News

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

2012 BC Property Assessments

by Paul Prade, President - Coldwell Banker Westburn Realty on Tue, Jan, 24, 2012 07:13 PM

Categories:Community,News,Real Estate,Video

“My property assessments are up over 15%! Does this mean that my house is worth more now?”

As Real Estate agents we get asked this question all the time, in fact I remember getting asked this question 30 years ago too! Logically homeowners and buyers look at property assessments as some sort of guide to determine house values; unfortunately this method of evaluation is flawed. For example, most properties that are assessed by the BC Assessment Authority are never even inspected, meaning no one enters the home to see its physical condition, properties are mostly viewed from the outside or aerial mapping and assessed based on land size/location and age of the dwelling (recent building permits may trigger some further investigations as well). Can you imagine a Real Estate agent evaluating your home and providing professional price estimation and never even going inside? Of course not. Well that’s exactly what the property assessor’s do and yet we place so much value on their pricing method, it just doesn’t make sense to use property assessments as your basis to determine the correct Real Estate market value. I have heard some people say that the assessments are always lower than market value, or add 10% or 15%? All of this doesn’t make any sense and are just “guesstimates”. Another major reason for not considering assessed values when pricing a home is the fact that your 2012 assessment was completed by July 1011, over 6 or more months ago (depending when you sell in 2012). Anyone with Real Estate experience will tell you that a lot can change in 6 months when it comes to house prices. So there you have it, don’t put too much weight in your assessed value when deciding on the right price for your home or when you are making an offer to buy a property. At Coldwell Banker Westburn Realty we have experts to help you determine the “Right” price based on recent listings/sales on homes like yours in the market place near your location. Please watch the video below for an even better understanding of how property assessments work in B.C.

--Paul Prade