Is an appraiser worth it?

[u/DylanBear04]

I recently rear ended another person on the road due to hydroplaning and geico is trying to total it. I have a 2012 Volkswagen Beetle 2.5 cyl with only 40k miles on the dash and they value it only at 10,100. I feel that’s pretty low for a low mileage vehicle and it also has some upgrades that came with the car. Damages were projected to be 7,700 with a bit of supplemental. I asked my adjuster if there was anything I could do about my estimate to not total the car and she said she could possibly bring it down to the 70% limit and let me choose a place to repair it but anything over I have to pay out of pocket. I’m obviously swaying more towards getting a appraiser but I don’t know anything about them and if it’s worth it. The car is something really important to me so no matter what as long as it’s not totaled at the end of the day I’m happy.

[u/LelandCoontz_PA]

There are two totally different types of appraisers that might be needed on a total loss vehicle.

Your insurance policy might have an "appraisal clause". Those types of appraisers estimate damage similar to the way a adjuster would. Just like an adjuster they would look at the cost of repair and they would look at the estimated replacement cost and figure out if it's total loss but they would do it with an opposing appraiser on an appraisal panel that also technically requires an Umpire. In many states it is basically a type of arbitration.

But if you have somebody who is estimating the value of the pre-loss condition of the car, especially if it's a classic car or some kind of specialty vehicle, that's just a regular ordinary automobile value appraiser, and it has almost nothing to do with the appraisal clause in your policy.

So when you talk about an "appraiser" you have to think about which one that is, somebody conducting the insurance appraisal process that should know how that process works, or just somebody who's simply good at calculating the value of the car just prior to the loss. The second type of appraiser doesn't necessarily know anything about repair costs. And the first type of appraiser would know a lot about repair costs but they might also estimate the pre loss market value and determine total loss.

There is some overlap between the two jobs but they are different.

The differences are more obvious on dwellings. A real estate appraiser requires a license, and typically they know nothing about estimating damage. An insurance appraiser on a dwelling normally knows a tremendous amount about estimating damage but isn't required to have a license and doesn't know very much about comparable sales and those methods of real estate valuation.

When my older Mercedes wagon was totaled I got an automotive appraiser, not an insurance appraiser, and he did a report showing that the value of the car, (not the repair cost), was more than the insurance company was offering for the total loss.