How Mass Appraisal Works

The first thing we do when reviewing sales is determine whether or not a sale is Qualified. A qualified sale is a typical market sale, which is generally described as, “The most probable price (in terms of money) which a property should bring in a competitive and open market under all conditions requisite to a fair sale, the buyer and seller acting prudently and knowledgeably, and assuming the price is not affected by undue stimulus.”[1]  

A few examples of undue stimulus would be family sales, divorce sales, bank sales, estate sales, multi-parcel sales, abutter sales, and any sale where the motivations of the buyer and seller may be influenced by atypical market considerations or cannot be reliably discerned. These sales types do not exhibit conditions requisite to a fair sale. In any given year half of all sales are qualified.

All qualified sales are sorted into appropriate groupings for analysis using sales ratio studies.

[1] Mass Appraisal of Real Property by Robert Gloudemans. Published by the International Association of Assessing Officers