BOTETOURT COUNTY, Va. – The County of Botetourt is trying to prepare its residents for potential sticker shock at the end of the month.
“We have to establish our rates based on what properties are selling for,” Owner of Wampler-Eanes Appraisers Gary Eanes said.
Every four years, the county hires an outside appraising company to assess the value of every property.
Eanes said this time around, the market is unlike anything he’s seen, with the average sales price rising over $100,000 since 2019.
“These are the best times in real estate that I’ve been in and I’m celebrating 45 years,” he said.
Right now, the housing market is what’s considered a “seller’s market.”
“These are good times to be selling a house...not so much for buying,” Eanes said.
According to Virginia code, appraisers must appraise the home for 100% of market value.
“If a property sells for $500,000 during our time frame, then we have to appraise it at $500,000 — if it’s at $200,000, it needs to be assessed close to $200,000,” he said.
That means that if a house would typically be appraised for around $530,000, since the sale price was $816,000 — 100% market value said it’s worth $816,000.
But don’t worry, if you live in Buchanan, your house isn’t being compared to sales prices over in Ashley Plantation.
“A subdivision would be, we’d look at sales just within that subdivision, so in other words we’re not comparing Southern Botetourt County to Northern Botetourt County,” he said.
Eanes said the seven appraisers are still working to evaluate properties, but to expect your property evaluation letter around the end of January or early February.
If you don’t agree, there’s a tear-away portion of the bottom of your letter with information on how to appeal.
“They can use things like realtor.com, Zillow, things like that then when they get their notice, they can compare it to what they feel like its worth, versus when we’ve sent their notice out,” he said.