Appraisal of Railroad Land ~ Paperback ~ Somers Unit System of Realty Valuation

Excerpt from Appraisal of Railroad Land: A Study of the Land Values of the Broad Street Passenger Terminal and Connecting Right of Way in Philadelphia; Showing the Unit Foot Values of Street Accessibility to Contiguous and Similar Land, and Block Computations by the Somers Rules and Tables As compared to the difficulties connected with the appraisal of the land "used and useful" to the railroads of the United States, the task of appraising the "man-made" property of the railroads is comparatively simple. In the case of property other than land, the kinds, the quantities and the unit prices for computing new reproductive costs may be ascertained or computed with comparative ease. The difficulty of this task lies only in its magnitude. The application of factors of depreciation, where depreciation exists, requires the exercise of judgment, but that judgment may be simplified within a reasonable range of diversity of opinion. The results of two independent appraisals under a specific understanding as to the point of view to be worked out could not show a wide variance as to the fair value of the man-made property of even the largest of American railroad properties. Lack of Land Valuation System. But the valuation of the land sites comprising terminals, rights of way, water privileges and business headquarters of the interstate railways involves tremendous difficulties, both as to the problem itself, and as to the manner in which the work may best be carried out. The legal theory that the value of a land site is what a willing buyer who is not compelled to buy will pay a willing seller who is not compelled to sell, has in the past been so flexible as to admit of appraisals by experts of recognized knowledge, ability and integrity varying hundreds and even thousands of percent, one with another. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.