Opinion ID: 1829637
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Market Comparison Study

Text: The county next argues that where the tax court accepted, without modification, the testimony of respondent's appraiser regarding market comparisons, one is left with a firm conviction that a mistake was made. Both appraisers used the same two comparable sales in their analyses but varied in their adjustments to account for the differences between the comparable properties and respondent's property. Respondent's appraiser testified that respondent's property was inferior to the comparable properties. The county claims that the weight of the evidence, including its own appraiser's testimony and the testimony of a third appraiser, supports a finding that respondent's property was superior to the two comparable properties considered. The court concluded that the adjustments made by respondent's appraiser more closely accounted for differences between the comparable properties and the subject property. In effect, the tax court simply found more creditable the analysis of respondent's appraiser. The tax court is in the best position to evaluate the credibility of witnesses. F-D Oil, 560 N.W.2d at 706. Where the tax court concluded that adjustments to market comparisons made by one appraiser more closely accounted for differences in the properties, the tax court did not clearly err in accepting that appraiser's market comparison value.