I am using sold comps to come up with my offer prices in a particular county. I will be offering a discounted percentage of the sold price per acre. After coming up with my offer prices, I noticed that some of my offer prices for certain properties seem high compared to the county tax assessor estimated values (not the tax assessed value, but the estimated actual value) for those particular properties. I know every county is different, but assuming that this particular county’s tax assessor estimated values are fairly accurate (I think they are), would it be wise to lower my offer prices for those particular properties? I was thinking about bumping the offer prices for those properties down to no more than 40% of the county’s estimated value for those particular properties.
I know the assessor's value is generally pretty unreliable to begin with, but for what it's worth, I've found it's usually running a couple of years (at least) behind reality, because in many cases, they won't recalculate the value until the property changes hands (and this depends on the state and when/how they uncap the taxable value of a property).
That may be why your values look higher, because land values have been rising, but the assessor is running behind.
That said, I'm generally of the opinion that if there's ever any doubt about what you should do, it's better to make offers lower and just send out more mail. I don't think I've ever made an offer has high as 40%... that's pretty high (I'm not saying it's never appropriate, but it would be pretty rare). It could make sense in a hyper-competitive environment and/or if you know the property will sell overnight at a hugely profitable price (if you already have a buyer lined up and you know the profit is there), but if you're speculating at all, I would caution against going this high in most markets.
Disclaimer: If you've already offered 40% in this market and still made a nice profit (i.e. - if you know it works), then feel free to disregard my opinion on this. I don't know every market and I haven't worked everywhere. My thoughts on this are informed based on the markets where I have worked.
@retipsterseth Thanks for your input. I may go down a little but more on those particular properties just to make sure. This particular county does seem to be more proactive in their valuations of properties, without waiting until the latest sale to make changes, so I feel a little more confident in their numbers than I would in some other counties.