April 29, 2008

The number and amount of bonds owing against a property have a significant impact on the property's value. Unfortunately, our Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system does not provide good information on this.

The best information I can give you in regard to this is a link to the Sutter County Tax Collector's site where you can look up information about the homes that you are most interested in. When I do this, I usually open a new tab in my browser ("Ctrl" + "T") so that I can easily toggle back and forth between the MLS page and the tax collector's page.

Sutter County Tax Collector

Once on their site;

1. Scroll down to "ONLINE SERVICES" and click on the link "Search the Sutter County Property Tax Roll."
2. After logging into their search site, perform a search. For instance, I just searched 1245 CAMDEN WAY which is currently listed for sale at $229,900.
3. Look for the link in the column labeled "Assmnt. #." In this case, the assessment number is 18683.
4. Click on the assessment number to bring up detailed tax information on that property. An interesting side note here is that this page will also give you the latest assessment information about the property. In this case, it is currently assessed for $375,000 even though the current asking price is just $229,900. This gives you some idea of how much property values have dropped here. About 30 years ago, the voters of California passed Proposition 13. Since then, the property's assessed value is more reflective of what the homeowner paid for the property than it is of the home's current fair market value. This, then, would indicate that the previous homeowner paid about $375,000 and I don't know if that includes the pool that she had installed.

Upon sale, the property will be reassessed. The new assessment, unless extraordinary circumstances exist, will be the purchase price. Now, on the tax sheet for 1245 Camden Way, look for the entry "Net Assessment Tax" in the "Total Tax" box. You will see that the current amount is $3,750 which is 1% of the home's assessed value. If this home sells for $230,000, then you can expect that the "Net Assessment Tax" will drop to about $2,300. The "Bond Assessment Tax" and the "Direct Assessment Tax" will not change based on the sale at this lower amount. For this property, then, you can expect that the new total tax will drop from $5,180.78 to about $3,730.

I hope this helps you and wish that I could give you a simpler way to find the information that you are looking for.

My wife, Tracy, and I are both licensed and are more than happy to answer any questions that you might have. Please feel free to call us any time.

Sincerely,

Lloyd (530) 671-6152