Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office Table Information

Conveyance Flag Information:

Slightly New format for the Transfer File layout starting with the March, 2014 listings:

The column previously titled "Sale Price" is now titled "Conveyance Price", to reflect the fact that even though in most cases the true transfer price is shown, in some cases the value may actually be a value calculated in the process of calculating the conveyance fee and not the actual transfer value.

There is now a column titled "Conveyance Flag", which appears right after the "Conveyance Price" column. The conveyance flag can be blank or take on either of the values "EMV" or "EMV*". In either of these latter cases, the flag indicates that the conveyance amount equals the estimated market value, and so it is highly probable that the county entered that value, and it does not represent the actual transfer amount.

There is a new column at the far right which represents the total estimated market value, and this value includes all (taxable, exempt, abated, and tif) values. This value is pulled from another file. There are also 4 values in the middle of the file which display the taxable (only) assessed values. If the conveyance amount equals the total estimated market value amount but is not equal to the total taxable estimated market value, then the value of the conveyance flag will be "EMV*".

Slightly New format is based on the following:

• An examination of deeds which can be found online on the recorder's site (fiscal office site)
• The real property conveyance fee statement of value form
• The statement of reason for exemption from real property conveyance fee
• Ohio Revised Code 319.202, and Ohio Revised Code 319.54
• Conversations with two persons who work in the fiscal office

In most cases, the value which is now called "Conveyance Price" in the monthly transfer files should reflect the actual price which was paid for the property. However, on the county form which is used to record the property transfer, there is no place where this actual price is entered.

In most cases, the sum of the following, which are entered on the form, equals the purchase price:

1. New mortgage amount (if any)
2. Balance assumed (if any)
3. Cash (if any)

If-

• No part of the consideration paid is for something other than real property, and
• The transfer is not in part or whole a gift, and
• The statement of reason for exemption from real property conveyance fee
• The party(ies) does not qualify for exemption from paying the real property conveyance fee

Then-

• The amount calculated as [i + ii + iii] above is the amount used for calculating the conveyance fee AND the amount which is entered into the consideration box, which eventually becomes the "sale price" (now "conveyance price") field. In most cases (exceptions noted next) this means that the consideration amount will equal the true sale price

Supposing the buyer and/or seller do not warrant an exemption from the conveyance fee, and the property transferred was a gift in whole or part, then the amount entered in the consideration box is equal to the estimated market value of the property. The county enters the estimated market value, as stored in their system, as the consideration value, and in these cases, it is this value which eventually appears in the consideration value column in the transfer files.

There is a long list of reasons for exemption from paying the fee, and if one receives the exemption, then the consideration will be entered as $0. For example, this is why the HUD sales show up as $0:

• Exemption a on the form: to or from the United States, this state or any instrumentality, agency or political subdivision of the US or this state

Another exemption is the following –

• To or from an organization exempt from federal income under IRS code 501(c)(3), provided such transfer is without consideration and is in furtherance of the charitable or public purpose of such organization

Note to those who calculate statistics from the sales (conveyance) prices:

• Here in the Urban College, Quit Claim (Deed Type = "QTC") transfers have never been used in any sort of statistical analysis, we don't believe they are used by the county in their sales analyses, and we recommend leaving them out of statistical analyses. There are myriad reasons why quit claims can be other than fair-market exchanges.
• In most (but not all) of the cases in which the conveyance price equals the county's estimated market value, the deed type involved is a quit claim. If you have been filtering them out of any statistical analyses you have been doing, nothing in this memo should really affect you.
• Tom Bier met with the county many years back, and the following are the deeds which were suggested as deed types for which almost all of the transfers should represent fair-market exchanges:
  • WAR (warranty)
  • AFF (affidavit)
  • CON (condominium)
  • GDN (guardian)
  • TRS (trustee)
  • SUR (survivorship)
  • ADM (administrative)
  • EXC (executors)
  • FID (fiduciary)
  • TOR (torrens)
  • TOD (transfer on death)
• Then you can also decide if you want to include SHF (sheriff) sales, which constitute a substantial portion of the sales, but obviously are not sold the "normal" way.
• The LIM (limited warranty) deed has also become a larger part of the total in recent years. Many of these seem to pop up when a property transfers the time after it had transferred via a sheriff sale. In most cases, the values for these are much lower than the overall average.