How Old Is This House? Weird Situation!

[ASteffen]

I'd look through the deeds and see if I could figure it out that way. The last one I had like that, the home owner told me the area where the house was moved from (ROW project) in the 80s, I Googled that interchange construction, searched THAT assessors information (Different County) and found the old information. Our assessors in Tennessee typically put the actual age and the effective age in for the cost model. Does the lender have a company that tells them if the property is occupied? I'd go in for a closer look if it wasn't dangerous, but since you've already been there, I understand that's not an option. I'd go through MLS old listings, or call the assessor back and see if there are notes in the system or permits. Good luck!

I don't think the assessors office has 25 year old records in my area. It's government work so they are incentivized to be complacent.

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.

Louis L'Amour is my favorite author. The Walking Drum is one of my all time favorites. Really wish they would turn that into a movie or tv show.

 

[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 say what you know and what you dont know, when the house was moved or remodeled etc, and that the typically motivated well informed buyer would accept the unknown exact age as long as the house met their needs in your opinion.

We can not provide surety beyond what is available, so then it is up to the lender if they want to loan on it or not.

 

[George Hatch]

What you're going for is how the market will react to the property attributes. That's what's important, not whether the County is using the date of the permits for the YrBlt.

 

[jay trotta]

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.

IMO-your answer is right there (highlighted) , "updated & remodeled" so the building dept. gave it to the assessor, so it would be applicable for the time period noted. What condition it's in today, who knows if you don't get in. Check building dept records if you need more info, they may or may not have the records.

 

[ASteffen]

What you're going for is how the market will react to the property attributes. That's what's important, not whether the County is using the date of the permits for the YrBlt.

Not really the point. I know how to appraise the house. I'm just saying that the county arbitrarily assigning a year built instead of just reporting the actual year built is really stupid and probably also a breach of the public trust in my opinion. I guess that's just the nature of the world now a days. Facts can just be made up now apparently and nobody really cares.

 

[J Grant]

Not really the point. I know how to appraise the house. I'm just saying that the county arbitrarily assigning a year built instead of just reporting the actual year built is really stupid and probably also a breach of the public trust in my opinion. I guess that's just the nature of the world now a days. Facts can just be made up now apparently and nobody really cares.

Facts are still important, they just are not available in this particular case for the year built.

 

[JTip]

Prior to being moved, the house sat on a piece of land, and has a tax/assessment card.

Find the old parcel and look BELOW when it said MOVED for the year built.

 

[J Grant]

If I were a buyer, I'd be much more concerned with the fact that the house had been moved and far less concerned with what year it was built.

 

[Vermonter]

Moving a house does not change the year it was constructed. The amount of remodeling is not relevant, that only impacts effective age. The assessors office in my opinion is just being lazy and not obtaining the necessary information to maintain accurate records.

I'm not arguing if it's right or wrong, just that it's not uncommon. I will point out that a move reflects a new build on a specific site, regardless the age of the structure being moved. Otherwise old deeds, permits, surveys would be in conflict.

 

[J Grant]

We have to appraise what we are given to appraise. Properties are not perfect and sometimes the information about a property is not perfect. Then we disclose what we know and our attempts to find out and then what we based our results on. We can state that X is an estimate, or based on the best information available. And from there we can proceed with the appraisal.

Imperfect properties sell and properties without perfect information sell. So if the market pays for them, they are in demand and it means buyers can accept the X issue present.