Do I tell appraisal office what our house sold for?

[romesq]

This question came up on this forum last year, shortly after we bought our home. I got the request & filed it in the circular file. Then, along came the assessment. Yikes! Assessed >10% over list price. Armed with the HUD1, I protested and the assessment was immediately lowered to what we paid. So, it appears that while the purchase price is not "public" record, the assessors certainly have a method to tease it out! Funny, the assessed value we protested was within $1K of the private appraisal we had obtained before we purchased. Coincidence? Hard to believe that.

Must also admit that I find this non-disclosure of purchase price somewhat strange. Lived in Louisiana all my life before relocating to Austin and was used to sale prices being public record. Indeed, reading the weekly RE transactions in the Saturday paper was worth the time for at least a good cup of coffee and croissant.

[tibbar]

It may not be public record, but we often get flyers from realtors telling us what homes in our area sold for.

[rridgeback]

My experience this year was very similar to Romesq. Closed on house at end of year. Didn't respont to TCAD's request. Received assessment for $40k more than purchase price. Filed protest with copy of HUD-1. Protest accepted, assessment reduced to sales price.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by tibbar

It may not be public record, but we often get flyers from realtors telling us what homes in our area sold for.

And you shouldn't. They shouldn't be disclosing that information in that fashion - we're only supposed to provide it to people we're working with that are buying or selling currently and in need of comps for determining what to list at or what to offer. Mailing it out like that is a violation.

[sanmiguel]

Somehow, zillow.com shows the exact date and purchase price for our home. I did not respond to the appraisal office inquiry. I assume it must have been a realtor or the seller who provided it but can't understand why they would have done so. We are in central Austin.

[TexasHorseLady]

Are you in Texas? In some other states, the information is available publicly.

[Yenko]

Wow...what a scam. Does it strike anyone else as strange how tax appraisals have nothing to do with market value? Of course, it couldn't, as the market value of any home changes constantly and with every prospective buyer. Economics 101.

What kills me is that they want you to provide private information so that they don't have to send their appraisers out to look at your property, then they guess at the property value and expect you to do the footwork to correct it. Amazing. Why do we put up with this stuff?

[TexasHorseLady]

They don't send their appraisers out to look at your property, anyway. They do a rather generic "appraisal" for a neighborhood. Imagine how much time it would take (and how much it would cost the taxpayers) if an appraiser went to every house in every city every year.

[Yenko]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

They do a rather generic "appraisal" for a neighborhood.

Nice. Even better! ;-)

[Texan in Virginia]

Originally Posted by romesq

Must also admit that I find this non-disclosure of purchase price somewhat strange. Lived in Louisiana all my life before relocating to Austin and was used to sale prices being public record. Indeed, reading the weekly RE transactions in the Saturday paper was worth the time for at least a good cup of coffee and croissant.

I enjoyed reading the recent sales section in my newspaper, too, and am amazed to read that this is not public info like it is in Virginia.

Now I'm wondering if I returned such a form to Comal county when we bought our house last year. Our taxes sure are a lot higher than the seller's were. I would have assumed it was required, but don't remember receiving a form. We did get one regarding homestead exemption which we don't qualify for since it is a vacation house for now.

Lori