Dr. Bruce R. Weber
This website demonstrates how the lack of advancement of appraisal can result in absurd valuation methods. Federal regulators mandated substantive feasibility analysis from appraisers (R-41c) as a result of the last U.S. banking crisis. More recently, at least one State regulator provided another mandate (ASLSF) but both mandates for a substantive improvement have been ignored by the appraisal trade.
Canonne and Macdonald (2003) studied the valuation literature since 1900, providing an extensive review showing the lack of progress, concluding that there is a need to create basic laws and principles as a foundation for appraisers, so the field can progress from an art to a science, and so their trade can progress to a profession. The objective of this website is to advance appraisal methodology towards becoming a true profession by motivating valuers to integrate the scientific process into the appraisal process, enabling those in the appraisal trade to become professionals.
The Table of Contents can be used to quickly focus on topics of interest. These topics are components of presentations Dr. Weber has made at the 2005 meeting of the European Real Estate Society (http://www.eres.org/) in Dublin. Ireland, at the 2006 meeting of the American Real Estate Society (http://www.aresnet.org/) in Key West, Florida, and the 2006 meeting of the European Real Estate Society in Weimar, Germany.
These presentations summarize key portions of Dr. Weber's doctoral thesis, which had the aim of solving the brownfield valuation problem that the global valuation community has been attempting to solve for the last 30 years. The solution to this problem also provided solutions to 5 key problems that US and German Environmental Protection Agencies have concluded are barriers to brownfield redevelopment. Their first problem is a valuation method for brownfields. This reveals that those who have the most experienced with brownfields have no confidence in existing brownfield valuation procedures of appraisers.
