How much does an insurance appraisal cost — and when is it worth it?

The cost parts

Cost allocation per the standard HO-3 appraisal condition. We do not publish a fee figure for appraisers: fees are set by the individual appraiser and your market, and any page quoting you a national price is guessing. Get the fee in writing before you invoke.

The break-even math

Appraisal makes sense when the realistic amount in dispute — not the whole claim, the gap between their number and a documented number — comfortably exceeds your total cost of running it. Three questions decide it:

1. Is the dispute really about amount? (Coverage denials can't be appraised.)
2. Is your higher number documented — a line-item contractor estimate, not a feeling? Appraisers decide from paper.
3. Have you run the free doors first — supplement and appeal? Appraisal is the third door, not the first: the clause page shows the sequence it sits in.

The alternatives, priced honestly

• Public adjuster on the whole claim: 10–20% of the settlement is the market's standard contingency (Texas caps the fee at 10% by law; Florida allows 20%, dropping to 10% for claims in the first year after a declared emergency — Fla. Stat. § 626.854). On a $30,000 claim, $3,000–$6,000. A good adjuster on a big, messy claim can be worth every cent; on a clean amount dispute, appraisal is usually the leaner tool.
• Attorney: commonly a third or more on contingency, or hourly — the right tool for coverage and bad-faith fights, an expensive one for arithmetic.
• A letter product (the $47 dispute letter, the $19 AI letter): cheap, and worth what it is — one letter, no packet, no clocks. The comparison page for all of it is the kit page.