Guides · 2026-10-04
What a broker opinion of value actually looks at
An owner calls and asks what their space is worth. The honest answer takes a few days, because the number is only as good as the comparables behind it.
A broker opinion of value is not an appraisal. An appraiser is licensed separately, follows a prescribed standard, and produces a document a lender will rely on. A broker opinion is what a broker who works that submarket thinks the space will actually trade or lease for, based on what has recently traded or leased nearby. It costs less, arrives faster, and is the right tool for a decision rather than a loan.
What goes into it
Closed comparables first, asking rents second. What a landlord is asking tells you what they hope for; what a tenant signed tells you what the market paid. The gap between those two numbers is usually the most informative thing on the page.
Then the adjustments. Ground floor is not second floor. A corner with two frontages is not a mid-block door. Twelve-foot ceilings and a grease trap already in place are worth real money to the right tenant and nothing to the wrong one. Every comparable needs moving toward the subject property on each of those axes, and each move needs a reason.
Then the concessions, which is where most quoted rents stop being true. A lease at $50 per square foot with six months free and a $40 per square foot improvement allowance is not a $50 lease. Net effective rent — what the landlord actually collects across the term, after the free months and the money spent getting the tenant in — is the only figure worth comparing.
Then the structure. Who pays taxes, insurance and maintenance changes the number more than most owners expect. A triple-net rent and a gross rent are different units of measurement.
What it cannot tell you
It cannot tell you what a specific buyer will pay, because a buyer with a strategic reason to want your corner will pay more than the market. It cannot predict a lease-up timeline with confidence in a thin submarket where three comparables took eighteen months each. And it is a view on a date, not a standing valuation — in a moving market, a six-month-old opinion is a historical document.
What it is good for: deciding whether to hold, whether to lease now or wait for a better covenant, what to ask, and what to accept. That is usually the decision in front of the owner, and it rarely needs an appraisal to answer.