Do you need a professional appraiser to value your items before you divorce?

In divorce, you can be as precise or as vague as you wish. You don't have to identify every asset down to the penny, but you certainly can if you want. Usually, people use their own sense of fairness and what they know about their own property to value their items. Whether you use the new price, or more commonly, the garage sale price, to determine the value of the items each of you will be carrying away after the divorce, just be consistent across the board.

If you do need a professional appraisal, my office supplies recommendations to appraisers whom I know and trust. An appraisal for a piece of residential real estate, for example, tends to cost about $350 to $450, depending on the complexity that you desire.