To determine FMV I could spend the money and hire an appraiser or I could estimate it from comps in the neighborhood real estate market but it really doesn't matter if I'm using actual repair/replacement costs as the basis for reduction in value: ValueX - repair$ or ValueY - repair$ is still going to work out to the same amount in deductible loss. So my question is would the IRS complain if I used a very conservative valuation from the tax roll?
