On Monday, February 6th, the Fannin County Board of Assessors approved a motion to move $2000 out of their capital outlay to use to obtain access to a Multiple Listings Service (MLS) website.

Fannin County Chief Appraiser Lorrie Galloway told the Board of Assessors on Monday that she thought it would be useful for the county’s appraisers to have access to a MLS website that they could use to look at property listings in the county that are for sale and have already sold. MLS websites are websites that allow realtors and appraisers to do just that.

Galloway informed the board that a MLS user has access to look at properties that have sold as far back as two years ago. She then explained to the board that she thought this would allow them for example to look at a certain subdivision’s listings and be able to evaluate another listing in that subdivision based off of a current sale.

Galloway said that the MLS website the appraisers would use would be a MLS that offers all the listings of the Northeast Georgia Realtor Board. She then told the board that the service would cost a one-time activation fee of $500, a $300 a year maintenance fee and a $25 per user fee, and further explained there would be four appraisers that would need to use the service including her. After hearing the request, the board then decided that the best way to purchase the service would be to remove funds out of the board’s capital outlay which is a storage account the board uses to purchase any large items that they might need.

According to Fannin County Clerk Rita Kirby, the Tax Assessors Office had $11,000 in their capital outlay to use on any such request. After making the decision to remove the funds from their capital outlay, the board then unanimously approved a motion to remove $2000 out of their capital outlay to use for the MLS access. Galloway later told FYN that the main reason she thought the MLS would benefit the county’s appraisers is a MLS will allow them to look at more data information when compiling their 2012 tax digest. “With a MLS website we’ll be able to see what has sold recently.” Galloway stated.