TakingValue.com

Sawyer Realty Group, Inc. EFFECTIVE NOVEMBER 2009, Mark Sawyer is not available for fee assignments.

Services

St. Petersburg based in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, is now a part-time business specializing in real estate consulting for eminent domain purposes. Our primary counties for consulting work are Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk. We have extensive eminent domain valuation experience involving takings for road widening. While past services included appraisals, our services are now limited to appraisal review, general consultation, and expert testimony for fee hearings.

Appraisal Review
If an appraisal has already been prepared for the condemning authority and is available to the property owner, the first step is to review the appraisal for adequacy and reasonableness. The scope of the review is dictated by the content and completeness of the appraisal. In many cases, a desk review will also include preliminary inspections of the subject and comparable properties. The reviewer's opinions are provided to the eminent domain attorney by verbal or written reports. The attorney will then decide what type of valuation service is warranted to obtain just compensation for the client.

Consultation
If something other than an appraisal serves as the best option for valuation support, consultation provides verbal or written communication on issues relating to appraisal review, deposition review, general conditions of the eminent domain taking, or an on-going trial. The relatively short time frame for consultation can help speed up a settlement if the issues are non-complex.

Expert Testimony
After a government agency has started to acquire property through the condemnation process, settlement can occur at any stage of negotiation. In an attempt to avoid trial and promote a negotiated settlement, a case is usually set for a formal mediation between parties. If the mediation is not successful, then the case goes to a jury trial. During the trial, appraisers and other experts for both sides testify about the value and/or impact of the taking. After weighing the evidence, the jury determines just compensation for the property taken.

When the case is settled, the property owner's attorney submits all of the experts' fee invoices to the condemning authority for payment. If any of the parties cannot agree on a reasonable fee, then the matter goes before the judge in charge of the case. At the hearing, the expert gives testimony in front of the judge. Many times the condemning authority and/or the expert will bring an experienced colleague from the expert's profession to serve as a witness who will testify as to the reasonableness of the expert's fee. We can provide such a service with respect to the appraiser expert. After hearing all testimony from both sides, the judge makes a binding decision on the amount of the expert's fee.