Don Clark
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2002
- Professional Status
- Certified Residential Appraiser
- State
- Virginia
8)
Tom:
Great post. I can understand the confusion. The post on this forum are a microcosim of the problem. I believe, and will continue to believe that it is a very simple issue. A condo is a form of ownership, not archetecture. However, it is often, as you point out, confused by realty agents, assessors, and court house staff. In my case, i bought a townhouse in kitty hawk. The agent listed it as a townhouse(he built them), but called it a condo. The town records in Kitty Hawk have them as a townhouse but some of their staff refer to them as a condo. The appraiser who did the appraisal, thank God, knew the difference. To make matters complicated we have a common roof on both buildings(15 units total), and we own only the footprint land site. The rest is common area owned by the HOA in which we all have a common interest. The association(I am on the BOD) takes care of yard, street, exterior lighting, swimming pool, etc. Now, to some that sounds like a condo. Ah :idea: But wait. It is legally titled as a townhouse, not a condo. My personal experience with the board is that many of the members lack personal competence in the markets that they have oversight of. The investigators lack the same competence. If not for one lone board member in the meeting I attended, an appraiser would have been sanctioned. That one board member understood the issue, a local issue, before the board. That really is poor. It would be far better to hire local, competent appraisers to do a STD-3 review and submit his/her findings to the board on a complaint. The board could ask for a blind review of the appraisal(name, address of appraiser withheld), pay the appraiser for the review. The appraiser could be commissioned on a case by case basis as a consultant. To send untrained, incompetent investigators into a market makes little sense. Just as an example, I have over 12 years of experience and expertise in doing appraisals in Knotts Island and Gibbs Woods, North Carolina. I have had to reappraise several properties that were appraised by an appraiser out of Edenton and Elizabeth City, many miles away. There were very important things about these two isolated areas that were never mentioned. Ah, but I digress.
Major point-----A Condo is a form of ownership. It may or may not include ownership of land. Depends on state law, and what is approved by state in the Condo Doc's. BTW, we have several major hotels where each room is a condo unit. Public does not know that. GP owns 1/3, 2/3 owned by investors. Just another condo style I thought I would mention.
Don
Tom:
Great post. I can understand the confusion. The post on this forum are a microcosim of the problem. I believe, and will continue to believe that it is a very simple issue. A condo is a form of ownership, not archetecture. However, it is often, as you point out, confused by realty agents, assessors, and court house staff. In my case, i bought a townhouse in kitty hawk. The agent listed it as a townhouse(he built them), but called it a condo. The town records in Kitty Hawk have them as a townhouse but some of their staff refer to them as a condo. The appraiser who did the appraisal, thank God, knew the difference. To make matters complicated we have a common roof on both buildings(15 units total), and we own only the footprint land site. The rest is common area owned by the HOA in which we all have a common interest. The association(I am on the BOD) takes care of yard, street, exterior lighting, swimming pool, etc. Now, to some that sounds like a condo. Ah :idea: But wait. It is legally titled as a townhouse, not a condo. My personal experience with the board is that many of the members lack personal competence in the markets that they have oversight of. The investigators lack the same competence. If not for one lone board member in the meeting I attended, an appraiser would have been sanctioned. That one board member understood the issue, a local issue, before the board. That really is poor. It would be far better to hire local, competent appraisers to do a STD-3 review and submit his/her findings to the board on a complaint. The board could ask for a blind review of the appraisal(name, address of appraiser withheld), pay the appraiser for the review. The appraiser could be commissioned on a case by case basis as a consultant. To send untrained, incompetent investigators into a market makes little sense. Just as an example, I have over 12 years of experience and expertise in doing appraisals in Knotts Island and Gibbs Woods, North Carolina. I have had to reappraise several properties that were appraised by an appraiser out of Edenton and Elizabeth City, many miles away. There were very important things about these two isolated areas that were never mentioned. Ah, but I digress.
Major point-----A Condo is a form of ownership. It may or may not include ownership of land. Depends on state law, and what is approved by state in the Condo Doc's. BTW, we have several major hotels where each room is a condo unit. Public does not know that. GP owns 1/3, 2/3 owned by investors. Just another condo style I thought I would mention.
Don