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Is your insurance company Offering an unfair offer that is less than what your totaled vehicle is worth?

We can help! You need a professional on your side that doesn’t work for the insurance companies. You deserve a fair settlement and hiring a Total Loss Auto Appraiser who specializes in Oregon total loss claims is your first step to receiving a Fair Total Loss Settlement.

We Don’t take a percentage and Oregon law guarantees you 100% Reimbursement for the appraisal if we increase the value over your insurance company’s last offer by just 1 cent.

An appraisal clause is a contractual process in your auto insurance policy used to settle disputes between insurers and their policyholders when the parties fail to agree on the amount that will be covered by the policy.

If your insurer refuses to provide a fair settlement amount on your vehicle’s loss, you have the option to resolve the issue by going through your insurance policy’s appraisal clause. This prevents insurance companies from taking advantage of you.

If you do not agree on the amount of the loss, you may demand (invoke) an appraisal. In this scenario, each party will choose an independent  auto appraiser. In many cases, even their auto appraiser will be higher than the last offer your insurance company made to you. The appraisers will negotiate the value and come to an agreement, or have an umpire make a decision between the two appraisals.  I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and have only had 6 times where we had to go to an Umpire. .

The key to a successful appraisal clause dispute is finding an expert who has the necessary vehicle knowledge and negotiation skills to handle the various aspects of the process. This includes choosing an umpire and negotiating with the other parties involved. Our Oregon Licensed Auto Appraiser, Ken Nix, has been negotiating Oregon Total Loss disputes for around 15 years in Oregon. He’s local, only works for consumers, and isn’t indebted to the insurance companies like many appraisers who rely on them for income. We receive no compensation in anyway from any insurance companies.

Let me make this clear

I work for policyholders, and only policyholders. I DO NOT WORK FOR or RECEIVE any COMPENSATION from ANY INSURANCE COMPANY. 

When someone receives tens of thousands of dollars in recurring business from a single source, such as an insurance company, it is easy to say they are unbiased. Most people genuinely believe they are fair.

The harder question is this. How would they know if they are not?

Subconscious bias does not announce itself. It does not feel unethical. It feels reasonable. It shows up in small decisions, in benefit of the doubt judgments, in how aggressively someone challenges a weak comparable, or whether they push for one more round of negotiation or decide the number is close enough.

When future assignments, steady volume, and significant income come from the very companies on the other side of the table, there is built in pressure to maintain that relationship. No one has to say it out loud. It simply exists.

That is why independence is not just a marketing phrase. It is a structural reality. If your appraiser depends financially on insurance companies, the question is not whether they claim to be unbiased. The question is whether true objectivity is even possible under that model.

Most auto appraisers who accept insurance company assignments charge the carrier a lot more than I charge a consumer. On average, their fee is often higher, yet their workload is far more streamlined. They can manage two to three times as many files per month because their role is limited. They only report to the adjuster, who seldom asks questions. They are not fielding dozens of calls a day from concerned vehicle owners. They are not walking clients through rental fees, storage fees, reimbursement questions, or negotiation strategy. They are not challenging the very company that hires them.

Their client is the insurance company.

When an appraiser depends on carrier relationships for steady work, there is an unspoken reality. Maintaining that relationship matters. Volume matters. Efficiency matters. Keeping the assignment pipeline open matters. Keeping them happy with LOWER PAYOUTS MATTER!

When you hire me, none of that applies.

I do not answer to an insurance carrier. I do not rely on them for referrals. I do not need to keep them satisfied to secure future work. My responsibility is to the policyholder, period. That means more research, more documentation, more negotiation, and often more resistance. It also means fewer total cases at one time, because each one requires significantly more attention and advocacy.

If someone wants frequent check ins, constant reassurance and updates, someone working for an insurance company may be your better choice. There are plenty of professionals who do 80% of their business with insurance companies and 20% with consumers to keep up appearances as if they are consumer friendly. But it is important to understand who their real customer is.

If you hire an appraiser who regularly works for insurance companies, the insurance company is not just a third party in the process. It is part of their business model.

I chose a different model.

I represent vehicle owners. Not carriers. Not adjusters. Not corporate claim departments.

That difference is not small. It is everything.

A few recent Settlements: