Take enough estate calls and the pattern is hard to miss. The executor knows the address but not who has the keys. Nobody is quite sure whether the appraisal is for the estate tax return, the probate inventory, or a buyout between siblings. Everyone knows the date of death; nobody has confirmed that it is the valuation date the CPA actually needs. None of that is anyone’s fault. Most people settle an estate once or twice in a lifetime, and nobody hands them a guide to preparing for an estate appraisal.
So we built one. We just published a free, fillable Estate Appraisal Checklist here on the site. It is one page of questions, the same ones I ask on nearly every estate call, arranged so an executor, attorney, or CPA can work through them before the appraisal is ever ordered. Here is what it captures, the three ways to use it, and the one field worth slowing down on.
Why preparing for an estate appraisal is different
A purchase or refinance appraisal values a house as of today. Estate work usually runs the other direction. The value is tied to the date of death, not the day the appraiser shows up, which makes most estate assignments retrospective. If you want the full background on how that works, our date-of-death appraisal page covers it. The short version: the appraiser has to reconstruct a market, and sometimes a property’s condition, as of a date that may be months or years in the past.
The other difference is where the information lives. The attorney has the case details, the CPA has the filing requirements, and the family has the keys, the photos, and the story of what has happened to the house since. On most estates, no single person holds all of it. Pulling those pieces together before the engagement starts is most of the battle, and that is exactly what the checklist is built to do on one page.
What the checklist captures
It opens with the basics: property address, county, the decedent’s name and date of death, and who you are in relation to the estate. Then it asks what the appraisal is for. An IRS Form 706 filing, stepped-up basis support, the Colorado probate inventory, a buyout or distribution between heirs, a trust event, or several of those at once. Purpose matters because it drives the intended users of the report, the deadlines in play, and sometimes the valuation date itself.
From there it works through the practical layers. A documents section lists what is worth gathering, including the deed, the death certificate, the will or trust, any prior appraisals, listing history, photos, inspection reports, and permits, with room to note where each one lives. A property access and condition section asks who has keys, whether the home is occupied, whether utilities are on, and what has changed since the date of death. That last question matters more than people expect, because the property is valued as it was on that date, not as it stands today. The checklist closes with the parties involved, useful when a matter is contested, and a table for estates that hold more than one property.
Three ways to use it
The checklist is built to meet people where they are. You can fill it out right in the browser: click any blank field, type, and print or save it as a PDF when you are done. You can print it blank and fill it in by hand at the kitchen table with the family. Or, if you are an attorney or CPA, you can print a few copies and hand one to the executor at the first meeting. That third use is the one I had in mind when we built it. It turns “go gather everything” into a specific, finite assignment.
Blanks are fine, by the way. A half-finished checklist still tells me more than most first phone calls, and the empty fields tell us both exactly what still needs chasing.
The field worth slowing down on: the valuation date
Most estate appraisals are effective as of the date of death, but not all of them. Some estates weigh the alternate valuation election, which moves the date six months out. Litigation can lock in a different date entirely. The checklist asks you to confirm the valuation date with the CPA or attorney before the appraisal is ordered, and I would put that one question above everything else on the page.
Here is why. An appraisal is built around its effective date. The comparable sales, the market conditions analysis, the condition of the property, all of it keys off that one date. If the date changes after the report has been delivered, there is no quick edit. A new date means a new comp search, new market analysis, and a new report, with the fee and the timeline that come with it. A five-minute confirmation up front is the cheapest insurance in the entire estate process.
It links to the actual forms
One more thing the checklist does that a paper handout cannot: it links directly to the paperwork it mentions. IRS Form 706 and the Form 4768 extension request, the 1099-S that forces the basis question when an inherited home sells, and Colorado’s JDF 941 inventory form are all one click away, straight from the IRS and the Colorado Judicial Branch. No hunting through a government website at 10 PM.
The JDF 941 deadline is worth flagging for Colorado executors in particular: the personal representative generally has three months from appointment to prepare an inventory of the estate’s property at fair market value as of the date of death. Three months goes faster than it sounds when a house needs to be secured, cleaned out, and valued.
The bottom line for executors, attorneys, and CPAs
If you have an estate with real property in it, open the checklist, fill in what you know, and do not sweat what you cannot answer yet. If you are an attorney or CPA who handles estates regularly, print a few and keep them where the intake packets live. Either way, the first conversation with the appraiser gets shorter and the engagement starts cleaner. Every report we deliver is developed under USPAP, the standards that govern professional appraisal practice, and built to hold up in front of the IRS, the court, and the family.
Questions about a specific estate anywhere in Denver Metro or Boulder County? Our estate appraisal services page has the full picture of the work we do, and a call costs nothing. If a file has a deadline attached, reach out before it gets tight.
About the author
Charles E. Volk, SRA, has appraised residential property across Denver Metro and Boulder County for 24 years. He holds the SRA designation from the Appraisal Institute, serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute’s Colorado Chapter, and leads VolkHaus Appraisals, which provides date-of-death, estate, and retrospective appraisals for estate attorneys, CPAs, fiduciaries, community banks, and private clients.
VolkHaus Appraisals provides real estate valuation services, not tax or legal advice. Filing requirements and deadlines change; confirm how they apply to a specific estate with the estate’s attorney or CPA.