How Many Of Of You Use The Assessor Sketch?

[Billy Tsanakaliotis]

I actually really like the Disto; it’s great for condominiums and areas that my tape will not adhere to.

 

[charlie grove]

I have used the disto exclusively for over 2 years now. The tape stays in the trunk waiting for the time the disto quits in the middle of an inspection. I never want to go back to the tape.

We don't have that many sunny days though (Oregon). On sunny days, using the telescope and red filter works good enough though. It does help to shoot on the shady side of the house or toward the sun so you have a shadow to shoot into.

I do print out the assessor sketch as a starting point, but find it wrong at least 25% of the time on 1 story homes and more like 75% of the time on multi-storys.

 

[Ray Miller]

Borrowed this.

"NEVER .... never, never, never never, never, never, never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never!!!!

"

Mr. Stone, What is an Assessors Sketch? I have never ever seen one yet.

I forgot my Disto yesterday and for some reason my wheel was not in the back of my truck topper, (now where did I put that, after having the disto for going on four years now). Good thing I had my tursty 50' and 100' tape with me in my work box. Did that ever slow things down.


Do you sketch your comparables? I check the size if possible. Some I find listed wrong in the MLS records, court house records may not have that informaiton so you have to.

Do you sketch on 2055 drivebys? Yes, always.

Do you measure the lot dimensions... No I take it off the platt maps or county suvery records.


do you round the survey dimensions? 98.23 x 141.11 becomes 100 x 140??? No.


Is a 100 x 140' lot worth more than a 98.23 x 141.11' lot?


It depends. Water front, certified trout stream, hiway frontage, 10 sec DOT rule.
Depending on location.

 

[george foster]

Originally posted by deturner@Nov 2 2005, 04:42 PM


Can someone explain to me why they use the assessors records instead of measuring?

How else do you cut corners in order to have the time to do 5(+) 1004 appraisal reports in a day?

Download the MLS photos for your comp's, and use the assessor's data for verification.

Plus half the $100 split-fee hacks in the biz, learned that this is the way it's done from their boss.

They don't know any better.

 

[Jim Hill]

I use the sketch when looking at the subject property but I also measure the home and put my measurements next to what's on the sketch.

I would say in my county here in Florida they are correct about 80% of the time.

The big problem is we have many homes that were build about 30 years ago that all had a rear porch area that have been closed in and added heat and A/C added but yet public records does not show the additional area.

How many of these were done with building permits is sometimes very hard to figure because the homes have sold many times over the years.

You could spend days trying to find out if there was ever a permit and so many homes have done it that it is considered very normal for this market area.

J. Hill

 

[The Warrior Monk]

NEVER .... never, never, never never, never, never, never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never,never, never, never never, never, never!!!!

:rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro:


I agree. I didn't even know that appraiser's did this until I saw it in a report I reviewed. I pulled up to the house and noticed that the sketch had absolutely nothing to do with the home on the property; even the garage was in the wrong place. I couldn't figure out why, until I went to the town hall, pulled the assessor's card, and saw it had the same wrong sketch. It turned out the GLA was off by about 40%.

Assessor's information in this area is only moderaterly accurate. But beyond that, the reports I've seen that use assessor's sketches do not cite the source of the sketch. It's in the appraiser's best interest to state when they are relying on the work of others.

 

[Scott Kibler]

Originally posted by CLedet@Nov 2 2005, 09:57 PM
This is a very sad thread. Who says we're better than AVMs?

Pretty much what I was thinking when I saw this at 3 pages.

 

[Wayne Tomlinson]

Since in my county, there is no MLS data, all sales information must come from the court house of from real estate brokers in the area.

Also, in my county, the court house is only about 150 feet from my front door, I do almost always make a copy or do my own sketch from the assessors office. This is also true for the comps.

I was around when the original sketches were made in the county, they were done by a professional company who did a great job. Unfortunately, when a later update was done, altho the new company claimed that they did all their own measuring, many times if the first company made a mistake, and there a few, those same mistakes often made into the later version.

I use the county sketches for my preliminary choosing of comps. It is a good tool for me. The same situation as far as MLS is also true in three neighboring counties. I pay each county for a weekly or monthly report from each county.

At the property, of course I measure the improvements. Often, if there are errrors I will inform the assessors offices of what I have found. I make sure that any information concering the subject is never reported to the assessor.
I will never do anything to the detriment of the owner/buyer of the subject. On occassion I will mention in the report that there is an error in the public records, and that the owner might want to review the public records. On occassion, the diffferences are significant.

I always measure, I always base my measurements on the ANSI standards.

Wayne Tomlinson

 

[Stone]

Originally posted by Ray Miller@Nov 3 2005, 04:48 AM
Mr. Stone, What is an Assessors Sketch? I have never ever seen one yet.

I hear you. Even in Dane County you cannot get one in most municipalities, and none of them are on-line to my knowledge. There are two townships and one village that I know have sketches in their folders. You can see them if you stop by during their open hours and the file is not out in the field or at the assessor's office, which is frequent.

Outside of Dane County, forget it. How many townships have their records available at all? Most of the time, you have to call someone at home, leave a message and wait. When (if) you get a call back, sometimes that person has some raw data available and other times you might be able to make an appointment to see the file, which likely won't include the sketch.

It would be great to have this information available on-line, but I'm not holding my breath. I do like the idea of having a sketch to verify/correct when going to a property. It just isn't practical in this area.

 

[Jim Onderisin]

I though everyone measured the properties they appraised.

When I started this illustrious career, I worked for 6 months (and 6 months only) at SMS, formerly TRW, home of "nobody gets to review appraisals until they have been appraising at least one year". One of the 'senior' appraisers had an assignment to appraise a large house in a high-end subdivision. I tagged along because I had never seen the inside of such a house, which the owner thought was worth about 2 million. Our inspection took about 20 minutes. We walked through each room and the basement, then left. The appraiser said he'd just take the assessor's sketch and living area size because it would take too long to measure the house. He also said, "If the good doctor thinks his house is worth 2 million, then it's worth two million", inferring that the number would be hit. That fellow has since had his appraisal license revoked.