Assessed for $490,600, sold for $128,500
 

"The taxes were outrageous" and the city was "no help at all" when it came to his tax liability.

Laconia; the residential style building that's been home to the Dewhurst Funeral Home at 1061 Union Ave, directly across from the Servistar Hardware has been sold "partly because it needed a lot of work, including a new roof, and that it was expensive to heat and maintain."

From page 8 of today's January 18 LaDaSun which includes a photograph.

At a selling price of $128,500, that is close to being just 25% of the assessed value of $490,600; how could the City of Laconia be so far off with its assessed value and is such a huge variation now commonly happening in Laconia? It was sold at aproximately 26.19% of its assessed value......my word......good grief......&.....well.....well....well !!!

Assessed value and Market value are two different "calculations", but, I get your "drift" FLL. ;)

Anyone know how many days this property was on the market, was it truly an arms length sale with no behind the scene hanky-panky, and how big is the property lot? Is it a believable "real Laconia sale" at this price with the seller trying to get the highest price possible?

If the house was owned or confiscated for back taxes by the city then it makes total sense.
Many times all they want is to recover the tax on the house of lot, value means nothing if it is being sold for back taxes.

http://www.homerealestatesource.com/...conia/4034597/

I have no clue what I'm doing with this real estate info, and hopefully this link works, but at least it's a little bit of a start to maybe find a believable reason why this property sold for about 26.19% of its assessed value, plus it has a photograph which never-ever hurts.

Lot size is .49 acre. House was built in 1880. Property tax: $9738.

How does this residential-commercial zoning or whatever the heck it is have any positive or negative effect on the sold for price?

You know whattum ....$128,500 divided by $490,600 = 26.19%

It was on the market for 2 years and sold last week...

One neighbor down the road purchased a lakefront home for around $980,000 this year. Did nothing to property. Straight purchase.

His new assessment is $1.3 million or thereabouts.

Same year. No changes.

How does that work?

Isn't the sale price the value of the house?

Doesn't this affect the value of all other lake homes on street - of similiar vintage and size? All have roughly the save assessment.

In my town, assessment is not based on current sale prices, but prices for a complete fiscal year. So when they do assessments again, it will be based on the sale prices for my neighborhood (to assess the value of the land) and house type in my town (or the region if they need enough prices to make the computation statistically significant) from July 2011 through June 2012.

GG

So, you're assuming that government processes follow a logical pattern? :D

Ideally, assessment and sales price are closely matched. But in reality there are always a number of gating factors, especially as the property price increases. I think we're still seeing a lot of people hit by the economy, and making decisions that are based on necessity and immediacy.

Let's take an extreme example... Someone wins $100MM in the lottery. They put almost all of it into building the biggest compound on the lake. Let's even pretend that they buy every house on Welch Island, knock 'em all down and build a 30,000sf luxury abode. This property get's assessed at $75MM. Now, like many lottery winners with no financial sense, they realize that they spent pretty much all the money and don't even have the income to pay the taxes on the 75 million dollar property, much less actually use it. So, they are forced to sell. While the lakes region is a great area, it's not the kind of area (IMO) that's going to support what would be one of the most expensive residences in the entire US. Much less in a location that offers only seasonal access (though theoretically there is a helipad, if you own and can afford a helicopter). Anyway, the lottery people are forced to sell the house, but nobody is bidding more than $15MM for it. It's not that it's only *worth* $15MM from a raw component cost, just that there is a very limited selection of qualified buyers, and nobody wants it for anything more than $15MM. So, the property assessed at $75MM sells for $15MM, because the sellers were not very financially savvy and were forced into making a transaction where time was of the essence and they couldn't hold out for maximum price.

Variants of this scenario happen all the time. I'm not a realtor, but my experience is that the properties that are making up probably 80% of the market by volume (so, in the Lakes Region, probably the $100K-$300K properties right now) are going to sell for +/- 10% of their assessed price. As you move to the really cheap or really expensive properties you'll see more of a disparity between assessed price and sales price.

Lest we forget...
 

This property is in a Commercial / residential zone. It was a funeral home operated by one individual. The days of a single proprietor funeral home has, and is, pretty much going by the wayside. It is the groups that buy out the less fortunate funeral homes that survive. When you look at a funeral home, it either has two, three, or more names, or when you read "about us", they are part of a group or a corporation that owns multiple homes, often in multiple communities and in some cases, multiple states.

That being said, I can see the assessment for a commercial operation, which it was until the sale, being quite high. I can also understand that the structure, would not be worth $400K as strictly a residence. There are casket showrooms, a morgue where embalming is done, and other funeral home features that will likely require considerable remodeling. (husband asks a kid, where's mom? Kid replies "in the morgue". :eek:) Added to that the cost of replacing a roof, and any other necessary repairs,and the sale price has to plummet from anywhere near the assessed value.

The seller's Dad owned a single funeral home down in MA, and moved up here and bought this property to retire at. One of his son's came with him up here, the other remained in MA. The business in MA now owns a total of 4 homes. It is a difficult life indeed for the sole proprietor funeral director in this day and age. I have known the family for over 50 years, and hate to see an end to this part of the business. Both of my parents were buried out of here, Dad in 1988 and Mom in 2000.

I wish Glenn the best.

Drove past this white victorian style, former home to Dewhirst Funeral Home today, at 1061 Union Ave, Laconia, and noticed the two, newly displayed, large, red w/ white letter banners, about 4' x 8' each which said "Commercial Building - $250,000 - For Sale " so someone has enough confidence in the market to buy it at $128,500, continue to pay the property taxes on an assessed value of $490,600, and and try for a resale at $250,000 after it took two years to get it sold at $128,500. ......time will tell?

Hindsight is always 20/20, while foresight is not so good or so easy?

FLL, I bought my house lot (in NH) in a subdivision this last year at ~40% of what the assessment was. Pretty much what the lot is worth is what I paid, not a distress sale, etc. I bought with no agent do that saved me some money as well since he dropped price accordingly to help get the sale.

Went to assessors office when visiting office for other item and she said, "I stand behind the assessment and just think you got a really good deal."
I was going to jam it down their throats but since house will get built on the lot in less than a year and assessment will change again, I will fight it them.

Of the few houses in the subdivision they are all assesses at far above their true market value. Not. Even. Close.

I like how it's done in NC. You buy house/property and that very day it's online in the database for Registry of Deeds (and accessible easily by John Q Public). The tax is based off the sale price and they don't let towns and cities go longer than 7 years between town wide assessment. At least that makes for some level of parity. And, they have a way of stopping guys who finish their basement/addition and never get permits.... and it's very effective too.

Assessments not Fair? Abate them
 

Folks,

The reason the town's get away with non Market Value assessments is because the owners let them.....In NH we have an abatement process. It's very easy and you don't need a lawyer. Last year I did a video to help folks out and teach them the process. Here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpVfR_qdIqE

This is for Gilford but the same process applies to any town. No I am not a lawyer just a property rights activist who likes SMALL government.:rolleye2:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JpVfR_qdIqE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

There are tax abatements specialists available for hire. My father is a local property investor and periodically hires such an individual to go over his tax bills. This gentleman gets a percentage of whatever he is able to save Dad on his property tax bills. Dad gets a lowered tax bill and doesn't have to right a check! Win win.

I have been in Real Estate for 40 years and what the assessor said is just not true. If you completed an arms legnth transaction then the purchase price IS the value of the property. You just established what the property will sell for on the open market.

Market Value
 

Market value and Assessed value are 2 very different animals.

I have no doubt in my mind the assessment is high, however the time and effort to get an abatement now won't mean much if they jack it up again when the house gets built. I'm going to wage the battle once the assessment begins with the completed house and lot.

I fully expect to have to use one of the abatement services since the assessor seems to have rose colored glasses when it comes to value. I'd say the Town but this was way too recent and who knows if they read this site.

1061 Union Ave, Laconia
 

The white victorian style house, zoned commercial, and former home to Dewhurst Funeral, on a .49 acre lot, is now assessed for $260,700.

On January 18, 2013, it was sold for $128,500. It was assessed for $480,600 at that time.

The large "For sale - $250,000" banner hanging on the side of the house facing Union Ave is still there for all to see, and was put up in January.

So, it sold for 128,500 in January, and the City lowered the assessment from 480,600 down to 260,700, after the sale.


uuummmmmmm.........am trying to think of something intelligent to say here?


.....ok....I know....it reminds me how Curly of the three stooges used to tell time by wearing three different wrist watches; one watch lost 30-minutes every two hours, one watch gained two hours every eight hours, and one watch was permanently stuck at two o'clock ....... so he took the sum of the first two watches and divided the total by two to get the accurate time ....... ok......that explains it..........nnnyyyuuuuuchhhhhh nyuckk nyucck!!! .......now I can appreciate this Laconia assessment!:D:rolleye2:

Actually,Curly looked at another watch that was the correct time.