A guide to the valuation products you can order through Value Connect, and when each one is the right call.
Most people order the same report every time. It is a habit that costs money on the low-risk files and creates rework on the complicated ones.
You have more options than "full appraisal or nothing." Knowing which one fits the file in front of you is one of the easiest ways to control cost, protect your timeline, and still give the lender what it needs to say yes. For the most accurate and detailed report, a Full appraisal that includes and interior and exterior inspection of the property is the best option.
Here is the full menu, what each report actually gives you, and how to match it to the job.
| Report | Property visit | Prepared by | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Appraisal | Yes, interior and exterior | Accredited appraiser | Higher LTV, purchases, unusual properties, anything that may be scrutinized |
| Desktop Appraisal | No | Accredited appraiser | Lower-risk files, renewals, portfolio reviews, difficult access |
| AVM | No | Automated model | Early triage, quick reads, low-risk and low-LTV decisions |
| Automated Market Rent | No | Automated model | An instant rent read, at $6.00 on demand |
| Appraiser Assisted Automated Market Rent | No | Automated estimate, appraiser reviewed & enhanced |
Rental files needing professional sign-off without a full standalone report |
| Standalone Market Rent (no inspection) | No | Accredited appraiser | Rental income support where the property is straightforward |
| Standalone Market Rent (with inspection) | Yes | Accredited appraiser | Rental income support where unit condition, layout, or configuration matters, or when there isn't enough data available to support a "no inspection" report |
The most thorough option. An accredited appraiser inspects the property inside and out, researches comparable sales, makes and explains adjustments, and signs a report they can stand behind.
Choose it when the decision carries real risk: a purchase, a higher loan to value, an unusual or rural property, a file that will face scrutiny, or any situation where the value needs to hold up under challenge.
An accredited appraiser completes the analysis without visiting the property, working from available data, records, and comparable sales. You get professional judgment applied to the file, without the scheduling and access that a site visit requires.
Choose it when the risk profile is lower and the property is conventional. Renewals, portfolio reviews, and files where you need an informed opinion rather than a full inspection are all good candidates.
One caution: lender acceptance varies. Confirm your lender takes a desktop for the purpose you have in mind before you order.
An automated valuation model produces an estimate from data, with no appraiser and no visit. It is the fastest and least expensive way to put a number on a property.
Choose it early. An AVM is at its best before you have committed to anything: sizing up a refinance, checking whether a client's expectation is realistic, or deciding which lender to approach. Use it to inform a decision, not usually to close one.
The tradeoff is straightforward. AVMs are strongest in dense markets with plenty of recent comparable activity, and weakest exactly where properties get interesting: rural, unique, or thinly traded.
When a deal depends on rental income, someone has to establish what the property can actually rent for. Since the 2018 OSFI changes, lenders have been steadily more demanding about how that number is supported.
A rent figure mentioned in passing inside another report is not the same as a rent opinion backed by analysis. If the deal leans on the income, order the report that matches how much weight the number has to carry.
There are four levels, and they climb steadily from an instant machine estimate to a fully inspected professional opinion.
Entirely machine generated, available on demand in close to real time, at $6.00.
In most of Canada you can add a regular AVM for another $2.00, which means a value estimate and a rent estimate on the same property for $8.00, in about the time it takes to type the address.
At that price it is not really a report you commission, it is a number you check. Pull it before you decide anything: to sanity check a client's rent expectation, to see whether an investment property's numbers work before you take the file on, or to screen a batch of properties quickly. It is an input to your thinking, not evidence for an underwriter.
An automated rent estimate reviewed by an appraiser. It sits between a raw automated number and a full standalone report: faster and lighter than a standalone, with professional eyes on the result.
Useful on volume, and on files where you need a defensible rent figure without commissioning the full treatment.
A dedicated rent opinion from an accredited appraiser, based on comparable rental data, without a property visit. Efficient, and appropriate when the property is conventional and its condition is not in question.
The same dedicated report, with the appraiser attending the property. Worth it when the unit's condition, layout, or configuration genuinely affects what it will rent for, and when the number needs to withstand challenge.
The rule of thumb: The more certainty you need about the rent, the further up this ladder you should be. Checking your own assumptions sits at the bottom. Qualifying a borrower sits near the top.
The right product depends as much on why you need it as on the property itself.
Let the lender's requirements decide. Every lender publishes its own terms of reference, and those rules govern what the appraiser must assume, photograph, and support. This is the single biggest reason the same property can appraise differently for two different lenders.
Name the lender when you order. Applying their terms of reference from the start is the difference between one report and one report plus a revision cycle.
Order a full appraisal. These values get examined by two parties who each want a different answer, and often by their lawyers. You want an accredited appraiser who inspected the property and can explain and defend every adjustment.
Get the effective date right, too. Separation files frequently need value as at a specific date rather than today, and that has to be set at order time.
A full appraisal again, for the same reason: the number may need to satisfy beneficiaries, the courts, or the Canada Revenue Agency. Date of death valuations are common here, and like separation files, the effective date must be established up front.
An AVM answers the question quickly and inexpensively. If the homeowner is weighing a real decision, selling, refinancing, or renovating, step up to a desktop or full appraisal so the number is one they can act on.
If the property is a rental or a prospective one, pair the AVM with an Automated Market Rent for a total of $8.00 in most of Canada. Value and rent together, on demand, is usually the fastest way to tell someone whether an investment property is worth a longer conversation.
1. What will this number have to survive?
A quick internal decision, a lender's underwriter, or a lawyer with an opposing expert? The more scrutiny, the more you need an appraiser who attended the property.
2. Does the property's condition change the decision?
If the inside of the property could meaningfully move the value or the rent, order an inspection. If it could not, you may be paying for one you do not need.
3. Who has to accept it?
Confirm the requirement before you order rather than after the report arrives. Lender acceptance of desktops, AVMs, and market rent formats varies, and a report that satisfies one lender can come back short for another.
Every report described here is available on the same platform, with the same local appraiser network behind it, the same real time status tracking, and the same commitment: the price is set once we have the details of your order, and it does not change afterward.
If you are not sure which report fits the file, tell us about the property and the purpose. Getting you into the right product the first time is cheaper for you than a revision cycle is for anyone.
Value Connect Inc. is a Canadian appraisal management company connecting lenders and mortgage professionals with a national network of accredited local appraisers.