Real Estate Matters

By Frazier Hughes

Executive Summary:

While home values have gone up, is the assessment right?

Is your real estate assessment of your home right? Maybe not.

I remember an investor in town who owns over 200 properties saying, you know Frazier, how they figure out tax assessment for your home? I said no; and he said someone from the city drives around and just puts a price on it. Is this true?

This year, on average, in Roanoke City a single-family home saw an 11% spike in its property assessment. While home values have gone up, this means an increase in the assessment will raise your taxes, too. But is the assessment right?

How are Properties Appraised? According to RoanokeCity. gov one way is The Sales Comparison Approach:

Compare a property to similar properties that have sold recently. Requires sales prices to be very carefully analyzed to ensure a true and accurate picture – i.e., was any personal property included in the sale? Multiple sales are then analyzed to arrive at a fair valuation of subject property. Other important factors: size, quality, condition, location, and date of sale.

The assessment can be way off. Thousands off. Here is an example. I sold a home in the city two years ago for $312k. I then sold the neighbor’s home less than 6 months ago for $438k. Major difference, uh? Yes. The more expensive house has a garage and about 500 extra finished square feet. The $312k house is much nicer inside with upgrades. If I priced it today, it would be about $400k or a little more. Guess what my client told me just assessed? Are you ready? $312k!

You see, the city has not stepped inside of the home to see upgrades, they do not know additions to the home, etc. Was my investor friend right? Seems like it. Zillow is not always right either. I hear people all the time stuck on a Zillow number. These are ballpark numbers across the area and maybe the country too!

Frazier Hughes is with Keller Williams Realty. Reach him at frazierhughescom@ gmail.com To get a real price for your home, have your realtor do a “Comparative Market Analysis” which pulls homes sold within a certain distance of the home (in the city it can be a half mile) and what has sold in the past six months, and include upgrades to get a fair price of what it’s worth, and what it can sell for! To go the extra mile, I will call another realtor who has sold or has listed a comparable home near the one I am going to list and pick their brain about the price, appraisal, condition, as well to help make sure my analysis is fair too. This is the best way to have a true assessment of your home in or out of the city.