One of lenders' most common requests these days is for a brokeropinion of value of assets in a loan portfolio, nearing or indistress. Lenders should consider these a "spot check" on thesituation, not a hard and fast appraisal that would translate intoa completed sale.

A BOV should be requested when the original appraisal valuationis more than two years old, as lenders should have an updatedestimate of value due to market conditions. The best use of thisinformation is to determine what the asset's value is relative tothe outstanding debt and to estimate the property's cash flowcompared to the required debt service.

The difficulty for the lender and broker in this situation is tohave the BOV done under the radar of the current owner so thebroker can make an independent evaluation, unfettered by theborrower's input. The BOV is not a full appraisal, which shouldstill be completed in the case of a change in control