Property Assessment

Where to Find Property Assessment Information in Northern Virginia

Don’t Pay for Information you Can Get for Free

Several times each day appraisers, assessors, bankers, real estate brokers and sales agents, and settlement agents search the Internet to find real estate assessment information.  Since August of 2008 finding assessment information in Northern Virginia on the Internet became much easier when Manassas Park City Assessor Richard Sanderson, with assistance from local assessors throughout Northern Virginia posted “Contact Information for Local Real Estate Assessors Located in the Greater Northern Virginia Area” on several websites.  This popular list has just been updated and is available by clicking here.

While the Internet shows many services willing to provide real estate assessment information for a subscription fee, many people can get more up-to-date information from their local assessor for free.  Unless your business is multi-regional covering several assessment jurisdictions, try the local assessors' sites first.  Most real estate information reporting services collect their data from local assessors once or twice a year, which means assessment changes or corrections are not always as current as is the case with your local assessor.

Popular Publication Added to Zillow.com(R) Advice-Discussion

How Many Real Estate Experts in Your Area Know These Key Features About Real Estate Assessments?

"What Every Real Estate Agent Should Know About Real Estate Assessments and Taxes" a Property Assessment publication was recently added to the Advice-Discussion section of the popular website by Zillow.com(R) Real Estate Service. See how many of these tips you already know, or tell us about others that are important to you that you think should be added.  Let's start a discussion between real estate agents and assessors that is productive to us both.

Hoping for a Tax Assessment Reduction in 2010?

City Assessor Advises Commercial and Industrial Property Owners to Take Action

If you only have time to do one thing in the next week file an income and expense statement with your local real estate assessing office informing them of the current ability for you to lease your commercial or industrial property in today's market.  Even if you own and occupy your property you should be current with asking rents, rental concessions, vacancy rates, tenant fit-up expenses and operating expenses for similar properties.  Call your local assessor and find out how you can provide his or her office with income and expense information about the type of property that you own.

Assessors can and often do reflect current real estate market conditions using what valuation experts call the "income approach to value."  But in order to consider this approach your local assessors needs to know how your property and competing properties are fairing in today's market.  So this is not only a plea for you to provide such information to the local assessor, but other commercial and industrial property owners as well.  It stands to reason that an assessor will be swayed by strong evidence that indicates prevailing market conditions more than just a few instances of the lowering of rents and high vacancies. In some states, like Virginia, if the local assessor asks for income and expense information and you did not comply with the request neither the assessor, Board of Equalization, or circuit court judge will consider the income approach to value as part of the assessment review and appeal process.  As such you are left only with construction costs and comparable sales approaches to value.  Don't eliminate this valuable approach! 

Most assessors have downloadable income and expense statements available on their websites.  Unfortunately there is very little standardization in the real estate assessment field at this time.  So don't use a statement from another assessor website.

If you would like more advice, tips, and suggestions about real estate assessments subscribe to our e-alerts or check back at this Property Assessment blog often.  You'll understand how assessors do their jobs and how to take constructive action when they don't.

   

Real Estate Research Simplified

More than 30 Top Internet Sites for Real Estate Research

Appraisers, assessors, investors, real estate industry experts, and tax policy researchers.  Primary Property Assessment author Richard Sanderson has updated his popular Selected Internet Resources: Real Estate Research Centers (click here).  Originally posted on this blog on September 6, 2008 (Monitoring the Pluse of Real Estate), the updated listing includes 10 new Internet sites.  Each link was tested and updated where needed.  A thorough search was conducted to find similar Internet sites.  Updated sites include the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Mays Business School Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.  New sites include the recently established Old Dominion University (Virginia) Center for Real Estate, the Tax Policy Center, and the Office of Tax Policy Research at the University of Michigan.

Recommended Website of the Week: Bloomberg News - Real Estate

An occasional series that recommends useful websites to our readers as discovered by Property Assessment authors or suggested by readers.

Finding the Best the Internet Has to Offer

Bloomberg News, Industries, Real Estate
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/industries/real_estate.html

Professional property assessors are required to keep current with an ever changing real estate market.  While that last three years have emphasized this fact, monitoring real estate trends and markets is a tradition in property assessment where cyclical reassessments are mandated by state tax law.  Keeping up with changing markets is a challenge during normal market conditions, and exceptionally time consuming in today's market.  At the present time we find ourselves concerned with residential property foreclosures and declining values for income-producing properties where vacancy rates, rental concessions, capitalization rates, and other factors must be carefully observed.  Bloomberg News - Real Estate has proven to be a reliable source for monitoring the market. 

Accessing their website on October 27, 2009, featured news included Case/Shiller, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research reports on the residential market, and two stories related to the commercial property mortgage market.

Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

According to their website, Bloomberg News has more than 1,500 professionals in 145 bureaus.  They publish over 6,000 stories on the average day, syndicating to over 450 newspapers worldwide.

I highly recommend this site to the busy property assessor who wants to keep up with key issues affecting real estate valuation in today's market.