How Old Is This House? Weird Situation!

[ASteffen]

Working on a drive by assignment. The assessor record indicates that the home was built in 1998 but based on the design of the home I don't believe that is accurate. Since my hackles are up, I call the Assessor’s office to see if they can shed some light thinking maybe it was a typo and the year built might be 1898 or something. They proceed to tell me that the home was moved onto a new foundation at this location in 1998 and was updated and remodeled so they decided to change the year built to 1998 instead of reporting the actual age of the home. You've got to be f*#^*^ kidding me. I'm not sure what to do. I feel like I have two options. Add some BS to the report about the information provided by the Assessor’s office and note that there were no records found available that might provide the actual age of the home and complete the report based on the extraordinary assumption that the home was built in the 40's or 50's, which is likely fairly accurate based on my 20+ years of experience but still a bit of a guess or just cancel the assignment and waste the two hour round trip that I won't get paid for. This is an appraisal for default servicing so an interior inspection is not likely to be an option but that would increase my confidence in my estimate of the age of the home if I could at least observe the floor joists in the basement and see if there are any other remnants of the original home that would give me a better idea. The appraisal management company is going to contact the lender which is code for passing the buck. The lender is not going to be helpful. I already know. While I am waiting for a response, I thought I would get your input.

 

[Dublin ohio]

Working on a drive by assignment. The assessor record indicates that the home was built in 1998 but based on the design of the home I don't believe that is accurate. Since my hackles are up, I call the Assessor’s office to see if they can shed some light thinking maybe it was a typo and the year built might be 1898 or something. They proceed to tell me that the home was moved onto a new foundation at this location in 1998 and was updated and remodeled so they decided to change the year built to 1998 instead of reporting the actual age of the home. You've got to be f*#^*^ kidding me. I'm not sure what to do. I feel like I have two options. Add some BS to the report about the information provided by the Assessor’s office and note that there were no records found available that might provide the actual age of the home and complete the report based on the extraordinary assumption that the home was built in the 40's or 50's, which is likely fairly accurate based on my 20+ years of experience but still a bit of a guess or just cancel the assignment and waste the two hour round trip that I won't get paid for. This is an appraisal for default servicing so an interior inspection is not likely to be an option but that would increase my confidence in my estimate of the age of the home if I could at least observe the floor joists in the basement and see if there are any other remnants of the original home that would give me a better idea. The appraisal management company is going to contact the lender which is code for passing the buck. The lender is not going to be helpful. I already know. While I am waiting for a response, I thought I would get your input.

You might try looking in the local paper's archives. Would think something like moving a house would make the news. Other than that. You can only state what you know and use your best estimate.

 

[Red Flint]

Drive by slowly.

 

[Dublin ohio]

This is an appraisal for default servicing so an interior inspection is not likely to be an option

Since it is for default servicing. Maybe the lender has a previous appraisal.

 

[Mike Ault]

Working on a drive by assignment. The assessor record indicates that the home was built in 1998 but based on the design of the home I don't believe that is accurate. Since my hackles are up, I call the Assessor’s office to see if they can shed some light thinking maybe it was a typo and the year built might be 1898 or something. They proceed to tell me that the home was moved onto a new foundation at this location in 1998 and was updated and remodeled so they decided to change the year built to 1998 instead of reporting the actual age of the home. You've got to be f*#^*^ kidding me. I'm not sure what to do. I feel like I have two options. Add some BS to the report about the information provided by the Assessor’s office and note that there were no records found available that might provide the actual age of the home and complete the report based on the extraordinary assumption that the home was built in the 40's or 50's, which is likely fairly accurate based on my 20+ years of experience but still a bit of a guess or just cancel the assignment and waste the two hour round trip that I won't get paid for. This is an appraisal for default servicing so an interior inspection is not likely to be an option but that would increase my confidence in my estimate of the age of the home if I could at least observe the floor joists in the basement and see if there are any other remnants of the original home that would give me a better idea. The appraisal management company is going to contact the lender which is code for passing the buck. The lender is not going to be helpful. I already know. While I am waiting for a response, I thought I would get your input.

Personally, I would have no problem using 1998 and then explaining under the "condition of the improvements" section how the assessor made the decision to do the same.

 

[J Grant]

Working on a drive by assignment. The assessor record indicates that the home was built in 1998 but based on the design of the home I don't believe that is accurate. Since my hackles are up, I call the Assessor’s office to see if they can shed some light thinking maybe it was a typo and the year built might be 1898 or something. They proceed to tell me that the home was moved onto a new foundation at this location in 1998 and was updated and remodeled so they decided to change the year built to 1998 instead of reporting the actual age of the home. You've got to be f*#^*^ kidding me. I'm not sure what to do. I feel like I have two options. Add some BS to the report about the information provided by the Assessor’s office and note that there were no records found available that might provide the actual age of the home and complete the report based on the extraordinary assumption that the home was built in the 40's or 50's, which is likely fairly accurate based on my 20+ years of experience but still a bit of a guess or just cancel the assignment and waste the two hour round trip that I won't get paid for. This is an appraisal for default servicing so an interior inspection is not likely to be an option but that would increase my confidence in my estimate of the age of the home if I could at least observe the floor joists in the basement and see if there are any other remnants of the original home that would give me a better idea. The appraisal management company is going to contact the lender which is code for passing the buck. The lender is not going to be helpful. I already know. While I am waiting for a response, I thought I would get your input.

Just explain it the way you did here!!
Disclose that the house was moved in 1998 to the current foundation, and for report purposes, it is reported as the build date. however the original construction date was not available, the house was remodeled and if in the future there is an interior inspect or new information becomes known the information would change.

 

[Surf Cat]

Remember.....no extraordinary assumptions.....or any assumptions for that matter! Lol.... It sounds as if you don't have any MLS listings to go by.....just call the borrower and notate in the report what they tell you along with what you've found out from the assessor. Notate it in the report and be done with it.

If the lender would've wanted a serious, significant analysis.....they would've ordered a full 1004.

 

[Vermonter]

They proceed to tell me that the home was moved onto a new foundation at this location in 1998 and was updated and remodeled so they decided to change the year built to 1998 instead of reporting the actual age of the home. You've got to be f*#^*^ kidding me.

This is not really uncommon when a house is moved. A move usually includes extensive updates and remodel so the 1998 time frame is probably more accurate. I've run into it over a dozen times in 25 years

All I do is explain the situation and try to include comps to span both build dates.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

You've got to be f*#^*^ kidding me

I would say a lot of assessors give the age of a house as the remodel date. For one thing, few assessors were sophisticated enough 50 - 80 years ago to even write down the year built, even if they were told. My old home is shown as "40" years old, but since it was my great-grandparents home, I know that it was built in 1939 plus minus a year. It was moved and remodeled in 1960 when my grandparents moved there. I bought it from the estate. I updated it in 1980. It caught fire about 1990 and fell in disrepair. But a new owner has remodeled it. I bet its age gets modified down to maybe 26 years or so next reassessment.

Your choice is to extract the effective age of the most similar comp you have and run with that or go with "observed effective age"... and state what you learned about the house. But as for the assessor, they are working with all they have. Few people know the history of really old houses.

 

[sputnam]

What you do is report what you know. You use the ~ and guesstimate the year built and you comment, 'According to the assessor's office, the dwelling was moved to its current site in 1998 and the changed the year built to 1998 in public records'. There is nothing in USPAP or in any Lender guideline that requires an appraiser to 'know' information that simply is not available.