Everything in real estate starts with market value and market values are constantly fluctuating. They key factor to doing anything in real estate is knowing how to calculate market value, basically understand how to conduct your own appraisal. The irony is that appraisal is not widely understood even among real estate experts. I have close friends and colleagues that are experienced realtors and often they dont know the critical elements to determining the value of a house. Appraisal is not hard, it is not complex and it is the key to all things in real estate whether you are purchasing a home, refinancing, reducing your property taxes, investing, etc. Everything is in relation to the market value and the funny thing is that real estate market values are always changing. So, knowing appraisal and market values is not just understanding, the value of my home is X. The market is always changing so the key is: understanding appraisal and how market values are established. When you know appraisal and how market values are determined you will have the understanding needed to work with your banks on loans and your Assessor’s Office on property taxes. The California Little Black Book and the National Little Black Book walk you through the appraisal process step-by-step so that you know how to conduct an appraisal and this is a tool you can use many times. Once you have the tool, the Little Black Book, you can appraise an infinite number of residences and know how those appraisals relate to lowering your property taxes.