DÔN'T BÉ AFRAID TO APPEAL YOUR PROPERTY ASSESSMENT

[dancinmama]

Even though I live in a VHCOLA, I don't think my home has increased in value by $100K over the last year!! I mean, really??!!; what are those guys smokin'?

I received my property assessment (precursor to the actual bill) and decided to give my county assessor's office a buzz. I barely had to argue my case. The assessor that I spoke with agreed that the "computer generated assessment" was "a bit" off the mark. He looked at the 2009 assessment and lowered that by an additional $2K!!

Five minutes of my time = $1000 in savings!! ;D

Moral of the story: You can fight city hall....uhm, the county assessor's office.... AND WIN!!

[Deleted]

Here's another tip: Property Tax Assessment challenges are free...at least in TX, and I'm sure elsewhere. Don't let someone try and get your value reduced "for a fee". Trust me....it happens all the time where I live and some people just don't know any better.

[Deleted]

What is your house worth these days dancin? I'm curious how it was affected when the bubble burst.

[dancinmama]

Jul 14, 2011 14:58:31 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

What is your house worth these days dancin? I'm curious how it was affected when the bubble burst.

Well, we sold at the peak and bought at the peak. We are far from underwater and still have a pretty hefty mortgage, but ALMOST have the funds to pay it off if we felt so inclined - which we don't. ;D

It has decreased in value by about 50% which would be a disaster if we needed to sell, but thank goodness we bought it with retirement in mind. Along with the decrease in value has come the decrease in property taxes (Prop. 8 property tax reduction) which has already saved us over $20K since I applied for it in 2008.

I feel VERY FORTUNATE that we have not YET felt the direct effects of this CRAPPY ECONOMY (as I knock on wood because DH's company will be giving out pink slips at the end of the month ).

[marvholly]

I live in Crook County IL. Around here if you don't have the right connections or use the right lawyer your appeal gets filed in the circular file.

[schildi]

I did question our assessment, followed up with a few phone calls and ended up with an assessment that was EXACTLY what I suggested. It did take a few follow ups, and talking directly to the assessor. I think he got tired of it, and adjusted the value.
It saved us a ton of money though.

[ejd86]

My parents appealed and are now saving 3-4k a year... definitely worth a try.

[Deleted]

Today I got word that I won another tax appeal for last year. I won one two years ago when I refinanced in 2009 and the appraisal came in about 10% lower than I expected. Stupid assessor raised the value for 2010 stating the value had gone up by nearly 5% (San Diego County) huh

I got really tweeked and pulled comps off of Zillow and made the argument the property was worth 10% less than 2009. I have to do it again because they used the unadjusted 2010 value for FY 2011-2012. It's a pain but it is saving me about $2k/yr. I estimate that I've saved over 6k in property taxes over the last 3 years!

But I'd still rather be able to sell the property at the higher property value, LOL!