Participation Assignment

GIS 4048

Note: Click Images to enlarge

After conducting a web search to locate a property appraiser’s office in my area, I discovered Franklin Townships Tax Assessors Office website.  http://www.franklintwpnj.org/.

Q1:      Does your property appraiser offer a web mapping site?  If so, what is the web address?  If not, what is the method in which you may obtain the data?

            The appraiser’s office does not directly link to the web mapping site from their page, but I was able to find one that is available on the Home Page, and it provides key information about the property.  The web address for this site is www.sdlportal.com, but can be accessed by clicking the Citizen Request Portal button on Franklin Townships Home Page.  Users must create an account and then will have permission to log in and search properties.  By conducting a search the user can pull up any address within the town and view information about the property, including Owner information, Location (address, block, lot, and qualifier), Description of Property, and Valuation or assessed value.  The person can also see Permits that are associated to the property with their current status.

Next I looked into discovering a list of recent property sales by month.  In the tax assessors web page I discovered an “Online Tax Assessment Data” link.  This link took me to another page where I was able to populate information to obtain what is referred to as Mod IV (Mod 4) data.

I was directed to a website that allowed me to search Assessment Records for the entire state of New Jersey.  This can be found at: http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/prc6.cgi?menu=index&ms_user=glou&passwd=data&district=1808&mode=11

After conducting my search, I found that the records are only good up to May 8, 2014. 

Q2:    What was the selling price of this property?  What was the previous selling price of this property (if applicable)?  Take a screen shot of the description provided to include with this answer.

            Since I am unable to look up the June month, I used the last full month that was covered by the spreadsheet that I downloaded in CSV format from the assessor’s office.  In this case April has a full month of sales.  I was able to identify the highest selling property that sold in the month of April.  1 Heller Park Lane has a sales date of 4/7/2014 and sold for $13,500,000.  The previous selling price was not listed on the data provided.

Q3:      What is the assessed land value?  Based on land record data, is the assessed land value higher or lower than the last sale price?  Include a screen shot.

The assessed land value for the property I identified previous (1 Heller Park Lane) is set at $4,679,000.  The land value is lower than the last sale price.  I also noticed that the combination of the land and building assessment still fell below the sales price.

Q4:      Share additional information about this piece of land that you find interesting.  Many times, a link to the deed will be available providing more insight to the sale.

From my research I was able to find out a lot more about the property.  I was able to determine the property size (26.79 Acres), owner information (Matrix Somerset I LLC), Property Zoning it fell within (M1), and the current block/lot (514/8.03).  Listed also in the data was the assessed value over a number of years.  Using the property location I went to the Franklin Township SDL Portal and also did a search based on the block and lot.  I was shown a lot of detailed data, including the current Permits that are open for the property.  Some of these improvements could affect the assessed value in the future.

 For the second part of our Participation Assignment I took on the role of working for the Property Appraiser's Office.  They asked me to review the land value assessments in West Ridge Place subdivision and tasked with creating a map that will help show inconsistencies in the current assessments.  Below is the map that was created.

Q5:      Which accounts do you think need review based on land value and what             you've learned about assessment?  Please answer this question within your blog post.

Excluding the properties that are odd-shaped with low values, I am left to look at all the properties as a whole.  I believe that the majority of the properties fall within the $27,075 range for property assessment.  This being said, I feel that all the properties should be assessed yearly as this was the trend in the table.  I would want to look for a trend in property value, as such I would look at property values from previous years.  By looking at all the years assessments, I can then see what properties are trending higher or lower in value.  Perhaps some properties had improvements done?  Perhaps others are priced differently due to the condition of the homes?  Do the Easements Restrictions reduce the property value or improve it?  These all weigh in on the land value.  I would expect a request for reappraisal from those properties above the average.  Those that fall below the average may not seek a reassessment to avoid property taxes until it's time to sell the home.  In this case I would want to make sure that the lower assessed property is looked at, and a determination made as to why it does not meet the average.  Therefore, my focus would be on the Yellow and light Orange properties, with the expectation that the red property may ask to be reassessed as well.

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