Everything in real estate starts with market value and market values are constantly changing. They critical factor to doing anything in real estate is knowing how to calculate market value, essentially understand how to do your own appraisal. The irony is that appraisal is not generally understood even among industry professionals. I have close friends and colleagues that are experienced realtors and often they dont understand the critical elements to establishing the value of a house. Appraisal is not difficult, it is simple and it is the key to everything in real estate whether you are acquiring a property, refinancing, lowering your property taxes, investing, etc. Everything is in relation to the market value and the irony is that real estate market values are always changing. So, understanding appraisal and market values is not just understanding, the value of my home is X. The market is always changing so the key is: knowing appraisal and how market values are determined. When you know appraisal and how market values are calculated you will have the understanding needed to work with your banks on loans and your Assessor 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 understand how to conduct an appraisal and this is a tool you can use over and over again. Once you have the tool, the Little Black Book, you can appraise an infinite number of properties and understand how those appraisals relate to reducing your assessment.