Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-05
ABSURD PRICES
PUT ON REALTY.
AFFlDAVITS SHOW STATUS OF
STATE BOARD MEN
NEITHER "EXPERT" HAS SOLD
DOWNTOWN PROPERTY
Special Instances Discovered Where
Figures Submitted Were Discounted
by Actual Land Transfers
in This City

Under the direction of the realty
board affidavits were obtained yester-
day from a number of property owners
who have bought or sold recently, or
who are holding their property at fig
ures lower than those placed upon the
same or similarly located lots by W.
A. Varcoe, the real estate man VINO
had never sold piece of business prop
erty on d main downtown street, and
Elmer Harpham, the civil engineer,
who neither owned, sold nor knew any
thing about real estate values. Narcoe
and Harpham We're employed and pald
$500 each for "appraising" as agents OF
the state board of equalization prop
erty which the realty boards special
appraisal committee had already care
fully gone over, as well as long list
of property which the realty board had
found too extensive to permit OF proper
valuation in the time available.
Acting President George N. Black and
Herbert Burdett personally obtained
these affldavits in many instances, and
"a comparison of the figures with those
of the state boards alleged appraisers
showed the latter to have been ab-
surdly extravagant in their guesses.
Varcoe, who said he was a real estate
man of many years standing, but who
is not a member of the realty board,
and who admitted that he had never
sold any property corresponding to that
on which the realty board had placed
valuation for the equalizers, testified,
among other things that he had val
ued the well known Foy property at
Figueroa and Seventh streets at $780,
900, and that some one had told him
that an offer of $600,00 for the property
in 1908 had been refused by the Foy
estate The county assessors appraisal
of this property was $14S, 900. The realty
board did not get to it at all, as its
work was confined to the strictly busi-
ness district. One of the affidavits OBJ
tanned Saturday shows that no such
offer as Varcoe based his "opinion"
upon was received, and that property
across the street had sold at a price
remarkably near the assessors figures.
A corner on Main street appraised
bv the state equaliZers' $500 spies at
$500, 900, and by the realty board at
S20O, 900, was actually sold to the pres
ent owner for the latter sum, and the
seller makes oath "that there has never
been a time since it was purchased that
it was worth or would sell for more
than the price paid
Another property owner whose own
holdings were not included in the list
selected by the equalization board
swears that he purchased 100 feet on
Broadway, adjoining a corner which
the state boards appraisers" consid-
cred worth over $4,000 foot at exactly
| half that amount, about a year ago.
| And so this large percentage of differ
! ence between actual sales and the $500
mems ideas of conservative and taxa
BILE value is maintained throughout the
list.
AS a we'll known owner remarked,
| Varcoe and his engineer associate ap-
parently thought they could best de-
serve their $500 for about ten days
"work' by piling on values in proper
| ton to the remuneration given them,
without needing the amount of financial
cost to Los Angeles property owners
| that might result from an unreasonable
raise in assessments throughout the
county.