Independent total-loss vehicle appraisals

The word “appraisal” gets used for two different things, and conflating them is how people end up disappointed. One is a document: a valuation of your vehicle, researched and defensible. The other is a process: the appraisal clause in your policy, in which each side appoints an appraiser and a neutral umpire resolves what they cannot.

The document is what makes your position arguable. The process is what obligates your insurer to engage with it. A report alone does not compel anyone to move — which is why we treat the research as the beginning rather than the deliverable.

This is the evidentiary core. It is built to be handed to an adjuster, an appraiser, or an umpire and survive scrutiny line by line.

If you invoke your policy's appraisal clause, you appoint us as your appraiser. We present your valuation, work with the insurer's appraiser to determine the amount of loss, and take part in choosing an umpire if the two appraisers can't agree.

Appraiser-to-appraiser is a materially different conversation than policyholder-to-adjuster. Both sides are arguing valuation methodology to someone who does it professionally, and “that is our system's number” stops being a sufficient answer.

It is worth it when the gap is real and large enough to justify the effort — which is a question you should not have to pay to answer. That is why the consultation and the review of your insurer's offer are free: we look at your valuation report first and tell you whether there is anything there.

The Appointed Appraiser Service is $495. It includes the Appraisal Research, our appointment as your appraiser under your insurance policy's appraisal clause, determining the amount of loss with your insurer's appraiser, and the appraisal award letter. At least $1,000 more, or your fee is waived. This applies once we accept your consultation and serve as your appraiser. The starting point is your insurer's offer on the day we accept. If the appraisal award, or a higher offer your insurer makes instead, is less than $1,000 above it, we waive our $495 Appointed Appraiser Service fee. If an umpire is needed, the umpire's fee is separate. Our average is $3,648 more than the insurer's first offer (264 finished consultations that settled at or above the first offer, through Sep 25, 2026, before our fee).

If the offer is already reasonable, we tell you that. It is the cheaper answer for both of us.

Appraiser licensing is state-specific, and in several states an unlicensed appraiser can compromise your position under the appraisal clause. We hold active credentials and publish them, because the right response to a credential claim on a website is to check it with the state.