Vintage post cards brought to you by Greetings From Bergen County.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQGFXnY0OS8&index=19&list=PL99436BE485FA2FD1
Take a short tour of Ridgewood NJ one of the many communities we appraise in New Jersey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE6VTG54f3s
We hope you enjoyed this presentation, come back soon and where else we may have visited.
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Bogris Appraisal LLC
You've seen the commercials with aging Hollywood stars touting REVERSE MORTGAGES are the right for you?
You get emails every so often telling you to find out what your home is worth for free with no obligation.
What do you think this valuation is worth?
Turns out not a hell of a lot.
Below find out what several homes sold for and the estimate of value by one of the better known "FREE" sites:
All sales are within the prior 6 months.
Fair Lawn Colonial Sold $750,000 Pre Listing Estimate $704,000
Fair Lawn Cape Cod Sold $733,800 Pre Listing Estimate $292,000
Fair Lawn Colonial Sold $620,000 Pre Listing Estimate $430,000
Fair Lawn Split Level $582,000 Pre Listing Estimate $539,000
In all cases relying on the free estimate would have cost the homeowner considerable money.
If you need a valuation of your home, rely on the free site and you could lose money.
For an accurate valuation of you home for;Tax Appeal, Estate Planning, Pre-Listing, Equitable Distribution or any other Purpose
Contact us at 201 773 3282 admin@bogrisappraisal.com
SUMMARY - Since its inception The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has established minimum property standards. While these standards have varied over time the recent changes have been some of the most dramatic in decades. By eliminating many of the "nuisance" repairs and mandatory inspections HUD hopes to make it easier to buy or sell a home with FHA financing.
The most recent changes are highlighted bold on this checklist.
POOR CONDITION -
CONDOMINIUMS -
STRUCTURAL DEFECTS -
TERMITES -
LEAD PAINT -
HEATING -
ROOFS -
WINDOWS/DOORS -
ELECTRIC/UTILITIES/MECHANICAL SYSTEMS -
CRAWL SPACE & ATTIC -
Access to both the attic and the crawl space is required. Both must have adequate ventilation. Crawl spaces must have sufficient clearance for inspection and maintenance.
PLUMBING -
Minor plumbing leaks and defects are acceptable. Major plumbing problems will require inspection and repair. Water heaters must have a pressure relief valve.
SAFETY CONCERNS -
Smoke detectors are not required but if they are present they must work properly. HUD no longer requires repair of the safety device that automatically stops an obstructed electric garage door opener. Trip hazards such as uneven walkways or sidewalks will not require repair. Missing handrails on stairways are acceptable.
HUD DOES NOT REQUIRE
HUD does not require the following:
The deaqdline for appeal of municipal assessment for most Essex County home owners is April 1 2014.
Contact the Essex County Tax Board For the deadline date in your town:
http://www.essextaxboard.com/appeal.html
You can download your Tax Appeal Form here:
http://www.essextaxboard.com/pdfs/RegAppealForm.pdf
At Bogris Appraisal, we have prepared appraisals, and have testified before the Essex County Tax Board on many occassions, and have saved Essex County Homeowners thousands.
Contact us at:
201 773 3282
Admin@bogrisappraisal.com
www.bogrisappraisal.com
contact us at 201 773 3282, or at
admin@bogrisappraisal.com
When homeowners go to fight their property assessment, the first thing they often do is examine the sales of similar homes around the neighborhood.
It can be the key to a successful tax appeal. If your neighbors’ homes sold for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars less than your assessment, you’re likely to win your case.
But as more homes are being sold at cut rates in a sour economy, towns are increasingly ruling those sales as invalid for comparison, making it tougher for homeowners to catch a break on their tax bill.
The culprit is a small piece of the tax code that allows assessors to disqualify a property for comparison they believe was sold under financial duress.
In some towns, “if the assessor gets the slightest whiff” that a home might have been sold under duress, it gets removed from contention, said Jim Bogris, a Fair Lawn appraiser. “I don’t know how many times I’m at tax-board hearings and I see people going in to appeal … and the assessors just blow them out of the water. I believe [the code] is overused.”
Last year, more than 11,000 properties were disqualified on these grounds. That’s good for nearly 11 percent of all properties that were disqualified, up from 8 percent in 2009.
Homes sales are considered usable for comparison if an assessor believes it is indicative of fair market value. But home sales can be disqualified and deemed unusable for myriad of reasons, such as foreclosures, short sales, or when a homeowner is willing to accept nearly any price in order to move because of divorce or a death in the family.
As home prices go down, more and more home sales are now considered “distressed.”
“Ultimately, our courts are going to have to look at that issue because at some point, if you have an overwhelming number of foreclosures in a particular area, doesn’t that make the market?,” said David Wolfe, a property tax lawyer in Livingston.
The state Division of Taxation has caught wind of the issue, and is reversing some appeals after finding assessors who misunderstood or misused the law.
When sales are improperly recorded, “we will change it”, said Thomas Reilly, chief of valuation and mapping for the office.
“Ninety percent of assessors do the right thing, but sometimes there are gray areas. Assessors sometimes misclassify things,” Reilly said.
Staff was added to the office in 2009 partly to address the issue and “educate” officials, he said.
Though several attorneys and appraisers acknowledged the rise of the issue, they said it shouldn’t scare residents off from filing an appeal.
Wolfe said the “undeniable truth” is that there are more distressed sales than there have ever been. But just because an assessor marks a sale as unusable does not mean that the county tax board or the tax court won’t necessarily consider it in an appeal, he said.
“Most assessors try, to the best of their ability, to classify the sale — usable or nonusable — in good faith,” Wolfe said. “That said, you could certainly understand the reaction of assessors to some low sales that they can’t necessarily explain.”
By Stephen Stirling and Sarah Portlock/The Star-Ledger
Star-Ledger staff writer Eric Sagara and Dave Sheingold of The Record contributed to this report.
Related coverage:
Bergen County expects record number of tax appeals this year!!
HACKENSACK - Robert Layton, county tax administrator, stated that he expects his office to process as many as 15,000 tax appeals this year, more than any other year in his 34-year career.
Cash-strapped towns like Saddle Brook and Teaneck are planning are considering bonding more than $2 million apiece to pay for the refunds.
Some towns are setting aside much more money-in Rutherford three times more-than last year for tax appeals.
To help bring down the number appeals, the tax board has ordered Teaneck, Ramsey, Rutherford, Washington Township, Westwood, Wood-Ridge and Wyckoff to revalue in 2014.
Don't miss out on this historic opportunity!
Call us for a tax appeal appraisal, the April 1st
deadline is approaching!!
Contact Us At 201-773-3282
Your bank sends you a letter, telling you that the limit has been reduced on your home equity line of credit, or HELOC. That news is unwelcome enough. What the letter doesn't tell you is this:
Your credit score just got whacked.
A frozen HELOC doesn't always spell credit-score doom. Under some circumstances, freezing a HELOC might not change the score much; under others, the credit score can tumble enough to derail one's financial plans.
Falling home values are prompting lenders to take new defensive steps to guard against loan defaults. They've started to freeze and cut back hundreds of thousands of home equity lines of credit.
One of the U.S.'s largest mortgage lender, sent letters in January to 122,000 customers, telling them they can no longer borrow against their HELOCs. At worst, outright freezes cause havoc for many borrowers. Even for borrowers being told they can only draw less than the amount initially authorized Many lenders are freezing and cutting HELOCs even for borrowers with sterling credit and big equity in their homes, says Weston Sutherland, director of product management, FeeDisclosure.com. Borrowers generally see HELOCs as an inexpensive, flexible source of cash. Lenders have opened more than $2 trillion.
But if your line has been lopped, there may be steps you can take to fight back or cope with the problem. . A HELOC HELOC Home Equity Line Of Credit is secured by your equity in the home. Recent declines in housing values have trimmed home equity in many areas. That's why lenders are reining in HELOCs. They often reserve that right in the fine print of their deal. Lets say Jack Brown applied for a HELOC in 2005. He had a $300,000 mortgage balance on a house worth $400,000. Brown's equity was the difference: $100,000. A lender might have given him a HELOC for $100,000: 100% of his home equity. Suppose that Brown now owes a $40,000 balance on his HELOC. And his mortgage balance is $295,000. So he has $335,000 in home loans. But the lender now estimates that homes in Brown's area have fallen by 20% since 2005. In that case, the lender projects that Brown's home would be worth $320,000. That wipes out Brown's equity. On paper the lender would not be secured for all of the outstanding debt on the HELOC and there would not be enough collateral to justify further borrowing by Brown. Fighting Back The lender might send Brown a letter saying his HELOC has been frozen. If you receive such a letter, what can you do? You can accept the new limits. Maybe you simply don't need to borrow money. If an emergency comes up, perhaps you have cash reserves That could cost less than dipping into a HELOC. Their rates currently average about 6%. If you don't have enough cash, you can appeal some HELOC freezes. Call the lender's customer service department and ask if it has an appeals procedure. "You generally will need to demonstrate that the value of your home hasn't declined or hasn't fallen by much," said Keith Gumbinger, vice president.
CONTACT BOGRIS APPRAISAL LLC
to thaw your frozen line of credit. Bogris Appraisal LLC is frequently appointed in probate and condemnation proceedings and also used by banks and real estate concerns to determine the market value of properties like yours.
Bogris Appraisal LLC offers competitive fees comeasurate with the assignment.
The appraisal may help your frozen HELOC to thaw. Suppose Janice Green has a house she bought years ago. Her mortgage balance is $350,000. Say Green also has a $100,000 HELOC. She has not borrowed against it, but all of it was frozen. Green might get an appraisal showing her house is worth $500,000. So she'd have $150,000 in home equity. On the strength of that, her lender might restore her $100,000 HELOC. Or it might make, say, $50,000 of that line available to her. A $50,000 HELOC, plus her $350,000 mortgage, would give her $400,000 of debt on a $500,000 house. Even now, many lenders are comfortable with an 80% Loan-to-value ratio (LTV) Favored Owners Bottom line: People who bought homes at the peak of the market may face stiff challenges. Many owners now find the ratio of their home loans plus HELOCs vs. home value has soared. If your home is leveraged over 80%, you likely will find it hard to get more home equity debt. The situation is better if you bought your house before the market peak. You may have ample home equity. If you have solid credit and reliable income, you can borrow against your house. "This is a good time to shop for home loans," McBride said. If you're qualified, you can get attractive terms for a HELOC, no matter what some lenders might tell you.