GIS Tax Assessment Value vs. Actual Value
Hello BiggerPockets!
I am brand new to real estate investing (I have done 0 deals). I work in property management in Western North Carolina and search the web daily for investment properties for myself or the owner. After I find a property I'm interested in
I like to use GIS maps on county websites to take a deeper look. Anyways, my question is, do you look at tax assessment value as a tool to compare to the actual listing price?
Ex. A home is selling for 150,000 on Zillow but is tax assessed for 75,000. Would that worry you as an investor?
@Andrew Fonden I don't put much stock in the assessed value. In fact I want the assessed value to be as low as possible because I don't like paying taxes. I also don't put much stock in Zillow estimates it is about as useful as taking monopoly money to the grocery store. If you want good data look at homes sold in the last 180 days within a few miles that are similar in size/finishes. That is what we call a Comp or comparable property that is how the value of a property is determined by banks and buyers. The reality is that a home is only worth what someone will pay for it.
@Tyler Gibson Thank you for the clarification.
@Andrew Fonden Only two people care about the tax value -- the tax man and the owner who has to pay the taxes!! In NC, every county is required to re-assess taxes every 8 years. Most counties re-assess more frequently than every 8 years but they don't have to. So, it's quite possible that you are looking at a tax value that was last set in 2012...
