"No One's Paying The Assessment"

[Arnie Guida]

I had an interesting phone call with a real estate agent today, well, interesting to me anyway.

There is an 8 family listing (City of Milwaukee) that caught my eye and I phoned her on it, she's not the listing agent. I thought the price was too high, the numbers just didn't make sense (taxes 12k!)...it's been on the market at least 6 months. In the past three years, the assessment's gone from mid 500's, to mid 400's, to 402k. Hate to be the owner, eh?

They're asking 480, I thought 400 was more realistic, that was before I knew the assessment was 402. The agent thought 380 was a fair number. I asked her what she based that on, and she replied, "No one's paying the assessed value for anything right now."

I kinda know the reason, but still can't fully understand why a realtor would list a property at such an unrealistic price.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting that an agent would say that. I appreciated her honesty, but wasn't she kinda cutting her own throat?

[Will Barnard]

In the event you don't already know this, assessed value has nothing to do with actual value and as such, has little to do with what you should pay.

Many realtors list properties for prices that just do not make sense and there are many reasons for that.