1. Tax Equalization Bd issues - Laserfiche WebLink

RECEIVED June 9, 2003 Cass County Board of Equalization PO Box 2806 Fargo, ND 58108 JUN 9 2003 CASS COUNTY COMMISSION Re: Clark & Jeanette Enebo appeal Dear Commissioners: We received Mr. Klein's letter indicating his recommendation that no change be made to the assessment of our property. He also included a listing of ramblers built by Chris Lind in Charleswood River Estates Area. The homes listed on Princeton Lane, Kingston Court and 18th Ave East are in a newer and much more expensive development. We have been in several of the homes Mr. Klein listed. Our home doesn't even begin to compare. Most of these homes are either all brick or have an all brick front, 11-12 foot ceilings, have well over 1800 square feet, formal dining rooms, sunrooms, dens, offices and several more amenities. Since Chris Lind's construction is regarded as "Good", we would like to point out that our home was designed by us and all amenities were our choice, not Chris'. We chose not to have a formal dining room, a Jacuzzi tub or 6 panel doors. We chose a different quality carpet and flooring and to purchase all of our own fixtures from retailers of our choice. Therefore, we are not certain Chris' rating of "Good" should apply to our home. In Mr. Klein's letter he indicates the good quality homes (rows 2-6) have an assessment range of $127.54-$148.32 per square foot of main floor living with our value at $144.20. We are not certain why our home would be on the upper end of this range or why the range at all? What in our home puts us at $144.20 versus $127.547 We have attached a detailed spreadsheet for your perusal indicating basic information regarding our home (bolded on the first line of the spreadsheet) and 31 homes we feel are comparable. The 2003 values were provided by Mr. Klein's office. Other information on the spreadsheet was obtained from the West Fargo City Assessor's Office files and our own personal observations. Several of the files did not indicate patios/decks, fences or sheds; however, we observed many of these homes have these amenities. We concur that some of the homes may not be comparable because they are a 4 level split or a 2 story, but we left them in the listing because the square footage is similar or higher. Please note on the spreadsheet in the column indicating percentage of finished basement, we assumed that 75% indicates a completed basement. Presuming there is a small percentage of unfinished area for furnace, water heater, storage, etc. You will also note all but three homes have a patio or deck, and 100% of the homes have landscaping. Many of the homes also have main floor offices/dens, sunrooms and formal dining rooms which we do not have. Please observe that the average square footage for these 31 homes is over 1900 square feet, and all but three of the homes has a 2003 true and full value several thousand dollars below ours, two who had their tax exemption expire after 2002.