4.2.1.2. Exposure on the Open, Competitive Market.The federal definition of market value presumes that the property, prior to the date of value, was on the open market for a reasonable length of time to find a buyer who was ready, willing, and able to consummate a purchase on the date of valuation.216 Value is to be determined by what the property “would sell for in the market for cash in the due course of business . . . under ordinary circumstances . . . .”217 

In determining just compensation, federal courts have neither defined a “reasonable” length of time nor required that an estimate of market value be linked to a specified exposure time on the open market. For these reasons, appraisers should not link opinions of market value for federal acquisitions to a specific exposure time.218 To do so in an appraisal for federal acquisition purposes would needlessly place a limiting condition on the opinion that is irrelevant and could undermine the reliability of the entire appraisal.219