Nov
2
Tax appraiser’s latest stretch of logic
November 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment
A tidbit from the morning rag
Robert Clifton, VP, PTREIA – 407.2348
North Star Properties of NC, INC
Keep in mind that this is from memory; fueled by 1/2 cup of coffee. Let’s call it close enough.
So, I’m reading the paper as always, and as always, half asleep. But it seems to clean the plaque off my brain to start my juices flowing and with a little luck, the juices are still flowing after my 17 minute drive to work and I find a way to eak a dollar out of something. Now if I could somehow capitalize on the same hazy reasoning as the tax boys, making a living would be a cinch. Awake or not.
Case in point: Front Page: Tax re-evaluations in Forsyth.
A woman’s house & land near Union Cross Rd went from $127,000 to $950,000. And that’s not even the funny part. But I’ll get to that. So we have a country home that, in this market, may not even bring tax value (the old one) but probably close. The tax guy isn’t even disputing that. BUT, guess what; a place down the road got sold for commercial use at an inflated price. Well, lucky them. But to revalue a neighborhood based on that is presumptuous at best. Hey, there’s a better chance of that building being vacant next year than there is of ACME MEGA CORP alias Too Big To Fail coming in and buying the neighborhood, knocking down the houses & building a gigantic plant to manufacture uhhhhh….what is it we make here now??? Anyway, to reevaluate a neighborhood because it has a vague potential of SOMEDAY going commercial is, well, ludicrous. I have to ask; wonder if the results would have been the same if HIS house was in the neighborhood.
It gets better. Boldly going on to justify his methods, he mentions that he only valued the home at $16.00! No, I didn’t lose any zeros. 16 Bucks. Keep in mind a lady is living here. And, from the pic the house is a comfortable old country home. Not fancy by any means, but come on. As my production manager pointed out, you can’t even buy enough cardboard boxes to live in for 16 bucks.
So with that haunting figure looming in my mind, I start looking around the room for a comparison. There’s no point in looking at the house of course. It takes me a while but I finally spot a folding TV tray with a scratch. I figure I paid 20 bucks for it. Value it does have a scratch. And, it would cost $4.00 in gas to go get a new one, but that’s the best I can do.
So, here’s what I’m thinking. I take a pic of it, making sure the scratch is visible, since I’m an honest guy, and the pic of the $16 house from the newspaper and trot on down to the Tax Office. I just need to hear him say it looks like an even trade. Go ahead, make my day.
