Florida sale data for appraisers: where it comes from and how far to trust it

Every appraiser in Florida starts a comp search from the same few sources, and every one of them has gaps. Knowing what each source tells you, and what it quietly leaves out, is the difference between a comp you can defend and one you have to throw out at review.

Where the data comes from

• County property appraiser sales lists. Each county publishes the sales it has recorded against a parcel: a date, a price, the book and page of the deed, whether the parcel was vacant or improved at sale, and whether the county treats the sale as qualified.
• The Department of Revenue sale data files. The state collects sales from all 67 counties into bulk files. They cover every county in one format, which is why they are the usual starting point for a statewide search. They are posted periodically, so the newest sales are not in them yet.
• The recorded deed. The Clerk of the Circuit Court holds the deed itself. This is the source that settles a question.

County lists and state files tell you a sale happened. The deed tells you what happened.

Qualified and unqualified sales

Each sale in the state file carries a qualification code. Code 01 is a qualified sale. Everything else is, in some way, a sale the county would not use to set values. As ValuBids labels the common ones:

A county's reason for disqualifying a sale is not your reason. A sale may be disqualified for a technical reason and still be good evidence, and a qualified sale may still have a condition you must adjust for. Treat the code as a prompt to look, not a verdict.

Four checks worth making on every comp

1. Check the price against the documentary stamps. On a Florida deed the recorded stamp tax is normally 70 cents per $100 of consideration (Miami-Dade County uses a different rate on some deeds). Divide the stamps by 0.007 and you have the price the parties reported. A stamp of $1,365.00 means $195,000. If the number on the county list and the number on the stamp disagree, find out why before you use it. The Clerk's recording stamp at the top of the deed usually shows both.

2. Check how many parcels the price covers. When one deed conveys two parcels, county lists often repeat the full price on each parcel. In one sale we checked, the deed showed $77,500 for two parcels, the county list showed $77,500 against each one, and the state file added them to $155,000. The price per acre was twice what the deed supports.

3. Check which date you are looking at. There are three. The deed is dated when it was signed. It is recorded some days later. A county list may show a third date. In one Collier County sale we checked, the deed was dated November 8, recorded November 14, and the property appraiser's list showed November 5. Use the deed date when you can document it, and use the same kind of date for every comp.

4. Check for financing. Look in the Clerk's records for a mortgage recorded by the buyer on or just after the deed date. If the lender is a bank, you have conventional financing. If the lender is the seller, the sale may not be a cash price and you may need a cash-equivalency adjustment.

What the lists leave out

• Recent sales. A deed recorded last week may not be on the county list for weeks, and is months from the state file.
• Powers of attorney and other recordings. Some lists show a $0 "sale" for a document that was recorded against the parcel but did not transfer it.
• Why. Neither source says why a buyer paid what they did: an assemblage, a 1031 deadline, a buyer who needed this exact lot.

Where ValuBids fits

ValuBids loads the Department of Revenue's sale files, shows the qualification code in plain words next to each sale, and puts sales on the county's own parcel map colored by year, with the price on the parcel. Click a parcel and it becomes a comp, with the size, year built and last sale already filled in. The confirming is still yours: the deed, the stamps, the financing. ValuBids keeps the result with the comp, so you do the checking once.