ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 5, 1996 TAG: 9602050052
SECTION: MONEY PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
So the assessment on your house went up, and we all know what that means. You will be paying higher real estate taxes.
But how do you know that the assessment is fair and correct? And, if you think it's wrong, what steps must you take to prove your case?
"Buyers and sellers make the market" by setting values, said Fay Wingate of Wingate Appraisal Service in Roanoke. Her company does real estate appraisals for private owners.
Walter White of Owens & Co., president of the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors, said the location of the house determines its value just as it does in selling the home. So does the condition of the home.
White and his wife own property in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Botetourt County. He has found that real estate assessors in all of those communities now appraise at full market value. In the past, he said, tax appraisals might have been at 80 percent of the value when the law requires full assessment.
To check your own reassessment, White said, look at properties similar to yours in your neighborhood. You can go to the courthouse to check sales, if necessary. What price are those homes bringing when they are sold?
As an alternative, White said, you can call a Realtor and ask for an analysis of what your house would bring on the open market. This might be the Realtor who sold you the home in the first place, but any Realtor is glad to perform this service, White said.
There is no charge for this quick appraisal, according to White.
Anyone who feels a home is improperly assessed can go to the Board of Equalization, White said. But he added that the owner must be "concise and specific."
You must know what the values are in your own neighborhood, White said. "You've got to have good information." The more homework you do, he added, the better your chance to win a reversal of the assessment.
Wingate suggested going to the assessor's office in your own community. She said you can view sales figures there.
If you live in a split-level in Glen Cove, for instance, you must check other split-levels in Glen Cove. If comparable houses are selling there for about $100,000 and yours is assessed for $110,000, your assessment is too high. If it's $90,000, your assessment is too low.
That's what appraisers look for, she said, because the market sets the value. The sales prices of comparable homes in the neighborhood determine your appraisal.
Ideally, Wingate said, homeowners should keep track of sales in their neighborhood all year. "It gives you a feel for what the market is," Wingate said.
If you live in Roanoke city, you can find city property transfers with sales prices printed in The Roanoke Times Homes section on Sundays.
Willard N. Claytor, director of real estate valuation for the city, said his staff uses the same principles and methods as private appraisers. But private appraisers have the luxury of studying one home at a time while his staff must look at 44,000 properties each year. He says he believes his office does a good job of meeting the state mandate of assessing each property at full market value.
Assessments, he said, are driven by the market, or what comparable homes sell for in the same neighborhood.
Grounds for appeal, he said, are that the assessment does not represent market value or that it is not equitable based on assessments of comparable properties.
Most people who appeal, he said, do not perform research. They simply say they do not want to pay more taxes, which is not a basis for appeal.
In the city, property values increased this year by 3.38 percent. On average, commercial properties were up 3 percent, while residential property was up 4 percent. But the range can be from no change at all to a rise of 10 or 15 percent.
Property owners have until Feb. 15 to appeal to Claytor's office. Those who are still dissatisfied can go before the Board of Equalization, which should begin work in March.
Claytor's staff will review neighborhood sales with those who appeal.
Sometimes a reassessment is lowered because of a special condition inside the house that fails to show up in the record. Examples, Claytor said, are a leaky basement, settling floor, plaster damage or plumbing problems.
John Birckhead, Roanoke County assessor, said the county is divided into 300 neighborhoods. He and his staff study sales in each neighborhood, talking to buyers, sellers and Realtors to determine if any special condition affected the sales price. An example might be a seller financing some costs as an inducement for a sale.
The sales prices, he said, affect all owners of comparable homes in the neighborhood.
Any owner who is dissatisfied, he said, is invited to come to his office. His staff will show the owner how to use one of the terminals to call up sales prices by name, address or map number. The owner can then check the neighborhood.
Even one county official, he said, was shocked to see some of the selling prices in his neighborhood. People don't realize how property values are rising, Birckhead said.
The county sent notices of changes to 38,000 property owners. Of that number, about 600 owners have come to the office and close to that number have called with questions. Birckhead does not know how many will appeal to the Board of Equalization, which will go to work about March 1.
Anyone who appeals further, he said, must show from county records that the appraisal is unfair based on prices or assessments of comparable houses in the same neighborhood. Or, an owner may present an appraisal made of the property in the last three or four months, perhaps for a refinancing.
Birckhead, too, said assessors will consider special conditions inside the home, citing leaking basements, fireplaces that won't draw or extremely old carpeting.
Birckhead and Claytor agree on another thing. People, said Claytor, want the lowest possible assessement for tax purposes. But when they sell or refinance, he said, people want their appraisal to be as high as possible.
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