Assessed tax value is a lot lower than asking price

[Gabriel Meerzo]

I'm looking at a commercial building that houses a restaurant and 2 apartments upstairs.

Owner is asking 69,000 but assessed tax value is only 11,000. This isn't making much sense to me. Shouldn't the tax value be at least close to asking price?

Property is in Ohio.

Your input would be greatly appreciated.

[Oren K.]

On top of that, while the assessed value is supposed generally to be reviewed / reassessed on some kind of cycle (3 year, 5 year, 2 year), there are many instances where this does not happen. 

The sale of a property can trigger a re-assessment (depends on jurisdiction) so you do need to research this and if it will, the sale price assuming an arms length transaction, will be come the FMV which will impact the taxes.

In analyzing a number of opportunities, I have seen deals that appear 'good' but which degrade to 'not good' just based on the 'likely' change in property taxes.

You have to know the local jurisdiction laws and make sure you keep this in mind when running numbers.