Aaron Bosshardt

Gary Schneider sent this to me this morning. Important news for all of us real estate owners:

Good Morning,
Did you know that House Bill 521 was passed and signed into law? The Bill transfers the burden of proof from the homeowner to the Property Appraiser's office in property value disputes. In the past, if you wanted to challenge the Property Appraiser's assessment, you had to prove he was wrong; now the Property Appraiser will no longer have the assumption of correctness, so he will now have to prove he is right. Over the next five years, Florida homeowners and owners of business, rental, or second-home properties are expected to save more than $2.1 billion due to the change in the law.

Gary Schneider

After receiving this email, I called the Alachua County Property Appraiser's office and spoke with JD Durrance. Isn't it funny how there are always at least two good sides to every story. He knew of the bill immediately and shared some concerns that, although this bill was presented as helping the everyday consumer, it might actually end up benefiting the big companies that are hired to fight property valuations for large scale properties. JD reminded me that his office always tries to work with people and rarely goes in front of the Magistrate.

JD shared with me the 8 Factors that determine the valuation criteria for properties. If you do have legitmate concerns about the valuation of your property, prepare to speak in these terms, as that should help your case whether you are working it out or taking it to the review board.

It would be interesting to hear from one of these companies, and I've heard they don't settle or negotiate. They go straight to the value adjustment hearing. With the changes to whom has the burden of proof and the prevailing party's entitlement to attorney's fees, a small, cash-strapped county like Alachua may not have the resources to take on these corporate giants.

On the surface, this looked like much needed relief for our local community homeowners. Only time will tell.

Certified Property Manager® (CPM®)

Here I am day two of my five day asset management class in St. Petersburg Florida. It was a hard first morning. I was still recovering from a long weekend of familly fun at Disney, compounded by a lot of driving in the past few days. We kicked it off this morning with property valuations and capitalization rates. The capitalization rate is really the creme-de-la creme metric of measuring a property's value and overall rate of return. Some compare it to the stock markets price to earning ratio.

Basically cap rates are used by property managers and their clients to measure risk in making a variety of real estate investment decisions. The rate represenets the price paid for a given income stream. So if you are buying a brand new retail center with AAA tenants you might expect a cap rate of 6. If you are buying a property that requires you to take an armed escort to collect you rent you are probably going to want a 20.

The basica formula is CAP RATE= Net Operating Income/ Value of the property

Downtown St. Petersburg in an interesting place for sure. The city is beautiful and of course on the water. There are quite a few skyscrapers, but the streets are too quite. No traffic to speak off. I wonder why. Overbuiliding? Seasonal residents?

Its a little bit scary to see a city and buildings this densely put together so void of the hustle and bustle of a big city. I'm happy to enjoy it but even Downtown Gainesville has more going on.

This is my second full week course in a series of three full weeks on my to earn my CPM designation. If you missed it, I twittered ad nausem in Orlando back in March. Well trust me you didnt miss much!

Three and a half more days to go. All in all the class is fantastic. There are great colleagues to network with and the information is really powerful.

I already miss my kids though and I know my wife Kim is stressing out being a single working mom of three this week!

Right now it might just be the best time ever to send our past clients an anniversary CMA. Some of you might think that in the worst real estate downturn of our lives that might be a lot crazy! Afterall let sleeping dogs lie right. What they don't know won't hurt them will it? Wrong!

In Florida, like most areas I'm sure, Property taxes are paid in arrears. That means we pay them after the year is over. So in my neck of the woods, Gainesville Florida, we paid for market all time high premium property taxes in 2007 in the year 2008. That upset a lot of people. Basically after 9 months of the worst decline in real estate values ever, we paid the highest property tax ever. Do you see where I'm going with this?

What date will the property appraiser use to determine the assessed value for property in 2009? In Alachua County he will use January 1, 2009. That notice won't come until August. It goes something like this. Here is what we think the value of your property is. You can file a petition or we will just bill you. Sometimes the numbers will be right, sometimes not. If you prepare your client and your file now while you may not be so busy you will accomplish two things. Prove the value of your relationship as a REALTOR for life and perhaps save your client some money.

Happy New Year!!

The cover of the wall street journal today reported that French Fianancier Thierry Magon de La Villehouchet apparently took his life after discovering that his investment fund lost 1.5 billion in the Madoff scandal. When I first read this I was tempted to blog something along of the lines of how a real estate investor may take losses from time to time, but he always knows what he has got.

Then I thought better of this tragedy and thought the real story is that its only money. Money just buys you things. I dont think money can buy you happiness, but I think that if your life becomes predicated on obtaining huge amounts of money then when and if you lose it perhaps you feel as though life is lost. I don't know because I don't have billions of dollars. Still during the holiday I think its important to remember what really matters. Famliy and friends, valuable relationships, life and the promise that this country gives to all of us; the continued pursuit of happiness. All you have to do is be alive and you can pursue happiness.

My condolescenses to all those who knew and loved Thierry Magon. I'm sure they didnt really give a damn about the money and I bet they would do anything to have him back.