SFR or Condo?

[Blueprint]

I just wanted to know if anyone had a real idea about why the subject would even be called a condo in the first place.

Because they are uninformed, careless, and/or lazy!! Where I live, all PUD's are reffered to as condos in pub recs.

 

[Ray Miller]

Sound like the owner may want to show the county what the value would be if it were a SF RES not a Condo.

In that case would not the OP need to do a Hypo appraisal.

I would ask the OP what his SOW reads like for this appraisal.

If it is a Condo the owner would then need to apply for a zoning change as well if he wants to tax as a single family Res.

 

[Marcia Langley]

Under the form of ownership, a condo is an air space owned seperately, with a common interest in the grounds, etc. This subject is owned in its intirety, i.e. the inside "air space" and the outside roof and walls. Also, the lot is privately owned as well. There are no common areas. This question gets asked all the time because this subject may be called a condo, but we know it is not. I just wanted to know if anyone had a real idea about why the subject would even be called a condo in the first place. It seems like someone made a mistake somewhere when this thing was being recorded. that was all, thanks anyhow.

No one here can answer that question because we don't have the legal documents. The planning department will be able to explain it to you. They are also the ones who can show you the Declaration of Condominium.

The thing is, different localities have different rules on what can be declared as condo. Some localities allow units such as you describe to be declared condo.

The only way to explain this particular property is to read the particular documents.

 

[Ray Miller]

For the 2,000th time on this forum since 2002, ....."A CONDOMINIUM IS A FORM OF OWNERSHIP, NOT AN ARCHETECTURAL STYLE". If the title states Condominium, it is a condominium. There are several hundred such property's as you have described in my market. We also have 2 unit condos where the entire condo is just 2 units. No HOA Fees. Read the deed, talk to the assessor. Since it is likely a Condo, the meter being on the subject site would not be a problem. If it is not a condo, it would be an encroachment.

There are at least a half dozen recent(last 30 days) threads about this very same issue.

Don,

Dont be to harsh, the expert USPAP witness that testified against me failed to grasp that my appraisal was done on a condo form single family duplux form because it was a form of ownership. He felf it should have been done on a 1004 attached. When the everything said a conversion was in place from SF to Condo. Even the MLS listed the sale as a condo.

Just like understanding MFG Code homes

 

[PJK03]

So, this was not an actual assignment for money, it was for a family member in a different area from me. Okay, I called the assessor's office in the subject's county. Two different appraisers from the office had to help on this one. They kept saying that it is at least a PUD, because of the common area. I asked what common area, and they told me the land between the two dwellings was actually common area. Now this house was sold with a fence between the two dwellings, and with the understanding that everything between the dwelling and the fence was indeed owned/part of the subject dwelling. Boy was the owner angry when I called her and informed her that she might want to get some legal advice on this, in terms of personal liability for insurance purposes. BTW the subject is insured as a SFR-detached dwelling. Also, two different appraisals from the past two years state that it is indeed not a condo, but a detached SFR, and property taxes have been based on Detached SFR comps, not PUD common area type comps. The local assessor called this one "An odd duck." I'll say!

Thanks again to everyone who put in their opinions on this one!

 

[Ray Miller]

So, this was not an actual assignment for money, it was for a family member in a different area from me. Okay, I called the assessor's office in the subject's county. Two different appraisers from the office had to help on this one. They kept saying that it is at least a PUD, because of the common area. I asked what common area, and they told me the land between the two dwellings was actually common area. Now this house was sold with a fence between the two dwellings, and with the understanding that everything between the dwelling and the fence was indeed owned/part of the subject dwelling. Boy was the owner angry when I called her and informed her that she might want to get some legal advice on this, in terms of personal liability for insurance purposes. BTW the subject is insured as a SFR-detached dwelling. Also, two different appraisals from the past two years state that it is indeed not a condo, but a detached SFR, and property taxes have been based on Detached SFR comps, not PUD common area type comps. The local assessor called this one "An odd duck." I'll say!

Thanks again to everyone who put in their opinions on this one!

I got lost somewhere in this story!!!????​

 

[Marcia Langley]

So, this was not an actual assignment for money, it was for a family member in a different area from me. Okay, I called the assessor's office in the subject's county. Two different appraisers from the office had to help on this one. They kept saying that it is at least a PUD, because of the common area. I asked what common area, and they told me the land between the two dwellings was actually common area. Now this house was sold with a fence between the two dwellings, and with the understanding that everything between the dwelling and the fence was indeed owned/part of the subject dwelling. Boy was the owner angry when I called her and informed her that she might want to get some legal advice on this, in terms of personal liability for insurance purposes. BTW the subject is insured as a SFR-detached dwelling. Also, two different appraisals from the past two years state that it is indeed not a condo, but a detached SFR, and property taxes have been based on Detached SFR comps, not PUD common area type comps. The local assessor called this one "An odd duck." I'll say!

Thanks again to everyone who put in their opinions on this one!

I hope your family member gets a good resolution to their problem.

If it is under the condominium form of ownership then those last two appraisers let their preconceived ideas of "condo" destroy their ability to do a credible appraisal.

If it turns out that it is not under a condominium form of ownership, those two appraisals should have referenced the use of the term "condo" in the legal documents and explained how they resolved the issue.

Either way, those two appraisers messed up.

 

[Couch Potato]

For the 2,000th time on this forum since 2002, ....."A CONDOMINIUM IS A FORM OF OWNERSHIP, NOT AN ARCHETECTURAL STYLE". If the title states Condominium, it is a condominium. There are several hundred such property's as you have described in my market. We also have 2 unit condos where the entire condo is just 2 units. No HOA Fees. Read the deed, talk to the assessor. Since it is likely a Condo, the meter being on the subject site would not be a problem. If it is not a condo, it would be an encroachment.

There are at least a half dozen recent(last 30 days) threads about this very same issue.

Don, I wondered how far down I would have to go to find your standard post. I do hope you have it saved in a word processing document on your desktop for an easy copy/paste.

Why do so many fail to grasp the idea? A condo unit consists of what ever the declaration of condominium says it is. It may or may not just be "air space."

 

[Don Clark]

Under the form of ownership, a condo is an air space owned seperately, with a common interest in the grounds, etc. This subject is owned in its intirety, i.e. the inside "air space" and the outside roof and walls. Also, the lot is privately owned as well. There are no common areas. This question gets asked all the time because this subject may be called a condo, but we know it is not. I just wanted to know if anyone had a real idea about why the subject would even be called a condo in the first place. It seems like someone made a mistake somewhere when this thing was being recorded. that was all, thanks anyhow.

That only describes one ARCHETECTURAL style of a condo. There are several hundred other ARCHETECTURAL styles of condos.

 

[Don Clark]

Because every referrence book including the Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal by the AI, and most text books don't know the difference between a form of ownership and an archetectural style. No, I just have it saved in my brain.m2:

Hey, let's confuse the issue even further......A condominium is also a Single Family Residential. SFR simply means that one family occupies the improvements. That is what a condo is as well. And, how would one describe a parking lot where all the parking spaces are condo units? They do exist.