Good, Reasonably Priced Appraiser Recommendation

Pricing is industry standard usually unless you're dealing with multi family or commercial

so no one has an appraiser they like or wants to receive some business. I guess I should’ve just pulled out a phone book.

I have used Brent Loupe in the past. Nice, honest and reasonably priced. FWIW another option could be to just call a couple of real estate agents and ask them to give you a value. Tell them you might list it, even though you know you aren’t.

I live in Virginia. Most appraisals are done for mortgage companies or banks. If you want someone to refer an appraiser to you I'd suggest you begin with the mortgage division of your bank.

You may be able to get a slightly reduced price compared to one ordered by a bank because it’s not going through an AMC. Maybe $50-$100 cheaper for a cookie cutter appraisal but focus more on quality of the appraisal.

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Good Appraiser

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Oxymoron. Unless they somehow got a 4-5 year degree in what I would call Real Estate Science with a master's specialization in residential property
appraisal, I'd feel better letting a random project engineer come up with an opinionated value of a piece of property. At least they would know how to use a Pi tape to get a measured circumference of the trees to convert to diameter for an accurate tree value portion of the property. I've yet to see one even attempt these type measurements.

I bought a couple acre lot years ago in a newer neighborhood and the grass was already shoulder high and weeds had trunks on them. The back 40 got swampy before they graded it. Anyway, I watched the weather and scheduled an re-appraisal of the lot before building started and said I wanted to be there for it. I paid half of what it was currently appraised at (tax-wise).

Saw it was going to rain for a week straight so I go out there with this dude in pouring rain on day 3 or so in snake boots, brush pants, and rain gear over that. He comes in high water slacks and cheap lace up loafers. He wants to do the appraisal from the street and I say no there's some things you need to see back by the creek it backed up to. I make this guy walk the entire perimeter and he actually does step on a rat snake that bites his lower calf. It did have the look of a copperhead, but he freaks out and rushes off to ER (I killed it after just to verify since it was raining so hard).

I never did reappraise the land before the house build. That experience was worth any additional property taxes I paid. They have the ability to unknowingly cheat people out of money due to incompetence or any errors in their "pro" opinions, yet can't be held legally responsible with criminal charges for that negligence.

So frick that entire profession.