City Property Reassessment

[EggMaker]

Originally Posted by Copanut

You do NOT need to hire a lawyer to win your residential appeal. Do your homework with either an agent/broker or get an appraisal from an appraiser that does a lot of assessment appeals. How you can tell if you're getting a good one? If he tells you over the phone what your house is worth, call someone else. Legally he cannot give a value until AFTER he completes a written report.

If your house sold recently and the county is much higher, simply take your sales agreement to the hearing, slam dunk if it's an arms-length transaction.

If the assessment is raised but the value is still less than what you paid for it, stay home. You open the door for the hearing officer to raise it to full sale price.

Do not compare assessed value to assessed value as comparables, carries no weight. Find good, solid comparables as similar to your house as possible. Remember, you can go back 2-3 years, there are bound to be some in your immediate neighborhood.

Unless you have a major structural problem, leave the photos at home. If the house is in that bad of shape why are you still living there?

Arrive early, there are a lot of no-shows, you might be able to move up in line.

Remember, it's what YOUR house is worth, not your neighbor's.

Have fun.

I wish this were universally true. But it's not.

Unfortunately, the taxing authorities can slap a number on your house, and the burden is then on you to prove them wrong - and even when you do prove them wrong, they can choose not to accept the proof. They do seem to become more rational when they suspect they might incur legal costs.

[stburr91]

Originally Posted by Copanut

No doubt if YOUR house was under assessed I'm sure you would march down to the County Building and demand they raise the value. Seems to me the OP is just asking for advice. He purchased his home after the county wide reassessment, paid more than the assessed value, and now it will be adjusted. What more do you want? Seems like the system is working properly.

It's one thing to benefit from a system that systematically under assesses homes over 100k, but to actively fight fair assesses is another matter all together. There is noting ethical about fighting a fair assessment, but it's all to common. What's even worse, is the number of people that fight assessments that are under the fair market value.

There are some many people that simply want to pay as little as possible, regardless of the fact that it means that those with the lowest valued homes (often low income people) end up paying more than their fair share of the taxes.

[MountainDewGuy]

Originally Posted by stburr91

It's one thing to benefit from a system that systematically under assesses homes over 100k, but to actively fight fair assesses is another matter all together. There is noting ethical about fighting a fair assessment, but it's all to common. What's even worse, is the number of people that fight assessments that are under the fair market value.

There are some many people that simply want to pay as little as possible, regardless of the fact that it means that those with the lowest valued homes (often low income people) end up paying more than their fair share of the taxes.

Again, why should someone be assessed at market value when most of their neighbors are assessed at much lower? I could argue that the OP is being asked to pay more than his/her fair share because most everyone else is not contributing enough.

[robrobrob]

Copanut is right. Listen to him.

Bring your sales agreement from 3 years ago. Maybe you got cash back at closing? On our first house we got a fair amount back to fix a defect.