Concessions and what to do about

[Frederick R. Ruffell]

Jo anne,
There is no state wide tax info. system in CA as far as I know. All tax records are kept by county in the assessors office.

Again I ask the question, do not all counties in the U.S. charge a transfer tax when a property is sold and/or transferred? If so then are not those taxes a matter of public record, as well as the tax rate? If the answer to these questions are yes then the sales price is an easy calculation.

 

[Jeff Horton]

Fredrick, as I was saying there is nothing that forces you tell the truth on how much you paid in our county. I can say anything I want. Therefore the records are no always accurate.

 

[Steve Owen]

Again I ask the question, do not all counties in the U.S. charge a transfer tax when a property is sold and/or transferred?

The answer is "no." In my jurisdiction there is no way to find sale price from tax data. We used to have tax stamps that could be used from a recorded deed, but that was repealed years ago.

 

[Steve Owen]

It is getting to the point where our MLS is not reliable....

Jeff, in many cases it has never been reliable. One of my favorites was a doctors office that showed up at a sale price of about $125 per square foot. It was just what I needed for a comp. Listed in the MLS. I pulled the deed and found the grantor was a local construction company. I called the realtor who listed it to see if I could find out what was going on and he said: "Oh yeah. That was a design/build. I just put it in there so you could use it as a comp." How do you spell ROFLMAO?

 

[Mountain Man]

Sheesh, that would not be fun. How in the world do you folks in non-disclosure states do it?
8O
I mean appraising.

 

[Jeff Horton]

Sheesh, that would not be fun. How in the world do you folks in non-disclosure states do it?

I used to trust the MLS. Now that is a very good question.

 

[Mountain Man]

Maybe you need an assistan to bug the crap out of LOs and attorneys for a copy of the HUD 1 after closing?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I live in the very NW corner of Arkansas and am certified in Ar and Ok. Mo is only 15 mi. away, but I did not license in Missouri because of non-disclosure laws. Too many horror tales about appraisers having to file FOIs or corner a county commissioner to force the assessor to cooperate.

When I served the Board of Equalization in Ar, we did have a taxpayer contest his valuation. He had owned it for 5 years and tax stamps indicated $240,000 sales price. He actually paid $215,000 but paid stamps for more upon the recommendation of his atty. Seems the law says NO LESS THAN sufficient stamps to be $3.30/1000. It can be more legally. The Atty. said if he did not like the place and wanted to sell, many buyers will search the public record and find the sales price indicated....

MLS data? Badly flawed in many cases. I just researched a $850,000 poultry farm that turned out to be 2 farms in two counties (Delaware and Mayes Co., OK) bought from 2 different people by the same buyer. Nearby is a sale that indicated $735,000 sales price, but it was $850,000. Seems the seller carried $115,000 so they did not report that.....lied to save $172.50. Seems a small price to sell out one's integrity.

ter

 

[Blue1]

Document your data sources:.... "Doc" numbers, "MLS" numbers and any other so-called "reliable" source and you've done your "due diligence." What are we appraisers supposed to do? Give them TRUTH SERUM?

 

[Restrain]

Texas is a non-disclosure state. ALL deeds say "$10 and other good and valuable consideration" in the consideration portion. Thanks to Gramm/Leach/Bliley a lot of the title companies will not confirm the sales. So..... you use MLS where it's available or make the monthly round of real estate agents where there is no MLS. You ask the county appraisal district (they do all the valuation for taxes - tax districts do not value property) if they know of any sales. Yes, it can be hard, especially in rural areas. When I do manufactured homes on acreage, invariably I have to use sales over a year old due to a lack of disclosed sales (generally between buyer/seller with no realtor involved). Yes, the data's questionable. But when it's all you've got, it's all you've got.