Durham Transfer Tax meeting: a rout
Submitted by MTBinDurham on Mon, 08/13/2007 - 7:39pm
If the referendum on the transfer tax here in Durham County had been held among speakers at the Commissioners meeting, it would have been a rout. The Realtors showed up, but transfer tax supporters were here in much, much bigger numbers.
I had been afraid that we would be subject to astro-turf activism from the Realtors, given the call that went out to their list. And I have to say, the majority of the realtors that did show up were nuanced and provided good critique. (For instance, one very solid critique is that the transfer tax will slow down redevelopment of inner city neighborhoods by slowing down those that buy historic houses and fix them up.) The discussion was, I'm pleased to say, one of the most civil I've been to at a public meeting. (The commissioners, as I type this, are sharing the same sentiment.)
I'm very confident at this point that the transfer tax will hit the ballot. We'll then have, I imagine, a very good discussion about the tax, and in the end, I believe it will pass and be implimented.
And the big Raleigh-based Realtors, many of whom showed up but were not allowed to speak because they didn't live in the county, will have to sit by and watch Durham's exercise in public discourse.
- MTBinDurham's blog
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if there's substantial profit...
...to be made remodeling and reselling houses, a transfer tax will likely be considered less of a barrier, and more of a cost of doing business...and if it's paid on every property, it should have no effect on the ability to sell any single house.
"...i feel that if a person can't communicate, the very least he can do is to shut up." --tom lehrer, january 1965
Remodeling
In the unlikely event that a transfer tax provides a barrier to sale of a property it might actually provide an incentive to remodel. From an earlier post at Stop The NC Home Ticks:
And here's some links to useful remodeling information:
Good job Durham County
public discussion will be a benefit for this tax.
by chance, did the realators come up with anything else?
With regard to this, how much of this is happening now before the transfer tax hits? Did the realators come in and say they have talked to "flippers" and they said that they would move to another city, county or state because of this transfer tax problem? I am willing to bet that people are not flipping inner city neighborhoods regardless. Would require forward thinking on your city planner and incentives to the developers to do this. A transfer tax concern is so small in the over all calculation for the developer.
Remember, for a "flipper" these folks are going to pay this transfer tax twice in a very short time. Once when they buy the property for repair and again when they sell it to the new owner after renovations. This is what the realators are fighting against. Wonder how many realators are involved with this?
Why I say this, I was going to go into business with my friend and his wife. She had a real estate license, we where going to be the fixer guys. She had access to the cheap properties, we are retired Navy with plenty of time on our hands if we did this full time. We also have a secondary source of income to protect us. We figured we could get $30 to $60 thousand on a flip. Divided in thirds, we figured all we needed was to sell 3 maybe 5 houses a year. In NC, people just dont want to factor in a transfer tax in all this and have to do it twice. They see profits going out the window just in accusation and disposal of the property.
Excellent that you had a bunch of people show up to encourage your commissioners to decide to place this on the ballot or at least for further discussion. Your county will eventually see the value of this tax if it is spent correctly.
Nice report MTB
Actually some people with a leg to stand on...
Not much. Some of the same old same old. "government waste blah blah blah." I went after Rick Martinez' nonsense on my blog, but most of that didn't come up, thankfully. Most Durham realtors are actually clued in enough to realize that the reason they're just doing very well and not obscenely well like their friends in Wake County is that Durham's property tax rate is already high, and that it needs investment. So they may not be thrilled with the transfer tax, but it's hard to get them stirred up against it the way those in Wake and Johnston County I'm sure will be. (And Wake County -- I feel your pain as far as paying for growth, but you know, you're property tax rate is pretty ridiculously low...)
Some of this is coming on local lists from a couple of folks, one of whom is also a realtor, but are well known, well respected community activists who have actively been going into either transitional or previously downtrodden neighborhoods where there's not a lot of activity, taking on substantial risk, and redeveloping houses, yes to their own profit, but also to the immense benefit of the neighborhood. It's true that this will cut into their profits, and I regret that. No tax is perfect, and this is one of the worse effects of the transfer tax. I still support it, though...
If you get a chance to ask them
will this transfer tax slow them down from developing?
It takes money and vision to fix that which is broke. Glad your community has someone respected doing that for your area.