Post by Admin on Apr 9, 2018 14:30:06 GMT -5
Here are the recorded “qualified” sales in SLR from Nov 2017 to date: TWELVE sales, three of which were lots. Lot sales significantly lower than Polk assessed value which averages $20K taxable value. Average lot sale in SLR is $14,500. Nine house sales, ranging from $20K to $150K. Average house sale, deleting the outliers of $20K and $150K, is $33,685.
Attached is the listing.>> 2017_18SLRSales.pdf (236.6 KB)
It should be noted that "qualified" sales are considered "NEW" arms length transactions, as opposed to "unqualified" sales which are administrative and typically add or subtract family names from deeds due to marriage, divorce or death. Qualified sales restart the "tax assessment and exemption clock" and sales tax is collected on the selling price.
During the period, SLR had 32 UNQUALIFIED transactions. Some of these were actually NEW Qualified sales that were recorded as quitclaim deed. A look at the quitclaim deeds revealed that:
Probate Transfer to Family: 5
Added name to title: 6
Life estate: 1
Questionable: Transfer to existing owner 7
Questionable: Might be a market transaction $22000 but paid no tax
Questionable: Probable market transaction and an error on the title transfer; current title is clouded
Questionable: Qualified market transaction 5
Multiple records same transaction 6
The listing is attached.>>>2017_18NonMarketSales.pdf (324.21 KB)
There are two take-homes here. First, there is a LOT of non-market transactional activity in S-bag. I have heard people say how many sales there have been and this is not exactly correct. There have been many probate and name additions and that is NON-Market. There have been owners trading to other owners and this is both market and non-market. The Market part is that the transaction is NEW and taxes must be paid to Polk County based on the selling price. However, this is being avoided by the use of a quitclaim deed. Second, though a quitclaim deed is not an illegal document for property owner changes, its use deprives Polk County taxpayers of revenue by entering "$10" consideration on the document. Quitclaims have been used with 14 properties, based upon an inspection of the quitclaim deeds. At the average selling price, Polk County failed to collect about $250 in sales tax for each deed. Ultimately, the cost of lost revenue results in higher tax assessments for everyone!
This is NON-market because the use of quitclaim is an inferior way to transfer property i.e. there is no warranty of ownership. It is meant to simply add and delete names from a property due to marriage, divorce ect. Polk County, to my knowledge, has no way of tracking this lost revenue because transfers of property in SLR are unassisted sales and there is no reporting by title companies. In fact, I did not see a single warranty deed that had been prepared by a title company!
I have often joked that "Baggers live in a Bubble" and, in the world of SLR real estate, this is very true!