Thursday, June 23, 2011

Good News Bad News

We had a formal hearing with our county's tax appraisal board this morning. The basis of our appeal is the new cell phone tower that sprang up overnight in our back yard.

Briefly, our contention is that the tower is a form of disamenity; that is, a local undesirable land-use factor that negatively impacts a property's value. We bought our property primarily for the view, and built our house to take advantage of several hundred unspoiled acres on the other side of the property line. Then, a couple of months ago, a 300-foot cell phone tower was built about 250 yards from our back porch. We argued that this had a significant negative impact on the value of our property.
The new view from our back porch

Miracle of miracles, the appraisal review board agreed. They decreased our appraised value by 20%!

My wife and I went home and immediately popped a cork and began guzzling sipping champagne.

Once the initial reaction wore off, however, the realization of what the ruling meant sunk in. A group of knowledgeable and experienced real estate professionals has just decided that one of our primary assets has been devalued by 20%.

We're still drinking the champagne, but now with a different mindset...

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