What is fair market value?
A. Fair market value is the price that a willing buyer and a willing seller can agree upon when neither party is under any undue pressure to complete the sale. The amount a well-informed buyer is willing to pay for a property. Qualified sales are used to determine fair market value. To represent fair market value, a sale must be an arms length transaction, i.e., it must be a sale in which there is no relationship between the buyer and the seller that may influence the price, such as a transaction between family members. A listing of recent sales is available on the counter at the Assessors Office. Information may also be obtained through Banker & Tradesmans newspaper or the Essex Registry of Deeds.
Fair Market Value is defined as: The fair market value is the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or to sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts. The fair market value of a particular item of property includible in the decedents gross estate is not to be determined by a forced sale price. Nor is the fair market value of an item of property to be determined by the sale price of the item in a market other than that in which such item is most commonly sold to the public, taking into account the location of the item wherever appropriate. Regulation 20.2031-1.
Fair market value is defined by Louisiana Revised Statute 47:2321 as follows: ” Fair Market Value is the price for property which would be agreed upon between a willing and informed buyer and a willing and informed seller under the usual and ordinary circumstances; it shall be the highest price estimated in terms of money which property will bring if exposed for sale on the open market with reasonable time allowed to find a purchaser who is buying with knowledge of all the uses and purposes to which the property is best adapted and for which it can be legally used. ” Finding the “fair market value” of your property involves discovering the price most people would pay for it in its present condition in the current open market. It is not quite that simple, however, because the market and the condition of the home are constantly changing.
Fair Market Value is defined as: “The fair market value is the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or to sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts. The fair market value of a particular item of property includible in the decedent’s gross estate is not to be determined by a forced sale price. Nor is the fair market value of an item of property to be determined by the sale price of the item in a market other than that in which such item is most commonly sold to the public, taking into account the location of the item wherever appropriate.” Regulation §20.2031-1.
