Unfortunately accidents happen and when they do it’s a lot of hassle and most likely not convenient to deal with for anyone. If you were injured in the accident you may not have any long term problems associated with the accident and your left with settling your claim with the insurance company and finding another car.



Most insurance companies are in a position to to make you a fair offer for you’re your vehicle, but on the other hand they are not going to pay you top dollar for your car.



Most people have high hopes of getting a far offer that they can go straight out and buy another car just like they one they had and they are done. Unfortunately cars are no different than houses when it comes to value. Basically regardless of whether your had a really nice well taken care of car or a beaten down daily driver. Your car is worth, what the average car on the market is worth. That’s great if you have a beaten down daily driver, but for the folks that have taken care of their cars and had the scheduled maintenance performed, they are not going to be able to replace their car.



Determining what your car was worth before it was in an accident is called Prior to Loss Fair market Value. The insurance company is going to run your VIN number and based on the year make and model of your car they will determine the value range of your car and offer you the lowest settlement than can be justified. You may know how much your car is worth, but in order to justify that value, you will need to have your car appraised, the appraisal will document your car and calculate its value based on comparable vehicles making sure to allow for mileage, options and condition using verifiable market data to support the valuation.



The key to getting an appraisal is to remove the interested parties from the negotiation and determine the value of the car with real market data. The owner wants a high value for the car and the better the supporting documentation the better chance you have for getting a favorable judgment.



If you have been in an accident and the vehicle was a total loss, you are going to need to have Auto Appraisal Network Appraise your vehicle to determine its true Prior to Loss Fair Market Value.