Brenda Whitman, Realtor, Laramie, Wyoming

Years ago, a friend of my parents married a girl from the south. The kind of girl who'd never seen snow, a harsh winter, or frost in July. She was a constant source of entertainment with her good-natured fascination of all things Wyoming. One of the funniest things was when she finally demanded to know what was up with all the partial fences scattered across the praire by the roads.

She was of course referring to the ubiquitous snow fence! Indeed, they do look like unfinished fences built alongside roads all over the west. The purpose? To catch the windblown snow and get it to drift in piles away from the road. Do they work? Well, they certainly create drifts, as to whether or not the roads stay any clearer because of it, I don't know. What do you think?

I was startled by the oddest noise when I was walking across the parking lot this morning. At first, I thought I was just hearing things, but . . . after I assured myself the sound was, indeed, real - I looked up and was surprised to see a formation of geese honking away and flying north through the sky! Yes, north! I wonder if this means that spring IS actually here.... I hope so!

One of the reasons I love first time buyers is that I remember ourselves and our first home hunting experience. Long story short, this is how we thought it worked:

• Find the house you want.
• Tell the bank how much you want to borrow.
• The bank gives you the loan.
• You buy the house.

Don't laugh...it's true! I'd like to think that we were both reasonably intelligent people - having graduated from college and in the process of settling in to our new careers. But obviously, I was wrong! There are some things they just don't teach in school....LOL!

Thank goodness for a very patient realtor and an awesome lender who eased us into how it really worked! Though, I still laugh at how put off and surprised I was that the bank would tell us what they would be willing to lend and not the other way around. Not only that, the amount would be based on our income and what they perceived to be our ability to make the payments!

Fortunately, I have found that most first time buyers are way more informed than we were but I'm always happy to walk them through it if that's what they need.

After all, a few years may have gone by since we bought our first home but I will always be grateful that the people we worked with didn't laugh too hard and graciously helped us through the whole deal.....

. . . even if I didn't get to tell the bank how much they would be giving us!

Most people like to do a bit of their own detective work when buying or selling a home. With all the internet resources we have at our fingertips, you'd be crazy not to! One of the most common sources of information people here come across is the Assessed Valuation of a property from the Albany County Assessor's office.

While this is a great source for basic property data, like the probable age of the home or general square footage, it is not a reliable source for current market value.

It is always difficult to convince people of this. In an effort to illustrate why the assessed valuation may or may not be accurate, I conducted my own analysis of 130 homes sold between September 2010 and April 2011.



For each sale, I calculated the difference between the 2010 Assessed Valuation of the property and Actual Sales Price.

As you can see, only 46 out of 130 residential properties, or 35%, had Assessed values and Actual Sales Prices that were within $10,000 of each other.

84 of the 130, or 65%, had values with differences between $10,000 through $133,717.

Among those that were different by more than $10,000, 35 properties, or 27%, had values that were different by $30,000 or more. That's a lot of dollars!

Hopefully, this data shows why public records in Wyoming are not the most reliable source for determining current market value. As someone once said - do the math !

(or do the next best thing and get a REALTOR® or Certified Appraiser to do it for you!)

*This information is intended only to provide further clarification of real estate issues in Laramie, Wyoming. Iam not an attorney. This article is not endorsed, approved or affiliated with Century 21 Real Estate Center, Inc. Any consumer with questions about the real estate process should always consult an attorney of their own.

Believe it or not, here in Laramie, Wyoming, there is very little relationship between current market value and assessed valuation. Assessed valuation is the value the county assigns to a property as a basis from which to calculate property taxes. Every now and then the county estimate is very close to the current market value, most of the time - it is not.

Under Wyoming Statute 34-1-142, sales information is not Public Record and must be kept confidential. The county does recieve a statement of consideration for internal use with each property sale, but with an always changing market it is difficult to continually guage the value of homes - especially homes that haven't transferred ownership in years...

I'm sure counties from all over the United states have their own methods of estimating property values and they do the best they can with the information and resources they have. Exactly what those methods are, I don't know! Nor, do I really need to.

All I need to know is that as an active REALTOR member of the Laramie M.L.S., I am in and out of many homes every month- in addition to having access to recent sales data. My observations combined with sales data and market activity can help determine what a reasonable asking price on a property may be for both buyers and sellers.

Keep in mind, however, this service should not be confused with an actual appraisal by a certified appraiser!

In summary, public records are not the best source of current market values in Albany County. When you need help gauging the price of a home, a realtor is an excellent source, second only to a certified appraiser familiar with our local market.

If you are still not convinced, my next post will contain a summary of my analysis of public records versus actual sales data from the last 8 months. I hope you'll stop by and check it out!

Link to the Next Post: Actual Data!

*This information is intended only to provide further clarification of real estate issues in Laramie, Wyoming. I am not an attorney. This article is not endorsed, approved or affiliated with Century 21 Real Estate Center, Inc. Any consumer with
questions about the real estate process should always consult an attorney of their own.