You’re a spouse going through a divorce – friendly or hostile. One of you has probably moved out, and you’re both wondering what your share of the real estate will amount to. You’re going to have to deal with a division of property – usually, the family residence.

What’s the best way to find out the value of your property, so that you’ll know what you have coming?

Your attorney has probably already told you – you’ll need a professional real estate appraisal. You’ll have to have one to go through the divorce process. No mediator or judge can rule or determine how much your property is worth without one. So how does the process work?

Often, your attorney knows a reputable appraisal firm that will give an unbiased, arms-length, and stand-alone valuation of your property. He or she will arrange for the appraisal report on your behalf. Or, your attorneys may leave the choice of appraiser up to the two of you. This could be problematic. If you each have your own attorney, the best scenario may be for the two attorneys to agree to hire one appraiser.

The fee for the appraisal is paid for by the divorcing parties – usually split down the middle, unless each party orders a separate appraisal. Appraisers collect their fees in differing ways. Sometimes, it’s billed to the attorney that retains them on your behalf. Other times, it’s collected from the spouse that stayed in the home during the property visit. Ask your attorney or appraiser what to expect.

The appraisal process begins when the appraiser does a “property visit”. He or she will ask questions of the homeowner about the house. “Are there any problems or concerns with the property? “Any special circumstances I should know about?” He/she will take measurements, look into crawl spaces, check for updates to plumbing and electricity and any other amenities and do a visual inspection of the siding, roof and yard. She’s looking for features or conditions that may require a higher or lower value than is the norm for the neighborhood. Sometimes, features that the homeowner greatly values may not contribute to the home’s value in proportion to the price paid for them – such as a swimming pool or wine cellar.

Following the property visit, the appraiser compares your property with at least three similar properties in the surrounding vicinity that have sold within the last six months. The sales prices of the homes that sold determine their value. Using a standardized template, s/ he makes an itemized comparison between your house and each of the “comps”. He compares the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, existence of a fireplace or view, the general condition and so forth, making dollar-based adjustments in each category between the subject house (your property) and comparison house #1, #2, and #3. He will also provide comments and clarifications in the report, if necessary.

Finally, using his or her professional expertise and judgment, the appraiser will make a definitive analysis, giving the most weight to the comparable home that most closely resembles the subject. Thus a market-based value is arrived at for your home. Often, this final analysis is explained in narrative form.

Professional appraisers are bound to the utmost practice of fairness and objectivity through USPAP (Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice), and for members of the Appraisal Institute, the Professional Code of Ethics. Confidentially is a major requirement, as well. In no circumstance is an appraiser allowed to divulge information to either divorcing party or their attorney before the final valuation is made.

In the case where two appraisers, each representing one of the divorcing parties, arrive at two different values, then testimony is taken in divorce court regarding the appraisals. The judge will hear the opinion of each appraiser and make a judgment. It has been known that a judge will add up the two differing values, and divide the sum by two. Something like Solomon’s law, it might be said.

Self education can only help divorcing people, as well as any other segment. At an often confusing and stressful time of life, knowing the steps involved in separating one’s property in a divorce can bring a measure of comfort.

For more information on obtaining an appraisal during divorce, call or write:

Lamb Hanson Lamb Appraisal Associates Incorporated, 206-903-1500, Ex 216.
Patrick Lamb, CEO, will gladly answer your questions. He can also be reached at plamb@lambhansonlamb.com
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Finalizing a divorce involves many decisions, including “Who gets the house”? There are generally two options regarding the house – it can be sold and the proceeds divided, or one party can “buy out” the other. In either case, one or both parties should order an appraisal of the residence. Divorce appraisals require a well supported, professional appraisal that is defensible in court. When you order an appraisal from us, you are assured that you will get the best in professional service, courtesy, and the highest quality appraisal. We also know how to handle the sensitive needs of a divorce situation.

Attorneys and Accountants rely on our values when calculating real property values for estates, divorces, or other disputes requiring a value being placed on real property. We understand their needs and are used to dealing with all parties involved. We provide appraisal reports that meet the requirements of the courts and various agencies.

As an attorney handling a divorce, your needs oftentimes include an appraisal to establish fair market value for the residential real estate involved. Often the divorce date differs from the date you order the appraisal. We are familiar with the procedures and requirements necessary to perform a retroactive appraisal with an effective date and Fair Market Value estimate matching the date of divorce. The ethics provision within the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) binds us with confidentiality, ensuring the fullest degree of discretion.

Estate Appraisals

Settling an estate is an important and sometimes stressful job. As an executor you have been entrusted to carry out the wishes of the deceased as swiftly and exactly as possible. You can count on us to act quickly and with sensitivity to the feelings of everyone involved. Attorneys and Accountants rely on our values when calculating real property values for estates, divorces, or other disputes requiring a value being placed on real property. We understand their needs and are used to dealing with all parties involved. We provide appraisal reports that meet the requirements of the courts and various agencies.

Settling an estate usually requires an appraisal to establish Fair Market Value for the residential property involved. Often, the date of death differs from the date the appraisal is requested. We are familiar with the procedures and requirements necessary to perform a retroactive appraisal with an effective date and Fair Market Value estimate matching the date of death. The ethics provision within the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) binds us with confidentiality, ensuring the fullest degree of discretion.

All too often, people do not fully appreciate the need to have a detailed real estate appraisal prepared in support of the numbers being used in documents filed with revenue authorities. Opinions of value used in documents filed with the revenue authorities should be supported by a detailed report as to how the appraiser arrived at his conclusions. Such a report will certainly demonstrate to the authorities that the numbers used are well founded and substantiated.

Having a professional appraisal gives the executor solid facts and figures to work with in meeting IRS and state agency requirements. It assures peace of mind to everyone concerned because we are there to stand behind the appraisal if it is challenged.

Date of death valuations

Estate tax liability. Disposition of assets under a will or in probate. There are many situations — none of them lacking stress and complexity — where you might need an appraisal of property that states an opinion of what the property was worth on a date some time ago, rather than when the appraisal is ordered. For estate tax purposes or disposition of the assets of a decedent, a “date of death” valuation is often required. (Sometimes, the executor of the estate may choose to have the date be six months after the date of death — but the same principles apply.)

Attorneys, accountants, executors and others rely on Lamb Hanson Lamb Appraisal Associate, Inc for “date of death” valuations because such appraisals require special expertise and training. They require a firm that’s been in the area for some time and can effectively research comparable contemporaneous sales.

Real property isn’t like publicly traded stock or other items which don’t fluctuate in value very much or for which historical public data is available. You need a professional real estate appraiser, bound by the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) for a high degree of confidentiality and professionalism, and you need the kind of quality report and work product taxing authorities and courts need and expect. Please browse our website to learn more about our qualifications, expertise and services offered.

Assessment appeal services

Most localities determine your property tax burden based on an ad valorem assessment of the property’s value. Sometimes, as a property owner, you get an unwanted surprise in the mail telling you your taxes are going up, and sometimes it may seem as though your assessment is too high. Often, matters like this can be resolved with a phone call. However, if after discussing your assessment with your local taxing authority you still feel as though your property was overvalued, a professional, independent, third-party appraiser is often your best bet in proving your case. That’s where we come in. There are as many different procedures for appealing assessments as there are property taxing districts, so it’s important to enlist the help of a professional appraisal firm that’s experienced and trained in the ins and outs of your particular jurisdiction.

Please note: It makes sense to do your own research before determining whether to go forward with a property assessment appeal, especially before you make the decision to hire a professional appraiser. However, according to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), we are not allowed to take “shortcuts” — i.e., your research — and use it on its face as part of our independent evaluation. When you hire us for an assessment appeal, you’re commissioning an independent, third-party professional appraisal report. As such we do our own evaluation, beginning to end. If you’re right that your property has been overvalued, an independent report such as ours will be even more persuasive than any other evidence you can marshal on your own. But it depends on our ability to do the work independently.

Sometimes, you will have a hearing on your assessment appeal and will need for the appraiser you’ve hired to testify on your behalf. Be assured that at Lamb Hanson Lamb Appraisal Associate, Inc, we are able to professionally and persuasively testify at appeal hearings. Browse our website to learn more about our qualifications, expertise and services offered.
Condemnation appraisal

It’s not just a good idea — and it’s not just the law — it’s your constitutional right that if the government wants to condemn your property, or take it from you by means of “eminent domain,” it must give you “just” compensation. That’s where we come in.

The government is likely to have its own idea of “just” compensation, maybe based on a professional appraisal. But an appraisal on your behalf, performed under the standards of the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), is powerful — and useful — evidence of what you’re entitled to, and protects your rights.

It works the other way, too. We perform work for government clients needing to offer and provide “just” compensation in eminent domain cases. A USPAP-compliant appraisal is the best way to determine fair market value of any property.

If the above makes condemnation appraisals sound simple, that’s not the case. There are many legal and procedural issues involved in an accurate condemnation appraisal. A federal condemnation will require a different analysis and report format than a state or local taking. And in any event, the jurisdiction proposing to condemn the property is likely to have its own rules for appraisal that must be followed. It is important to hire an appraisal firm that has experience and training in these types of valuations.

An eminent domain action may reserve certain rights in the property to the current owner. The government may petition to take only part of, or a partial interest in, the property. This requires the appraiser to value the “larger parcel” — the currently undivided, contiguous property — and the “remainder” of the property, or rights to use the property, that will be held by the owner after condemnation and factor that into the overall value of the taken property. For an added wrinkle, it will often be necessary for the appraiser to determine his or her opinion of value on the “remainder” before the taking and after the development or use prompting the taking, because they are likely to be very different.

Likewise, appraisers always consider a property’s “highest and best use” when formulating an opinion of value. For many condemnation appraisals, it is necessary to consider the highest and best use of the property before taking and after the development or use resulting from the taking. Again, it is important to have a professional appraiser with experience and training.

Because an appraiser may often have to testify about his or her condemnation appraisal, it is important that certain steps in valuation methodology — such as selecting and analyzing comparable sales — be performed more thoroughly. You rely on your appraiser to know what’s necessary, so again, it’s important to select an appraiser/company that has experience and training.

Here at Lamb Hanson Lamb Appraisal Associate, Inc, we are ready and able to perform your condemnation/eminent domain appraisal. Browse our website to learn more about our qualifications, expertise and services offered.

Expert Witness Testimony
We offer a full range of Real Estate Appraisal services, with experience in many types of property. We are also experienced in litigation support and expert witness services. Clients who have used our expert testimony services include government agencies, tax entities, financial institutions, legal and accounting firms and many other businesses. In many cases, our independent, supportable analysis has allowed clients to settle cases without going to court.

An appraiser must remain unbiased in performing an appraisal of a property. But we can consult with you and advise you about the relative strength of an appraisal presented by opposing parties. We can also perform additional research and analysis to support or discredit assumptions or conclusions.

Some examples of issues we have experience with include:

• Valuation of “stigmatized” property
• Valuation as of a date in the past
• Valuation for condemnation and eminent domain cases
• Effect on value of properties with history of flood
• Estate settlement
• Valuation for divorce, partnership, taxation issues etc.

With our experience and proven track record we are ready to take on any type of appraisal assignment and our appraisal values stand up under the most severe scrutiny.

Tax Appeal Professionals: “Success is Appealing”

It feels pretty good coming off a large tax appeal victory with the King County Hearing Examiner that reduced our clients’ assessment by over $3,000,000 on large industrial manufacturing plant in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle. We figure our client had approximately $35,000 to $40,000 cut off his annual tax burden that year. He was very pleased with the outcome, as you can imagine.

Assessment appeals have become ever more prevalent since the fallout of the real estate market over the past two years. We have seen trends in the past, where the assessor valuations were considerably below market value, (some appraisers have claimed that 15% to 20% below market was the norm). The reason for this, however, was not due to some behind the scene political collusion.

Remember, the assessors’ task is to derive a market value for all real property in the county in order to distribute the tax obligation in a fair and consistent manner. They are not tasked with the responsibility of deriving tax levy rates- that is left up to the various taxing jurisdictions and their respective politicians.

As such, the reason for your tax assessment being generally low over the past eight years or so is largely attributable to the rapidly increasing market conditions. The assessors simply could not keep up with the rate of appreciation that was occurring. Alternatively, the recent rapid decline in the market did not warrant the assessor office enough time to reconcile their values in the other direction, and many properties are easily being over assessed by a comparable amount.

Commercial and residential property owners across the board, consequently, are potentially faced with increasing tax burdens- poor timing in light of the looming economic downturn. This is coming as quite a shock to many of our clients who are just now coming to grips with the hard reality that anticipated gains in home equity and/or the durability of commercial income streams have dissipated.

Like property owners, assessors too are caught it the wash of this turbulent market that has just gone from bubble to burst. They rely on a combination of historic sales evidence and anticipated future income benefits to determine a property’s value. During a typical long term trend of inclining or declining market conditions, it is relatively easy to find supporting data to derive credible valuations. However, when the direction of a market changes drastically, an information lag often exists that limits ones ability to perform a valid analysis.

This has contributed to one of the biggest valuation crises in decades, and will likely continue to occur until the market stabilizes in late 2010 and into 2011. Subsequently, your local assessors will potentially be missing their mark for some time to come.

The good news is that this uncertainty of information provides a great opportunity for debate. A seasoned real estate appraiser or consultant can be very effective in guiding an examiner to figure out the true market value of your property.

Sharing this experience

The typical experience begins when a potential client calls us to talk about the appeal process. In most cases, there has been a drastic change in their assessment and they want to talk to a professional about how best to proceed.

On an aside, we often hear of cases where the assessor has reduced the “improvement” value to essentially nothing, while sky-rocketing the “land” value. This can be a confusing and startling event for many property owners. Especially, when there is plenty of economic life remaining in their property. Yet, please be aware that this is a common practice in dense urban settings. It is the result of a highest and best use analysis performed by the assessor whereas they find the value of the underlying land as a redevelopment site outweighs the value contribution of the improvements.

When such circumstances are true, it is common practice of appraisers to value the property by taking the land value, plus the net present value of any income stream, less the future demolition costs. This is a typical thought process employed by the most probable purchaser- a developer or speculator. The assessor, to some extent, follows a similar methodology. If this happens to you, my advice is to ignore the value of the property, as improved, and focus all of you attention on arguing the land value. You may result in better outcomes by simplifying your attack on the comparable sales, versus trying to convince the assessor that their methodology is wrong.

On first conversation, we typically engage with the client to perform a preliminary data collection for the subject property, which includes a comparable property search. Following, we advise the client on whether we feel they have any significant claim for appeal. If substantial evidence is available, we would advise the client to engage me to perform an appraisal that will be used as evidence in the hearing. Simultaneously, the client would submit the appeal petition to begin the legal process with the Board of Equalization. Upon confirmation of a hearing date, the client can either present the appraisal findings him or herself, or hire us to present the findings.

One important aspect of the presentation, especially when working with commercial property, is that the details of each comparable can be very complex. For instance, the petitioner would benefit from understanding the nuances of ingress/egress, corner influences, traffic signals, access to transportation linkages, and overall property productivity analysis that includes dozens of other site and structural characteristics. Many of these items are often misunderstood by property owners, and the assessors themselves. Alternatively, presenting a clear understanding of these items and how they impact value can be very persuasive in front of an examiner.

The process for appeal

For a detailed discussion of how the appeal process works, please read the blog on our website titled How’s My Tax Assessed Value High in THIS Market?. The links may be expired, yet the overall discussion is still relevant today.

General outline of the process

1. Preliminary consultation to examine subject and market comparables
2. Submit appeal petition to the BOE
3. Prepare appraisal
4. Establish hearing date
5. Prepare for the hearing
6. Hearing
a. Location is typically in the county administrative building
b. Actual hearing protocol
i. Present opinion of value to examiner
1. Focus on sales comps and income characteristics
ii Assessors’ presentation of value
1.Not an appraisal, mostly statistical analysis and charts.
iii Rebuttal and closing

In the 80’s, word processing, electronic databases and the internet were nonexistent. Real estate appraisers were required to go to the county court house to gather sales documents directly from the assessor’s office; property photos were physically developed at the a one-hour photo mart, and all appraisal reports were hand-typed, mostly by a receptionist. This all took time and a specialized skill set that the market place paid good fees for – appraisal fees were at their highest at that point.

In the early 90’s, however, the dawn of the computer drastically changed the way information was recorded and accessed. Real estate information that was originally in paper format held by the county and large title companies suddenly moved to a computerized database format. Larger real estate appraisal firms benefited greatly from this transition since they could afford to purchase or license access to these expensive database services. Instantly, appraisers could perform their duties without spending countless hours working through large catalogues of printed records at the court house.

Independent real estate appraisers working in small shops or out of their home could not feasibly cover the expense of a database. As such, they stuck to the old ways of appraisal reporting. Eventually, the independent appraiser couldn’t compete as larger firms were able to cut weeks off the delivery of reports.

Consequently, as access to real estate information became available at their fingertips, appraisers found themselves having to perform more of the research and report assembly tasks that were previously performed by hourly workers. Learning these new technical skills really presented a challenge for the well-established appraisers who have been operating under the previous model for years.

Simultaneously, the overhead structure at appraisal firms was changing as the increased use of computers and real estate databases eliminated the need for typists and young researchers. These people were beginning to be replaced with hardware, software, and technical specialists who knew how to setup and maintain the systems.

Computer databasing was the first big technological transition, along with the emergence of the internet and the digital business environment. For many in the appraisal industry, this was a lot to digest.

About the time Patrick Lamb entered the family company, Lamb Hanson Lamb Appraisal Associates, Inc. His college experience at the University of Washington had been heavily influenced by new technology. During his tenure at the “U”, the hottest concentration on campus was Information Systems. He was fortunate to take advantage and learn software programs that were beginning to dominate the outside business world, as well.

At the time he joined Lamb Hanson Lamb, the majority of the appraisers at the office and in the appraisal networks he joined knew little about computers. Patrick was able to use his computer skills to barter for appraisal mentoring, and begin to steer the company into the technical realm.

In his first year at the firm he was an apprentice to several residential appraisers; doing research, taking pictures, making maps and filling out forms for his mentors. Over this time, he was exposed to the existing systems and technology that had been developed for performing residential appraisal reports. The systems were impressive yet suffered from a multitude of technical and human errors.

Coincidentally, the appraisal industry as a whole was in need of streamlining as the volume of residential mortgage work increased. This was due to the deregulation of the mortgage industry and an unparalleled drop in interest rates. This phenomenon drove the implementation of technology efficiencies in the residential lending process.

The streamlining consisted of using a new digital form of reporting that standardized the residential appraisal process, making it far less time consuming. Unfortunately for the industry, though, the larger banker clients saw this as an opportunity to put downward pressure on fees and higher expectations for fast turn times. Consequently, the established appraiser networks, faced with shrinking fees, felt that the one way to stall the fee drop was to constrain the number of appraisers in the industry. So, they set out to increase the barriers to entrance by upping educational requirements and eventually passing legislation that mandated all trainees to be licensed. (This argument was masked as a way to limit fraud, yet that should be the role of the established appraiser mentors not the naive apprentices. The increased barriers only hurt new employees trying to get a start).

Suddenly, Lamb Hanson Lamb’s residential department was caught in a storm. Fees started falling, education costs soared, technical staffing and systems costs increased, pressure from clients escalated and, worst of all, the feasibility of hiring and training new employees began to fail. This stalled their potential for growth. At the same time, the appraisers were struggling to learn these new computer skills. Their morale was low, despite the spike in business from the hot real estate market and declining interest rates.

To hedge himself from the apparent decline in the residential appraisal market, Patrick decided to focus on another side of appraising. He become a trainee in the commercial department, and again, his technical skills played an intricate part in securing training opportunities with mentors. Within the first couple of months in the commercial department he realized that the technology and systems used to perform narrative commercial reports was five to ten years behind the residential department and depending on the appraiser, sometimes even greater. There was little to no use of Excel; only a basic understanding of Word; no use of digital filing or archiving; no use of Access databasing, and little understanding of computer networks and Internet capabilities.

While most commercial appraisers in the office and throughout the nation were well-established, (of an older generation), and contained massive amounts of education, experience and knowledge, they were entirely resistant to the new and emerging ideas. More so, their influence in the firm made them seemingly invincible to change, as even the boss was hesitant to learn new tricks. Patrick also discovered that, despite their great depth of knowledge and background, that there were no superstar employees. Their revenues and production were flat, if not on the decline. This in part, was due to all the time wasted fidgeting with the report formatting, editing, publication, and redundancies. In sum, Patrick felt they all “shared a deficiency of digital wherewithal.”

It quickly became evident to Patrick that he could create a new system that combined his computer skills with some of the digital efficiencies he witnessed in the residential department. He knew that the fees for a standard commercial appraisal report are ten to twenty times greater than the fees for residential appraisal reports. He believed that with the system he envisioned, appraisers could produce commercial narrative reports at a rapid speed, yet with greater reliability, less errors and nearly seamless transferability of data. Therefore, he began developing a template for commercial appraisers.

Patrick states that “creating a template was definitely a work in progress, an evolution that still exists today”. To make the whole process work well, the entire office needed to become digital in unison. They had relied on thirty years of appraisal history locked in paperback copies, sitting on shelves collecting dust. The filing system for the old reports was random and burdensome to access.

To start the evolution, Patrick hired a friend to come into the office and scan as many documents as he could, then convert the paper into a Word document that could be filed. From this point, he was able to categorize hundreds of zoning code descriptions, market area descriptions, building type descriptions, etc. that were accessible to anyone in the office. The advantage to having easy access to this data was that it was now in a digital narrative format that read well – likely created by the well-educated, experienced and knowledgeable real estate appraisers mentioned before. A young trainee could simply cut and paste a sample and modify the existing statements to meet the needs of the new assignment. He or she could build off of what had already been created and wouldn’t have to stare into a blank page.

Within the template design stage, he also saw that technical skill was not the only component of a success. More so, he had to learn how people interfaced with the system. It was his exposure to human behavior and reactions that began to mold his vision into a reality. “This took a few years to perfect…which is an overstatement since it’s still nowhere near perfect”, he declares.

By 2005, the template system was relatively operational, and since then,the system has provided many competitive advantages to the firm. Nevertheless, Patrick says it has been somewhat difficult to convince established appraisers in the office to adapt. He believes that this is one of the greatest challenges he’ll face in the upcoming years as other firms begin to benefit from their own technological advances.

To maintain competitiveness, Lamb Hanson Lamb operates on a six-month cycle, to ensure that their technological systems and methods are up-to-date. They realize that systems will change, and Patrick, as CEO, hopes to create a culture at Lamb Hanson Lamb Appraisal Associates, Inc. that embraces the willingness to change, while abandoning the comfort of “doing things the old way”. This is the true template for success.

MM: Patrick Lamb is 30, recently married, a Commercial Real Estate Appraiser and the Director of Business Development for his family business. He still has time to attend yoga class on a regular basis. What surprises me week after week is this big guy can do amazing things with his body. His practice has inspired me to continue doing postures “out of the box” because “it feels right to do”. Patrick really is a leader in many ways.

Patrick, how did you get into practicing yoga?

PL: My first experience in yoga was about five years ago. At the time, I was rowing for a crew on Lake Washington. In rowing, two important terms commonly used by coaches was to make your body “long” and “elastic”, like a rubber band fully extended. In doing so, you can maximize the resistance against the water by utilizing every inch of your body- from your fingertips on the ore handle to your toes against the blocks. Even though I didn’t know much about yoga, I assumed it involved a great deal of stretching and strengthening that I figured could only help.

So I started yoga as a cross-training activity to improve my rowing skills. The results were amazing! My only regret is that I didn’t start my practice far earlier in life, possibly as early as elementary school. I think the skills and lessons taught in yoga are an excellent foundation to all athletic activity.

MM: You’re married. Congrats. How has your yoga practice influenced your partnership?

PL: I see yoga as an act of self-improvement. It helps me to achieve mental states of calm, completeness, satisfaction and joy. From what I’ve found, the more of these traits I can possess the easier I am to be around, and I think Saragh (my wife) appreciates that fact.

MM: Have your learned any life lessons doing yoga?

PL: My practice has allowed me to expand the threshold of what I previously thought was physically possible. For example, when I first heard of athletic yoga from a fellow member at the club, it was explained to me that the instructor has the students balancing inverted on two hands or on their heads. On first thought, this was not something that really appealed to me. I thought I knew my body very well at the time- its limitations and its strengths- and I was comfortable knowing I may never do that. However, I realize now that my personal assessment was way off. In a matter of a few months, I’ve surpassed all of my expectations, in addition to losing track of my perceived gravitational boundaries.

In short, the idea that I’ve exposed is that self-doubt is sometimes ignorant. This is one of the most beneficial lessons I’ve taken from my practice. It now makes me wonder; where else do I sell myself short through doubt? And what if success in these areas can be achieved as easily as the success I’ve encountered in my practice. Proving myself to be wrong was a real motivator and now drives me to confront new challenges in all aspects of my life.

MM: Are there spiritual aspects to your yoga workouts?

PL: Some aspects of my practice remind me of praying, like when I was a child. I close my eyes, clear my mind, and mentally focus on all the positive things I want to have happen for myself and the people in my life.

MM: You work with your family. Does yoga affect your work?

PL: The good thing about working for the family business is that I have the opportunity to be close to the people I love the most nearly everyday. Moreover, the trust we have in each other is far greater than anything a typical business partner or associate can offer. These things make our business very rewarding.

The bad this about family business, however, is that we tend to treat each other like family members instead of business partners. Whereas, sometimes we express our frustrations with each other in a very emotional way without much tact, (similar to the Tuddle family from Orange County Choppers, if you’ve seen that show).

One thing my practice encourages is to have control over my ability to find a sense of calm and clarity. This is most prevalent in the first minute of class, when I close my eyes and find my breath. Despite any angst I felt toward my family members that day, at that moment all of those conflicts vanish, (it’s like a reset button for stress). Subsequently, confronting the root of these conflicts the next day always seems more bearable.

MM: That’s great PR for yoga. Thanks for practicing, Patrick.

PL: Thanks.