Real Estate Search and Sale LLC

Property Tax Assessment  

Many home owners just received a property tax assessment and don’t like the increase in taxes.

Most of you found that the assessment was about $100K over what the homes are selling for in your neighborhood.  You can petition your local tax assessment office to reduce the assessed value of your property, so that you don’t have to pay as much in taxes.  It is likely that you will get the taxes reduced if you can substantiate your claim with documentation, which will demonstrate that the Fair Market Value for the home is less than the assessed value.

The best way to do this is to produce a copy of the HUD I, if the property was purchased within the last six months or get a CMA.   A CMA is a competitive market analysis.  This is created by taking recent home sales in the area, which have features that most closely match yours.  It is NOT an appraisal, which may only be provided by a licensed appraiser.

We can do the comparables for you.  We need:

1. Your address
2. Style of your home
3. Number of bedrooms
4. Bathrooms
5. Condition of your home
6. Best way to reach you?  

There should be at least three recent home sales, with similar criterion to prove our case.  Several neighborhoods which have not had a home sold in OVER a year.  The analysis must be on homes sold.  Utilizing homes that are currently available for sale does not have any credibility and is not to your advantage.  This is great for your tax argument, but terrible for your property value.

If your home has not been updated nor needs major work, you should make sure that you let us know and put this in the letter to the assessment office.  I have been successful in getting assessments significantly reduced by working with the assessor to realize the legitimate state of the property.  This saved my client over one thousand dollars on his property taxes EACH YEAR. He was receiving a tax reduction for other purposes as well. If this was not the case, the savings would have been greater.

The CMA I provide will have two professional price opinions.  One is the lowest price at which I think your home may sell for if you put it on the market and sold it today.  The second will be the highest price I think that your home may sell for.

The following links have assessment appeal instructions:
times to appeal.  There is additional  jargon that states that it may be by petition or review.  Which I infer to mean anytime!  Go ahead and file for your assessment.  What do you have to lose? 

Carolyn Thompson, Broker of Intellagent Realty Services  is a consumer advocate. 

Please remember her when it comes time to buy or sell a property.

Equal Housing Opportunity!

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