Maschmeyer's Nursery Inc. - Page 9

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          (about $3,500 per acre).  Respondent challenges the reliability             
          of Cobb’s appraisal on several grounds.  Respondent argues that             
          three of the sale transactions used to support the valuation of             
          tract A are unrepresentative because two of the properties are              
          located within the city limits of Greenwood, where residential              
          development is more advanced than in the immediate environs of              
          the subject property, and the third is known to have been sold to           
          a developer for residential subdivision.  The weakness in this              
          argument is that respondent concedes that the other sales                   
          comparables used by Cobb to value tract A and tract B are                   
          unbiased and consistent with the fair market value determined by            
          her own expert, and yet all of these properties were also located           
          in Greenwood and some were intended for immediate residential               
          development, like the comparables which respondent believes to be           
          unrepresentative.                                                           
               Respondent also points out the large discrepancy between the           
          $593,000 value Cobb assigns to tract as of 1990 and the $228,500            
          price at which it was acquired by the Maschmeyers in 1989.  Cobb            
          explained this discrepancy by the fact that the Maschmeyers                 
          acquired tract A in the settlement of an estate; hence in his               
          view the price of that acquisition had not reflected the                    
          property’s fair market value.  A more serious problem in Cobb’s             
          appraisal is the discrepancy between his values for tract A                 
          ($4,800 per acre) and tract B ($2,200 per acre).  The only                  
          important difference between the tracts is that one has access to           




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Last modified: May 25, 2011