Date-of-Death Appraisal, Refinance and Divorce: Valuing a Home for a Date

Most appraisals answer one question: what is this house worth right now? In the three situations covered here, the date of the value is the whole point. An executor needs the value on the day of death, which may be years back; a refinancing borrower needs a value the lender will accept next month; divorcing spouses need a value for the date their state's law picks. The general mechanics (who orders an appraisal, what it costs in 2026, how long it takes) are in the home appraisal cost and process guide.

Three occasions, three different effective dates

Every appraisal has two dates: the report date, when the appraiser signs, and the effective date, the day the opinion of value refers to. For a purchase they are days apart; here they can be years apart, fixed by different bodies of law.

The standard of value reads alike across the three, but the evidence does not: a refinance appraisal rests on last quarter's sales and a walk-through, a date-of-death appraisal for a 2019 death on sales that closed in 2019. The comparison of appraisal, valuation, AVM and CMA explains why only the licensed appraisal counts in all three.

Estate and probate: the date-of-death appraisal, § 1014 basis and the alternate valuation date

When someone dies owning a home, the tax law resets its basis. Under 26 U.S.C. § 1014 the basis of property acquired from a decedent is its fair market value at the date of death or, if the executor elects it, its value on the alternate valuation date¹. This is the stepped-up basis: a house bought for $95,000 in 1988 and worth $780,000 at death gives the children a basis of $780,000, and the appreciation in between never appears in their gain¹.

The fair market value the IRS applies is defined in the estate tax regulations: the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither under any compulsion to buy or sell and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts³. A forced-sale price, the county's assessed value and a portal estimate all fail that test. What passes it in practice is a written appraisal by a state certified or licensed appraiser with the date of death as its effective date.

Two points surprise most executors.

1. The appraisal matters even when no estate tax is due. Form 706, the estate tax return, is required only when the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts exceeds the basic exclusion amount: $15,000,000 for deaths in 2026, $13,990,000 for deaths in 2025⁶. Almost all estates file nothing. But when the heirs sell, they must prove their basis, and the date-of-death appraisal is that proof¹.
2. The alternate valuation date is an election, not a default. Publication 559 lists it among the values an heir's basis may take if the personal representative elects it²; the Form 706 instructions set the mechanics: property still in the estate is valued as of six months after death, the election is made on the return, covers the whole estate, and is allowed only where it decreases both the gross estate and the tax due⁷. It is a tool for large, taxable estates in a falling market, not for the typical family home.

Where a Form 706 is due, real estate goes on Schedule A and the instructions ask you to explain how the values were determined and to attach the appraisals⁷. The return is generally due nine months after the date of death²⁷, which is why estate attorneys want the appraisal early.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Retrospective appraisals: how a value is reconstructed for a past date

A retrospective appraisal is an ordinary appraisal with an effective date in the past. The method does not change; the evidence does.

Comparable sales. The appraiser looks for homes that closed within a few months on either side of the effective date and adjusts them for the differences to the subject. Recorder data and the MLS archive cover almost any date after the late 1990s; the FHFA House Price Index datasets reach back to 1975, with series for states and metros and developmental series that go as fine as five-digit ZIP codes and census tracts⁸.

Condition on the effective date. This is the hard part. The house is valued as it was on that day: a kitchen renovated in 2022 did not exist for a 2019 death. The checklist at the end lists the evidence that helps. Sales that closed a few months off the effective date are time-adjusted with the local trend at the time, another use of the index data⁸.

How far back can it go? As far as the evidence about condition allows; the sales data is rarely the limit.

Cost. A date-of-death appraisal is priced like a standard single-family appraisal, often with a premium for the archival research: a few hundred dollars in most markets; the appraisal cost guide has the 2026 ranges.

Refinance appraisals: lender rules, value acceptance, desktop options, cost

A refinance appraisal is the simplest of the three in law and the most misunderstood in practice, because the borrower pays for a report written for someone else: the lender is the client, and the question is what the collateral is worth today.

When an appraisal is required. Federal banking regulation requires an appraisal by a state certified or licensed appraiser for federally related transactions, with exemptions. The exemption that matters most to homeowners is the $400,000 line: a residential transaction at or below it needs no appraisal, though the lender still has to obtain a written evaluation of the property⁹. Transactions that qualify for sale to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac follow the agencies' own requirements instead⁹.

Value acceptance (appraisal waiver). For conventional loans run through Desktop Underwriter (DU), Fannie Mae may offer value acceptance: the value the lender submits is accepted without an appraisal, generally because Fannie Mae already holds a usable prior appraisal of the property in its Collateral Underwriter data⁴. The offer is made only for certain one-unit transactions with an Approve/Eligible recommendation, never where the value is $1,000,000 or more or the loan is manually underwritten, and the lender may still order an appraisal if it has information that warrants one⁴. If your lender says no appraisal is needed, this is why: it is a statement about the lender's risk, not a certificate of your home's value. Desktop and hybrid reports sit in between.

Can you reuse an old appraisal? Almost never: a purchase appraisal from two years ago describes a market that no longer exists, and lenders set age limits on the reports they accept. If a recent appraisal came in low, the low appraisal guide explains reconsideration of value and second appraisals.

What the appraiser looks at. Living area and room count, condition and finish, updates since the last sale, the lot, and the neighborhood's recent closed sales.

Divorce: neutral appraiser, each side's own expert, and the valuation date

In a divorce the house is usually the largest asset. Three questions decide the number.

Who appraises. The cheapest and calmest route is one neutral appraiser retained jointly, with both spouses agreeing in advance to accept the result. The alternative is that each side hires its own expert and the court weighs both reports: double the cost, and two values that rarely match. Who pays is a matter of agreement or court order; splitting the fee of a joint appraiser is common.

Which date. This is state law. California's rule is explicit: the court values community assets and liabilities as near as practicable to the time of trial, but on 30 days' notice by the moving party it may, for good cause, value all or part of them at a date after separation and before trial to accomplish an equal division⁵. Other states use the date of separation, of filing or of the final hearing. In a moving market the date is worth tens of thousands of dollars to one side; ask your attorney which rule applies before ordering anything.

Which value. Fair market value in the ordinary sense, not a quick-sale figure; whether selling costs are deducted from the equity varies by state and judge.

If one spouse keeps the house, the appraised value sets the buy-out, and the refinance that removes the other spouse from the mortgage triggers its own current appraisal. The divorce and family home guide walks through the buy-out arithmetic; the inherited property guide does the same for estates that end in a sale or a sibling buy-out.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

A June 2019 death appraised in 2026 for a $790,000 stepped-up basis

Suppose a widow died in Los Angeles County in June 2019, owning a 1,500 sq ft three-bedroom house bought in 1986 for $180,000. Nobody ordered an appraisal; the two children kept the house and rented it out. In 2026 they sell it for $1,150,000 and their accountant asks for the basis. The appraiser they hire reconstructs June 2019:

The appraiser concludes a date-of-death fair market value of $790,000. Under § 1014 that is the children's basis¹. Assume selling costs of $70,000 (about 6 percent). Their gain on the 2026 sale is then $1,150,000 minus $790,000 minus $70,000, or $290,000 split between two heirs, instead of the roughly $900,000 that would follow from the 1986 purchase price of $180,000. (Depreciation claimed while the house was rented reduces the basis further; that is the accountant's job.) No estate tax return was ever required, because the estate was far below the $11,400,000 exclusion for 2019 deaths⁶, but the retrospective appraisal is what makes the stepped-up basis defensible if the IRS asks. Without the roof permit and the inventory photos, the appraiser would have had to assume a condition.

Index, comparables and net proceeds to gather before calling the appraiser

An AI valuation report settles none of the three occasions here, and the CheckValue report does not pretend otherwise. What it offers is a documented picture of the house today, before the first conversation with an appraiser, a lender or the other side. Three parts of it earn their place.

The official price index beside the current value. The report sets the current value and range against the official house price index for the area, from the same FHFA data cited above⁸. For an estate that is the quickest sanity check on a retrospective figure: in the worked example, a 2019 value of $790,000 and a 2026 sale at $1,150,000 imply a rise the local index should roughly account for, and where index and appraiser disagree, somebody should look again.

The comparable sales. Heirs who each arrive with a different portal number rarely agree. Recent closed sales near the house, each with distance, closing date and the adjustment applied, give the family one set of facts to argue from.

Selling costs and net proceeds. In a sibling buy-out or a divorce settlement the dispute is seldom about the gross value but about what a sale would leave after costs. The report estimates both, with ownership costs and a rent estimate for the case where the house is kept and let.

It is not an appraisal and cannot stand in for one on any of the three occasions: its effective date is today, not the date of death; no licensed appraiser inspects the home or signs it; and neither the Form 706 instructions⁷ nor a family court will accept it in place of a licensed appraiser's report. The free preview of your report shows the layout for your address; the pricing page lists single reports and packs.

Checklist: documents to give the appraiser

The more of these you hand over, the less the appraiser has to assume.

For any of the three occasions

• The deed, the county parcel number, the latest tax bill and the assessor's record.
• A list of improvements with dates and costs, with permits and invoices.
• The last listing or purchase documents with photos; any prior appraisal, inspection or survey; leases if rented.

For a date-of-death appraisal

• The date of death and the letters testamentary or letters of administration naming the personal representative.
• Photos, videos or an inventory from around the date of death; insurance inspections from that period; statements from family or neighbors about the condition then.
• Whether the alternate valuation date is under consideration, so the appraiser can state both values⁷.

For a refinance or a divorce

• Access to every room, garage and outbuilding; a floor plan if you have one.
• The valuation date your attorney says applies in your state, or the court's order fixing it⁵, and the engagement terms: who retained the appraiser, who receives the report, whether the appraiser may testify.

Order the appraisal early and keep the report with the permanent records.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Figures and rules carry the year they were published; check the cited source for the current version.

Josef Eckmair MBA

Co-founder, CheckValue · Managing director, CBDNOL GmbH · More than 20 years in real estate in Tenerife and Austria · Reviewed by Christian Eckmair

Josef Eckmair MBA is co-founder of CheckValue and managing director of CBDNOL GmbH (Ansfelden, Austria). He has more than 20 years of real estate experience in Tenerife and Austria and writes about appraisals, taxes, selling costs and valuations for professionals.

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