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COUNTY APPRAISER CALLED ASKING QUESTIONS - What do other owners share (or not share)?

  • 1.  COUNTY APPRAISER CALLED ASKING QUESTIONS - What do other owners share (or not share)?

    Posted 01-06-2023 09:39 AM
    Hello all. I received a call from our County Appraisal office asking for information about our facility followed up by an email. The appraiser's response in email was this...

    "I essentially am looking for a breakdown of the size, number and rent of your various units, as well as occupancy and whether they are climate controlled.  You will also see a section for expenses. Any of this information is very helpful in accurately appraising your property. But if you don't have all the information requested, just please list what you do have."

    His response to my question on how we are valued. 

    "Facilities like yours are valued on the "income approach". It is based on market rent and market expenses…and market cap rate. Most of that is done by analyzing these surveys and market analysis on cap rates. So we ask all of these type of businesses to supply as much information as possible so that we can make accurate decisions."

    For your owners, is this common (appraisal office calling to ask for all this information)? I have received advise of "just ignore the request" BUT we did just open in September 2022. We are at about 39% occupancy and need about 50-53% to break even. I am wondering if it would, in fact, be beneficial to provide this information, given we are still running in the negative (growing but not making money yet), in terms of valuing us for tax purposes.

    Any advise on how much or not to share would be appreciated. Example...there is a place to list certain expenses. His list, with blank spaces to fill in, does NOT account for all expenses our business has so should I provide a separate, all-inclusive list to show true cost of operating expenses versus what we are making at this point in revenue?

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    Ryan Stalling
    Steel Roots Storage LLC
    Waxahachie TX
    (972) 921-7309
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