Phoenix is home for me, and it's where most of my work happens. Twenty-five years of walking into Valley homes, from Arcadia and the Biltmore to Ahwatukee, Moon Valley and Laveen, taught me one thing: the good stuff is usually behind the holiday decorations in the garage. Phoenix households hold more than people think, and they hold a particular mix you don't see in other cities.
What Phoenix homes tend to hold
Phoenix has grown by people arriving from somewhere else, and their belongings came with them. That gives the city an unusual spread: Midwestern and East Coast furniture and paintings from the parents who retired here in the 1970s and 80s, alongside the things people bought once they got here. The categories I see most:
- Southwestern and Western art: paintings, bronzes and prints by Arizona and regional artists, some bought from galleries decades ago and never revalued.
- Native American jewelry, pottery, baskets and weavings, often acquired on trading post trips and passed down without any paperwork.
- Mid-century modern furniture and lighting from the postwar building boom, which has a strong market right now.
- Estate contents: silver, china, clocks, rugs, coins, firearms, instruments and the collections that fill a lifetime.
- Fine art that traveled here from elsewhere, including European and American paintings that were never appraised for the Arizona market.
The Phoenix market
Values in Phoenix run on two tracks. Regional art and Native American material can sell for more here and in Scottsdale and Santa Fe than a national database suggests, because the buyers are here. Traditional brown furniture, formal china and many collectibles are softer here than in older Eastern cities, because every house in the Valley already has some. Knowing which track your item is on is most of the appraisal, and it's why a number pulled from a national price guide is often wrong for a Phoenix estate in both directions.
How I work in Phoenix
For most jobs I come to you. Phoenix estates, insurance schedules and divorce inventories are done in the home, where I can photograph, measure and examine each piece. For one or two items, good photographs through the form are often enough to start, and I'll tell you on the first call whether a visit is needed. I reply within one business day, quote the whole job up front and deliver a signed report you can hand to an attorney, an insurer, a CPA or an adjuster.
I don't buy or sell what I appraise, so when I tell you a piece belongs at a major auction house, at a local sale or on your wall, there's nothing in it for me either way.
Appraisal services in Phoenix
Every service I offer is available throughout Phoenix: estate and probate appraisals with date-of-death values, insurance replacement schedules, fine art appraisals and attribution research, charitable donation appraisals for IRS Form 8283, neutral appraisals for divorce and property division, and damage and loss claim reports. Each has its own page below with the details, the process and the questions people ask most.
Beyond the city
From Phoenix I cover the whole Valley, including Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Peoria and the West Valley, and I travel north to Sedona and Prescott. For a single item you can start with photographs from anywhere; for a collection or an estate, I travel.