Effective Age Versus Actual Age

If I am looking up a house to start comparables, or just to get more information on it, my search very often starts in the Miami-Dade County tax rolls, even before I go to the MLS. Miamidade.gov is a pretty reliable reference point, offering lot square footage, house square footage, and the age of the property. Well, that is until recently.

Lately when I pull a tax report from the county’s website, rather than give an actual age for a home, it will say “Multiple (See Building Info.),” which is not particularly helpful. I looked into this on another tax program, Imapp, to see if I could get any more information on the age of a particular home and I did find what I was looking for. The house that I was researching, an old Spanish in the Gables, showed on Imapp as having been built in 1924, but it was also noted that the home’s effective age was 1975.

A home’s effective age is measured by how updated it is. Therefore, while this home was built in 1924 it had had enough upgrades to qualify as a house that is 50 years “younger” than it really is. That could mean that it has a newer roof, newer appliances, an addition, functionally obsolescent items removed, etc.

Effective age is something that appraisers consider when valuing a home. According to Core Logic, “When selecting properties that are being used as comparables in an appraisal, the effective age of each property chosen should be given consideration to ensure the comparable homes are similar in effective age. Let’s say there are two 100-year-old homes, one of which is extensively remodeled and added on to, and the other is in its original state, complete with a roll rim kitchen sink and asbestos tile roofing shingles. To compare the two properties without making an adjustment for the difference in effective age would be wrong and could have a significant impact on a home’s appraised value.”

I am not sure when or why Miami-Dade County switched its records so that they do not reflect a home’s true age or effective age, but I am glad that it led me down this short little research rabbit hole. Effective age is an important item to consider when pricing any home.

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