Frequently Asked Questions

Market value is determined by people, by the activity in the real estate market and the general economy. The value of your property is based on an analysis of the entire market for a specified period of time before the completion of the revaluation project. The market can generally be defined as, you, the person who sold the property to you, and the person willing to buy it from you. It is the appraiser’s job to research and analyze the values in any particular area or neighborhood. In effect, they do what you would do to determine the selling price when putting your property up for sale. However, the appraiser has specific guidelines to follow during their research. Some factors that are examined for each property are: location, size, quality of construction, age of improvements, topography, utilities, zoning restrictions, if any, etc.

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Most likely, yes. However, not all property values will change at the same rate. Market value may have increased more for some neighborhoods and property types than for others. Some neighborhoods and property types may have decreased in value and others may have remained the same. One purpose of a revaluation is to make sure that the assessed values reflect the changes that have occurred in the real estate market.

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Market value is defined as the amount a typical, well-informed purchaser would be willing to pay for a property. For a sale to be a market value (arms- length) sale, the seller and buyer must be unrelated, the buyer must be willing (but not under pressure) to buy, the property must be on the market for a reasonable length of time, the payment must be in cash or its equivalent, and the financing must be typical for that type of property.

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Your construction cost is a historical figure that may or may not reflect the current market value of your property. It is only one element that will be considered.

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Generally speaking, improvements that increase the market value of a property will increase the assessment. The following examples are typical items that may increase the assessed value of your property. - Adding living or rentable area - substantial modernization of kitchen or baths - extensive remodeling - adding features such as A/C, finished basement rooms, garages, pools, etc.

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This question, although common, highlights one of the clear differences between the revaluation appraisal process and the more well-know "bank" appraisal. Most homeowners have had a "bank" appraisal on a property before and are familiar with the process involved and the resulting report. Many assume that the revaluation company uses the same process. Although the appraisal concepts are the same and the results similar, the process is different. To answer this question it is important to understand that in a revaluation, the value of your property is based on an analysis of the entire real estate market for a specified period of time before the completion of the revaluation project (usually a one or two year period). This study of recent property sales allows the appraisers to establish valuation parameters (construction rates, land rates, market adjustments, etc.).

Ideally, when these valuation parameters are applied to the properties that sold, the calculation will result in an appraised value that is very close to the sales price. The revaluation appraisers are required by the State to test that the parameters being used are consistently producing values that closely approximate the sale prices across all types of properties throughout the town. When this is accomplished, the appraisers can then apply these same valuation parameters to all of the "non-sale" properties in the town. In doing so, they are approximating the market value of each property using the information derived from all of the sales. Therefore, no particular sale or group of sales was used to determine the value your property. This is because ALL of the recent sales were included in the analysis that set the parameters used in the revaluation of your town.

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The next best evidence is the arm’s length sales of reasonably comparable properties. These are properties similar to yours in location, age, style, condition, and other features that affect market value, such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and size of garage.

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We will then consider all other factors that may affect the market value of your property. The cost to replace your building(s), less any depreciation, plus the value of the land could be used to estimate market value. For income producing properties, the income and expenses could be considered.

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Just as in many other fields, computers are useful in the assessment process. Assessors are trained to look for relationships between property characteristics and market value. By coding these characteristics and studying sale prices, assessors can estimate value by developing formulas and models. Computers are much faster and are capable of advanced analysis in this area. Despite these capabilities, common sense and assessor judgment are always required to verify assessments. Assessors most familiar with the neighborhoods and properties review all assessments.

For more information, please call 860-665-8530.