Although it hasn’t always been, Montana is one of the 12 “non-disclosure” states in the nation. Real estate licensees often hear the comment “Montana is a non-disclosure state”, licensees and members of the public frequently do not fully understand what the term means. In many states, the documents used to complete a sale require the parties to publicly disclose the sales and purchase price. This type of reporting system allows the taxing authorities to easily adjust values for tax purposes based upon the forced disclosure of the sales price. Many years ago, the Montana legislature looked at this issue and passed laws preventing the taxing authorities from using the sales price of properties as the basis for establishing taxable values. As a result, Montana became one of the “non-disclosure” states in the U.S. Due to sold prices not being public information, sites like Zillow that use public records to offer its “Zestimates”, are often skewed and not a true representation of your home. For this reason, its is important to ask your Realtor to perform a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) for you.
Leave a Reply