Real Estate Assessment Revolution. I need your help. (Barnett: 2009, assessor)

[moajots]

Am I the only one who is angry about their 2009 real estate assessments?

I just received my 2009 assessment on a small lake front parcel located in Barnett, Morgan Co., and it went up 44.9% from 2008. How is this possible when all across America property values have suffered considerable deflation? My assessor is Robert Raines.

Get this, a few years ago Mr. Raines assessed another Morgan Co, property I own which I had just paid a little over $100K nine months earlier, for $2 MILLION. This was not in error as I called him to complain. He stated it was correct. I was told that all I had to do was take some dynamite and level off the top of my property and it would be worth the $2 M. WHAT?

We went to arbitration and I won. I even contacted the governors office and learned, not surprisingly, that they even question this assessor's actions.

If your income can keep up with these ridiculous increases, let me know where you work, because I need your job. Is anyone with me on this? If so, what can be done? No, my permanent residence is not at the lake, yet.

[Nu2pomona]

Contact your local board of appeals. There should be an open book period after a reassessment so property owners can see what neighboring property was assessed at.

The demand for Lakefront property has been going up and up over the past ten years as has its value but in many areas, the assessment has remained the same. As a result, most states in the Midwest have instituted new assessment guides for lakefront homes bringing the assessed value closer to the fair market value.