Bob Galivan's Q&A

Tax information is available at http://www.co.miami-dade.fl.us/pa. The taxes currently being paid on any property have no bearing on what you will pay, because the value of the property is re-assessed at the time of your purchase. Further, in a foreclosure situation (as this one is), the tax information may not reflect the actual taxes on the property. If you go to http://www.co.miami-dade.fl.us/pa, you can click the tax estimator link on the left side of the page to determine what your taxes MIGHT be if you purchase the property.

Hi! According to the tax rolls, your house has 4,690 sf of living area and 4,690 of total area. Not sure where the 5,494 came from, but:In Dade County, the Total Area number is the "footprint" of your home - under air, garage, patio, etc. The Living Area, or adjusted square footage, is calculated on a formula that is basically 100% of the first floor under air, 80% of the second floor under air, 50% of the garage, 33% of overhang (like a covered patio). It's a little more complicated than that - I think there's some rule about the depth of the overhang - like the 2' overhang around most homes isn't counted (I don't think). I'm a Realtor; we use the adjusted square footage to "equalize" values for the most part, because they're all calculated in the same way. What makes it harder in Miami is the illegal construction - like converting a garage. That skews the results quite a bit. Hope that helps.

It probably didn't. Tax records show the sale as you noted; prior to that it was transferred through probate. The transfer to the current owner was through a quit-claim deed; the seller's were from Nicaragua. The assessed value is $450,000.Did the sale price cause you a problem?