you with the current worth of your car in the market. This knowledge can be useful for tax purposes, estate settlement, making donations and in a number of legal cases. It is thus important that you have your custom car appraised from time to time.
In carrying out a custom car appraisal, three things must be put into consideration.
Your Insurance Company
Some insurance companies already have a list of vehicle appraisers that they disapprove of. So before you pick out an appraiser to render you custom car appraisal services, you must first confirm that the company’s name is not on the list. This way, you can prevent unnecessary waste of your time and money.
Note: it is very important that the car appraiser you pick for your appraising job is not on the list and is highly qualified. He should also be preferably certified by either a credible institution or a credible appraiser. If these requirements are met, then the appraisal report you are presented with at the end of the car appraisal would be valid in any all legal case that pertains to it.
The Appraisal Should Inspect the Car Himself
Some appraisal companies are now in the habit of sending “foot soldiers” armed with a camera, pen, and paper, to go and perform an on-site inspection of a car they have been contracted to appraise. These foot soldiers now send the photos to an office somewhere distant where the real appraisers arrive at a valued estimate just by looking at the pictures.
This system of appraisal is frowned upon by many insurance companies, and the end report might not be credible enough to be used in any legal capacity. You must thus ensure that whoever is coming to inspect your car is the same person that is going to come up with the estimated value.
Choose a Professional Appraiser
Your whole effort at protecting your asset by getting a custom car appraisal will be rendered moot if you decide to employ the services of a mediocre appraiser. Unlike regular cars, custom cars require another level of expertise that can only be gotten from specific appraisers who have been in the business for long.
An indicator of how experienced an appraiser is if he has ever been called upon to act on a party’s behalf in court, sometimes acting as an expert witness. If you find one of these, then you can rest assure you are in good hands
