Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Still deciding whether to sell or rent out the house. We are Leaning on selling since we may want to build on our land west of Liberty Hill outside of Austin.

Thanks

To create basis? What does that mean?

Are you wanting comps?

An easy free way is to go into Zillow, filter by zip code, set filters to the build year plus/minus 7 years, set the square footage plus/minus 10%, similar acreage, and see has sold similarly in your area over past 6 months. They'll usually still have pictures up so you can compare how remodeled stuff was too. You should have a good idea without getting an appraiser or real estate agent involved.

Your basis in the home, more likely than not, the FMV of the home on your mother's date of death. If it were my house, I'd probably get an appraisal. However, it seems that appraisers can vary pretty significantly in the values they put on houses.

Yes, I am looking for an appraiser familiar with the Katy area. I was wondering if anyone has someone to recommend or if there are any Aggie appraisers who frequent this forum on Texags. Thanks.

Unless your Mom's house is a Mansion,, I would just use the appraisal district's value. The IRS probably has bigger fish to fry.

If she bought the house in the past 6 months, sure. If she bought several years ago and locked in with the over 65 exemption then the difference between tax appraisal district's value and FMV could be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If I recall correctly, the appraisal district still estimates current market value, even if the homeowner is over 65. However, the assessed value used to calculate taxes is the value of the home at the time that the owner turned 65.

That's what I recall when I handled my Mom's taxes several years ago.

mazag08 said:

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RikkiTikkaTagem said:

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Are you wanting comps?

An easy free way is to go into Zillow, filter by zip code, set filters to the build year plus/minus 7 years, set the square footage plus/minus 10%, similar acreage, and see has sold similarly in your area over past 6 months. They'll usually still have pictures up so you can compare how remodeled stuff was too. You should have a good idea without getting an appraiser or real estate agent involved.

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I wouldn't use a 3rd party website who's attempts at valuations are historically and continuously laughably wrong.

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I wasn't saying to use Zillow's valuations.. I agree that Zillow's valuations are crap. You look at the listing, look at what the listing price was, and how long it was on the market. You'll have a good idea what's a good price

RikkiTikkaTagem said:

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mazag08 said:

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RikkiTikkaTagem said:

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Are you wanting comps?

An easy free way is to go into Zillow, filter by zip code, set filters to the build year plus/minus 7 years, set the square footage plus/minus 10%, similar acreage, and see has sold similarly in your area over past 6 months. They'll usually still have pictures up so you can compare how remodeled stuff was too. You should have a good idea without getting an appraiser or real estate agent involved.

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I wouldn't use a 3rd party website who's attempts at valuations are historically and continuously laughably wrong.

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I wasn't saying to use Zillow's valuations.. I agree that Zillow's valuations are crap. You look at the listing, look at what the listing price was, and how long it was on the market. You'll have a good idea what's a good price

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Zillow doesn't show you what it closed for, which is very important in this market.

Good people, good Ags

https://yates-lagrasta.com/

_lefraud_ said:

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Good people, good Ags

https://yates-lagrasta.com/

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Thanks for the recommendation.

In response to the other comments (thanks by the way), mom passed away in February of this year and has been in this house since 2015 when I moved her over to be close to me. The market value from the Appraisal District is higher than last year but I think there is still a lag compared to how fast similar homes are moving based on their asking price. I don't want to shoot myself in the foot and underestimate the market value with valuations seemingly a moving target.