Mike said
Totally disagree with the statement the Board looks at appraisals as biased.
Since when I served on the BOE when the Board Chair stated that explicitly, I will stick to my guns. At least two others on the 9 member board, 1 a retired MAI, said the same thing - they were my group cohorts (our 9 mem. board heard three tax payers at a time with us working in 3 groups of 3.)
Assessors have thousands of comparable sales at their fingertips
Maybe but defending the individual appraised value they often had only 1 or 2 sales anywhere close to what the property was. For instance, if the dwelling sit in Sec. 5 - Twp 18 - 33W, and was appealed. There are only about 40 parcels in that section. Maybe no sales or 1 or 2 sales, but the entire section (square mile) was appraised based upon a neighborhood factor calculated from those 1 or two sales....if it calculated 2.00 and .99 respectively, they might use 1.50 for every other property in the section. Sec. 4 ditto, Sec. 3 ditto, but Sec. 2 has about 10 times that because you are in a small town.
As I pointed out about my girlfriends home, that subdivision is an old mixed neighborhood with small and large homes and being renovated with old vacant lots being built on...There is no consistent pattern that applies to all sales. The 3 comps they used were all new houses built in the Victorian style. NEW, brand NEW comped to a 100+ year old house!!!
Mike also said
..."never attack the assessor or their valuations."
Try that in my county and you will lose every case. I do not make it personal, but I will impeach their estimate of effective age, condition (especially interior), and quality. One thing about sitting on a BOE with 5000 mad taxpayers appealing their taxes. You become very competent at reading tax cards. I am surprised at how few appraisers really understand the numbers rendered or how they got there. With many new internet based property cards, unless you are lucky enough to get the real McCoy, the info supplied does not do justice to what the assessors appraisers actually calculated (grade, condition, etc.)
Further, our Assessor does not even see zoning maps. They are likely to appraise a R-1 lot as commercial if the property next door is C-1. They routinely appraised A-1 zoned areas in flood zones which could never be built upon as R-1...I could go on and on.
In the case of my girlfriend, I challenged why her 100 yr. old house had a grade change...i.e.- after being average grade © why did they change the grade to B - 10% (good grade less 10%)....Did it suddenly get better with age like wine? I also challenged why they did not deduct for the steam heat system (which they knew about) which is totally obsolete and inefficient (like a $600 gas bill last month) and also pointed out (with pictures) the defects of the house interior. The board changed the grade back, increased the effective age, & deducted for the heat system.
I would look at the property, estimate a value, and then decide where the assessor went wrong. Obviously if the property is underappraised, you need to recognize that and eschew doing the appraisal. Meanwhile, I understand fully that in certain states, "Market Value" is a joke in the assessor determination, and the assessor is shooting for something like 85% of market, etc. etc. Of course, in most of those states, when a homeowner challenges a large increase the defense is that is was still below "real" market (which is true, but misleading to the taxpayer). In those cases,
use 3 comparables Assessed value to arrive at an assessed value These do not need to be MARKET SALES, but rather need to be as physically IDENTICAL to the subject as possible. You are trying to prove the property is assessed higher than similar dwellings.
In Arkansas, the assessed value is 20% of market appraisal. The assessor appraised value is supposed to be 100% of market value period...no lea way. 1/3rd of all property in a county is reassessed each year to reflect "market value". Agricultural land tracts are appraised in use from soil codes, making valuation of of ag land a proposition of land value excluding 1 ac. + improvements valued seperately- a highly artificial way of determining contribution and having as much to do with correct appraisal procedure as bullfighting has to do with the Dept. of Agriculture.
Further, mistakes can be made. My tax bill estimate came last year and was 30% higher....curiously my valuation was static, almost the same as the previous year. On the tax card, the valuation of the land and the valuation of the improvements added up to $30,000 less than what was stated at the top of the card....gee, I thought, boo-boo, I will just call Bill, the head appraiser and straighten this out.....WRONG....they absolutely could not understand what I was explaining. I went before the board and they picked up on it immediately....Like a little light bulb suddenly Bill said, "Oh! I see what you mean now!" Seems that a commercial land factor had been stuck in the computer which was taking my land values and multiplying a factor before poking it on the top of the valuation section. At $8 an hour you are not getting brain surgeons in the Assessors office.
ter