Fair Market Value - FMV

  

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble…what is the fair price of this pile of rubble?

So…this term revolves around the notion of "fair." Like...what is fair? And who told you the world was fair anyway?

Financially, fair (or at least fair market) means what the market will fairly and legally pay for an asset. So that means fair...as in not cash from a Somalian warlord’s leather briefcase...but rather fair as in the legitimate selling price of an excellent 2-bedroom, 3-bath shoebox in Palo Alto selling for $3M.

For something to be “of fair market,” the buyer has to be knowledgeable and unpressured, i.e. the Somalian warlord does not, in fact, have a gun aimed at the buyer’s head. Or any other body part.

And, generally speaking, the market itself has to be a legitimate market, like real estate or jewelry, or stocks, or bonds. Or whatever.

If it’s an illegitimate market, it’s uh…probably wondering why it was born out of wedlock.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is Fair Market Value?3 Views

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Finance a la shmoop what is fair market value? double bubble toil and trouble [Man casting a curse]

00:09

what is the fair price of this pile of rubble so this term revolves around the

00:16

notion of fair like what is fair and by the way who told you the world was fair

00:22

anyway all right but financially fair or at least fair market means what the

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market will fairly and legally pay for an asset that's fair and so that means [Man discussing financial fair]

00:35

fair as in not cash from a Somalian warlords leather briefcase but rather

00:42

fair as in the legitimate selling price of this excellent two-bedroom three-bath

00:46

shoebox in Palo Alto selling for 3 million dollars today for something to

00:52

be "of fair market" the buyer has to be knowledgeable and

00:57

unpressured i.e the somalian warlord does not in fact have a gun aimed

01:02

at the buyers head or any other body part and generally speaking [Gun aims at buyers body parts]

01:06

the market itself has to be a legitimate market like real estate or jewelry or

01:10

stocks or bonds or whatever if it's an illegitimate market well it's a probably

01:15

wondering why it was born out of wedlock so you can't do that

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when you assess fair market value things have to be legal and liquid and well

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fair whatever the market will pay for it that's the fair value [Hand dealing out cash]

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