Source of comparable data

[SydCart]

I had an appraisal done on a house that I am considering purchasing. The more I go over it, the more questions I have and/or errors I find.

At the moment, though, I'm trying to reconcile the appraiser's GLA & basement sizes listed for subject house and the comparable houses with what I see in the county tax assessments. All of the appraiser's values for the GLA & basement (both finished and unfinished areas) are higher than what I find on the county tax assessor's site. Is there another source of data on GLA & basement sizes upon which he could be relying?

Thanks!

 

[Atlanta CG]

Tax records in Georgia are often at odds with reality. Depending on the county you can look at the assessment data on line with sketches of the homes and their determination of size. However, with many homes in the area, particularly newer 2 story models, there are open areas on the upper floors, typically entry foyers and family (great) rooms which cannot be counted as you cannot walk on those areas. Some have tricky angles to measure and we often rely on other appraiser's measurements, provided to a database which we subscribe to, for accuracy. No 2 appraisers - in fact, no 2 professionals will likely have the same exact total if there are such open areas and angles, even though we all use the same basis, as some round to the nearest 6 inches, others to the inch. The larger the living area, the greater the difference although percentage-wise they should be very close.

 

[gary w. swift]

Maybe they measured the home and the field records are not correct.

 

[SydCart]

Still scratching my head.

I could see some variation. But, the increase in size between the tax assessor's listing and the appraiser's assessments is very significant. I KNOW that, at most, there has been less than 100 sq ft. in improvements at the subject house (a 4 season sun room with AC/heating). And I can't believe that he was allowed into the comparable properties (all at least 20 years old) to manually measure.

Is it common to see variations as I list below between tax assessor records and the appraiser database?

Property ....Assessments Appraiser.....Increase
Subject GLA .... 2625....... 3617 .........38%
Comp #1 GLA ...2659 .......4048 .........52%
Comp #2 GLA ...2374 .......3094 ..........30%
Comp #3 GLA ...2320 .......3181 ..........37%
Comp #4 GLA ...2623 .......2965 ..........13%

Tax records in Georgia are often at odds with reality. Depending on the county you can look at the assessment data on line with sketches of the homes and their determination of size. However, with many homes in the area, particularly newer 2 story models, there are open areas on the upper floors, typically entry foyers and family (great) rooms which cannot be counted as you cannot walk on those areas. Some have tricky angles to measure and we often rely on other appraiser's measurements, provided to a database which we subscribe to, for accuracy. No 2 appraisers - in fact, no 2 professionals will likely have the same exact total if there are such open areas and angles, even though we all use the same basis, as some round to the nearest 6 inches, others to the inch. The larger the living area, the greater the difference although percentage-wise they should be very close.

 

[dforest]

Since you had the appraisal done, why not ask the appraiser to reconcile the difference between the subject and the tax records as regards the GLA?

 

[Atlanta CG]

What is the style of the home? Some appraisers include the lower level living area as part of the total and others consider it basement space and separate it on the back of the form in the Sales Comparison approach. Then they use the same logic with the comparables. If it is at least partly below grade that lower area should be considered as basement space but it could possibly have the same value as the upper - it just has to be separated on the form.

 

[Atlanta CG]

oops - is that sepErate? or sepArate?

 

[SydCart]

I'm going to shoot this information to both the lender (who requested the appraisal) and the contact at the appraiser's agency. Last Friday, I sent both of them a list of "concerns" [obvious factual issues and qualitative issues {such as rating the downspouts/gutters as "good" even though it's obvious to the naked eye that some of the downspouts & gutters are missing and others have holes in them}], but neither has responded to me. The lender keeps complaining about the HVCC (yeah, I know it's a PITA, but the HVCC is the current law of the land and the lender took my money to get the appraisal done [they didn't use a AMC]), so I'm going to lean on them to get these questions answered.

Since you had the appraisal done, why not ask the appraiser to reconcile the difference between the subject and the tax records as regards the GLA?

 

[SydCart]

It's a "traditional" two story house on a steep slope (front to back) with a below grade full basement (the front of the first floor is at ground level, the back of the basement is at ground level). The appraiser filled in under the "Foundation" category that the basement area is 1879 sq. ft. and then noted that the "Finished area above grade contains .... "3,617 Square Feet of Gross Living Area Above Grade".

What is the style of the home? Some appraisers include the lower level living area as part of the total and others consider it basement space and separate it on the back of the form in the Sales Comparison approach. Then they use the same logic with the comparables. If it is at least partly below grade that lower area should be considered as basement space but it could possibly have the same value as the upper - it just has to be separated on the form.

 

[Randy Pippin]

Metro Atlanta area appraisers have a subscription tool (red link) available to them that they rely on. You haven't said what county you are in. If you have questions about the GLA you could always hire someone to measure the house, maybe even allow you to hold the dumb end of the tape, and explain what they are doing in the process.