"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?