My New Blog

Well blogging seems to be the buzz word of the year.  It seems everywhere I go someone is either talking about their personal blog, or about someone else's blog they love to read. 

I guess it's time we start doing it as well, especially since our provide has now created software to do it.  So we will be posting new blogs as time goes by and I hope that you all take an opportunity to subscribe with us and learn more about our company and whatever else we are doing at the moment. 

Tax Assessments in Hampton Roads

By Woody Fincham

It is very likely that, living in Hampton Roads, that your tax assessment for real estate has gone up quite a bit in the last few years. I know mine has, and the local paper makes it’s job to present the situation as sensational as possible.

The mere fact of the matter is that the cities have been playing “catch up” with the market. Very likely, at least in most cases, the city is still behind in actual market value for your home. In the case of tax assessments, the assessor never walks onto the property. It is done via “mass appraisal technique”, and it generally is lower than what an actual appraiser would report as value.

I discussed this with a Norfolk assessor this past St. Patrick’s Day weekend. He told me that in several cases that he gets phone calls from citizens who are complaining, and insist that the city lower the taxes. He then tells them he would be happy to come out and do a full property inspection on order to clarify the situation. Upon arriving he usually sees things that are actually not included in the current assessment, and it makes the assessment increase.

That does not mean the assessor does not make mistakes from time to time. I have performed a couple in the last 18 months that have actually been higher than I could prove with comparables from the neighborhood. I am sure the folks we performed that report for immediately asked for their taxes to be fixed.

More often then not, I see mistakes in the way the property features have been reported. I won’t mention any names of the cities that do this, but as an example: the square footage is wrong, and often higher than what is there. I have seen this many times, and it can only result in the city having taxed the owners more than they should have. This often is prevalent in older areas, where the cities were using arcane methodology, and for some reason they haven’t gotten around to fixing it yet.

Now, there is a huge myth that I hear very often: “if you value my house at $100,000, and the city is supposed to be 20% under that, then my value should be…”. The honest answer is that is a complete waste of logic. Our cities and counties here, from what I know of them, try to establish market value. Remember that they are always about a year behind, and that in the market we are in, with the ebb and flow, values are subject to rising and falling some.

Hiring a fee appraiser, or independent appraiser such FM & Associates, can help you gather a piece of mind without initially involving the assessor’s office. If they do happen to be in the wrong, you can have a disinterested professional source upon which to base your concern. We will measure the property, take accurate notes, and create a very honest and market supported report. Even if you do not learn your property is over value, at least you will know what the salient features and other relevant items in your home are properly shown and accounted for.

Below are some links to the local city webpages, where you can look at your tax information.  Some cities have better information available at the assessors office.

http://www.norfolk.gov/

This is Norfolk's home page.  Once you reach that you click on the city services pop down and follow the links for  Real Estate Assessments".  This information is very limited and Norfolk actually has a very well put together system in their office that is available to the public.

http://198.252.244.20/e-gov/Real_Estate/index.jsp

This Virginia Beach's webpage for tax assessments.

http://www.chesapeake.va.us/services/depart/real-est/app/welcome.shtml

This is Chesapeake's webpage for tax assessments.

http://www.portsmouthva.gov/assessor/data/

This is Portsmouth's webpage for tax assessments.

http://www.suffolk.va.us/realest/

This is Suffolk's webpage for tax assessments.

http://www.hampton.va.us/sol/propertysearch/index.html#

This is Hampton's Webpage for tax assessments

https://www2.ci.newport-news.va.us/reisweb1/

This is Newport News's Webpage for tax assessments

Above includes the majority of the area we cover.  If you have any questions please let us know. appraisals@fmava.com

March 8, 2007

Today marked another successful informational seminar for a local real estate office.  Woody spoke before approximately 20 agents at Nancy Chandler & Associates, at their Norfolk office. 

Woody gave a structured review of an appraisal form 1004, and ended with a very informative question and answer session.  We have done several of these in the past 2 years, and welcome the opportunity to help bridge the gap between the fields.  It really is important that agents understand why and how appraisers obtain and use market data.  It helps them be better prepared for the appraisers they encounter in their day to day business. 

Topics covered included: matched pair analysis, cost approach, differences in licensed appraisers and unlicensed assistants, and several other minor topics.  The agents at Nancy Chandler, with their Managing Broker Hope Roots, asked some very thoughtful questions, and all seem to be of the best professional caliber.  It was a great pleaseure to have been able to spend time with them, and we look  forward to continuing to work with them in the future. 

If you are a local realtor, or loan officer that would like to have us come in for a free informational hour, please contact us at appraisals@fmava.com

I don't have any hardcore numbers for the area, in terms of foreclosures expected or current at this moment, but I wanted to let everyone know that we are no doing our 9th foreclosure use appraisal in 3 months.  We didn't do that many in the last 12 months preceeding that. 

That leads me to beleive that there is a high increase for the market.  I get questions about this almost daily, so I figured I would put that stat up.  I iwll have more info soon.