In Anglo-Saxon real estate practice – particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States – the Second opinion is an established standard for large transactions and fund portfolios: before capital is committed, an independent third party looks at the same figures.
We review whatever you have – an appraisal report as much as an investment memorandum, a sales brochure, a tenancy schedule, a business plan or a cash flow model. A first appraisal is not a prerequisite: in an acquisition there is often nothing but the vendor's documentation – and it is precisely its assumptions on rent, costs, interest and exit that determine the price.
The difference from the assessment of an investment or transaction manager lies in the remuneration: we are not paid through an acquisition fee or a success-based share, but through a fixed fee for the review. Whether the transaction goes ahead makes no difference to our conclusion. That is precisely where the value of a second opinion lies.
Behind this stand some 20 years of practice on the investment side: acquisition reviews, portfolio valuations and valuations for regulated fund companies. We know the places where vendor assumptions are regularly too optimistic – and the standards that BaFin-regulated funds expect of a second opinion.
For an assessment that is methodologically complete but limited in scope there is the Expert opinion.
Where the result must stand up before a court or the tax office, what is needed is a market value report.
If a binding determination by a third party is required instead of a review, the path leads via Review, arbitral and court appraisals.
