Black Couple's Home Valuation Increased by 50 % After White Friend Posed as Homeowner

[G_j]

https://atlantablackstar.com/2021/02/16/it-was-a-slap-in-the-face-black-couples-home-valuation-increased-by-50-percent-after-white-friend-posed-as-homeowner-during-the-inspection/?fbclid=IwAR2BrYTv1Lr7jpyid_VoDJk34SAssWHW39-gxw6KmZS7HreRNBxGKbZV88o

‘It Was a Slap In the Face’: Black Couple’s Home Valuation Increased by 50 Percent After White Friend Posed as Homeowner During the Inspection

Posted byBy Niara Savage | February 16, 2021

A Black California couple said they believe race definitely played a role in the significantly different appraisal values of their home after its value increased by 50 percent when a white friend of the family pretended the home in suburban Sausalito was their own.

Paul Austin and his wife Tenisha Tate Austin say their Marin City home was valued at just $100,000 more than what they bought it for even after the couple staged major renovations to the property, costing them $400,000.

But after the couple spoke with a white friend who agreed to make the home “look like it belonged to her” during a second appraisal, the home value increased by 50 percent.

“It was a slap in the face,” said Paul Austin.

The couple first bought the home off-market in 2016 from another Black couple.

..more..

[JanMichael]

1. It happens with appraisals, mortgages, jobs, rents, deposits, etcetera.

It is criminal what it does to people over the years.

[MichMan]

2. Wonder if their property taxes are now going to go up to match the 1.4 million appraised value ?

I guess I never cared what my house appraised at unless I was selling. I'm perfectly OK with having appraised low for property taxes.

[aggiesal]

10. It doesn't work that way in California ...

Just because you had the house appraised does not cause the taxes to go up.
You'd have to file with the county to adjust the property taxes, but that usually only happens with the value of the home goes down.

When the next buyer buys the home, the property taxes are adjusted to the sale price of the home.
It is one of the reasons that elderly people sitting on a house they bought for $50,000, 50 years ago, and now appraised at $1M+, still would not move because no matter how cheap they buy their next home, their property taxes will go up. Unless they move out of state.

[Retrograde]

11. No, thanks to Prop. 13

In California, your initial property tax is set at 1% of the price you paid. It can then go up as much as 2% of the original price every year (technically, they're raising the appraised value by 2%, so if they paid $1M (this is the Bay Area, after all) the first year they pay $10,000, the next year $10,200 and so on.) And for some reason my property taxes always go up by the maximum rate every year.

[Maraya1969]

3. What can the average person do to help this situation? I hate it so much.

Maybe they should make some kind of law. It would be hard with home appraisals because one person is not going to make 2 different appraisals.

Can there be some task force set up to study how to fix these things? I have a hard time believing this happens in other, more progressive countries. We have become a damn third world country with the way we treat our people.

[Shrike47]

4. Well, that was a shocking read. Depressing.

[soothsayer]

5. Fannie's and Freddie's automated appraisal tools are intended to help combat that

It’s a start

[musette_sf]

6. "Coded language" - no kidding

"The first appraiser used what the family believes to be coded language, like, 'Marin City is a distinct area' in her appraisal."

And if the house were in Sausalito or Mill Valley, it would add at least another $500K to the valuation figure that was presented to the white friend.

https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Marinship_to_Marin_City:_How_a_Shipyard_Built_a_City

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Appraisals, current market assessment are all based on marketing theories

Your realtor knows value! Your realtor knows your market!

Trouble is, the number of people that traipse through your home is a mix of a few dozen that changes every time someone buys another home that's not yours. Realtors have no skin in the game. It's not their home they're selling, it's yours.

I know a couple who waited 3.4 years to sell their home. I said to him, without going into numbers, did you get the extra % you wanted? Yes. I wouldn't let a realtor price my home. They just want to flip 4 a month, to suit their income. They don't actually know what makes a specific deal, it's all estimates based on experience.

The market is a fantasy. They can tell you a range, and be quite right, they can be right 80% or 95% of the time. What YOU want is top dollar, the extra % or $50k from it. The buyer won't care that much. They just borrow more, once they're hooked.

A house is "worth" its intrinsic value - land, labor, materials used to build it or replicate it, and the location's good points. It will fetch tens and often hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the cost to build it.

The pricing system is not perfect. Look our for your interests. Don't sell yourself short.

All of that tirade in my opinion.

[treestar]

8. Who knows who and what race the owners are?

If you are buying a house, do the realtors say anything about that?

Are they saying the appraiser met the owners while doing the appraisal - or two different appraisers. And they were white?

I've seen appraisals - they have forms with evaluations for each part of the house.

[wnylib]

14. Are we talking about an exterior appraisal

of the land and external architectural design and materials of the house? Or an appraisal that includes a walk through the interior, to see the number and layout of rooms, fireplaces, storage areas, cupboard space, built in appliances, basement, etc. as selling points for a potential buyer?

If the appraisal includes the interior, the owner would be present to let the appraiser in and show him/her around, answer questions. In that case, the owner's race would be apparent. Even if the owner was not present (but who lets strangers inside without being there?), family photos on desktops and walls would indicate the race of the owner.

In the OP, the white friend said she brought items from her home to pose as the owner, so it sounds like the appraisal included the interior and therefore, meeting the owner.

[treestar]

16. Yes. And then is the appraised price

the same for a black buyer as for a white buyer - making the house seem like a good deal using the black appraisal or too expensive using the white appraisal.

And the price a person agrees to pay the price which determines the market value. Once anyone knows of both appraisals, the buyer is likely not willing to pay the higher price, be they white or black.

A racist could think the house worth more, thinking that the white owner kept it in better shape. But then the house is in the shape it's in - that has to be objective, I would hope. Or is there enough to manipulate to make the house seem in worse or better shape according to race? (and whether the appraiser is doing the appraisal lower for the black owner consciously or unconsciously).

And would a black appraiser do the same, or the reverse, or be objective?

[wnylib]

17. There's also the possibility (likelihood) that

a white buyer, knowing that the owner is black and that the house is worth more than the appraisal, would consider the opportunity to buy it as a "steal," which it literally would be. The buyer could well be thinking, "They will have to accept my bid because, being Black, they can't get a higher price."

That's the whole point of under appraising the house. And of over praising a house in the opposite situation of selling a white-owned house to a Black buyer.

Systemic racism in real estate and banking.

[treestar]

18. True. The appraiser has room to

be credible either way, is the question. One would need multiple appraisals or have some way to vet them.

[Blue Owl]

9. Lawyer time?

I'd fucking sue the inspector for that amount in a heartbeat -- seems like a solid case of discrimination based on racial prejudice...

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. We live in a white supremacy.

[malaise]

13. I watched this and my jaw dropped

Unbelievable

[Oldem]

15. I smell a discrimination lawsuit, and

it would likely win. The only way to make these bastards play fair is to make them pay through the nose. Put them out of business if possible.