Moving from Fort Mill to Indian Land (Union, Lancaster: sales, foreclose)

[cinnamon01]

We are wanting to down size and found some property in Indian Land to build. Here are my questions:
I know Fort Mill Schools are rated so good, my personal opinion is it depends on the teacher, we have had our share of both good and bad at FMES and FMMS. My kids will be in 6th and 8th grade what can you tell me about your experiences in the IL middle and high school. Are there uniforms in middle? How are the class sizes and teachers?
Are the taxes going to be the same (4%), I did look at the tax tables but I am not that knowledgable when it comes to those things !
The house we have right now has an appraised value of $326,000 and the assessed value is $13,040 so we pay $1,560 in taxes. How can I find out what my taxes will be in IL (off Shelley Mullis) on the house we build?
Also right now we are on septic and well, the lot we are looking at has sewer and water. What kind of water bills can I expect? Does anyone know if you can put a well in instead of using county water?
Thanks in advance for the help.

[grannynancy]

The house we have right now has an appraised value of $326,000 and the assessed value is $13,040 so we pay $1,560 in taxes

WHAAAAT! I am going to be a REALLY angry taxpayer if someone is living in a home worth about 150K more than my house with kids in school and pays the same taxes I pay!!!!

[cinnamon01]

This is why I say that the whole tax thing confuses me. I have been researching property taxes in York Co. when we were looking at some other lots, and there is no sense to it. You can research tax numbers here: :: GIS Online Mapping and Property Search :: (broken link)
and find out the property tax here:
York County Online Taxes (http://www.yorkcountygov.com/onlinetaxes/ - broken link)
What I have found makes no sense to me.
But anyways... does any one have any other info for me on my original post?

[grannynancy]

I would just call the tax assesor in Lancaster County - look at where you are going to live [city limits, not,which city] and they can help you - you can also look up the tax records for the house you are buying if it is already built. I think they recently put in an impact fee for new constructions. I think the 4% is statewide for a primary residence and 6% for other residences and personal property.

I don't know where Lancaster Country water comes from. In Fort Mill, I pay about $65 a month and that is without doing any irrigation [but we do a lot of Laundry with a disabled parent]

[DCtransplant]

My water bill averages about $50/month. The Lancaster Water & Sewer is located in Lancaster itself, so it's abot 20 miles south of Indian Land. I'm not sure if you can put in a well if there is a connection for county water. You would need to call the water department and ask them that question probably.

If you call the tax assessor please make sure they are aware that you are in LANCASTER county, not YORK! I have had issues every year, even with the new zipcode, on getting the correct tax bills for both car and property. I had York County Tax Office threatening to come and foreclose on my home because I had not paid taxes. I told them repeatedly that I was in Lancaster county and not York, but it seems nobody could ever make the correction. I told them if they wanted to come visit me I would be sitting on the porch waiting for the sheriff...funny nobody ever showed up.

[Belmarin]

[quote=grannynancy;4447840] you can also look up the tax records for the house you are buying if it is already built. I think they recently put in an impact fee for new constructions. I think the 4% is statewide for a primary residence and 6% for other residences and personal property.

You are now assessed for taxes based on the sales price of the home. Do not use the taxes currently paid on the home. This change went into effect on homes bought from Jan, 2007.

[muffinman]

I'm guessing you'll be building in Shelley Woods or Chastain?

Here's the link to the Lancaster County website.

Lancaster County

http://www.lancastercountysc.net/documents/brochure1.pdf (broken link)

The above PDF may be out of date due to Act 388 that the SC legislature passed last year (see link below). SC removed a large portion of homeowner responsibility for funding schools.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/york-...act-388-a.html

The taxes are easy enough to figure out and yes the ratio of 4% is the same. Lancaster County figures taxes like so:

taxable value of land * .04 = assessed value
building value * .04 = assessed value

total assessed value x .246 mills = tax due

That amount use to be what I paid until Act 388. The county should be able to tell you more about how to estimate that amount but my taxes dropped from $2100 to just under $900....almost 60%.

As for water, Lancaster has a 24 acre reservoir lake. I don't have any experience with the wells. There may be other water sources but our water is good enough here that Union Co, NC buys it regularly. The big thing right now is the trace amounts of a chemical they found. Lancaster charges about $30 for the first 3,000 of water and $20 or so for the first 3,000 of sewer. Even if one were to use less than 3,000 the bill amount only decreases slightly for the sewer charge.

Of course since you'll be in unincorporated Indian Land, there's no county provided trash collection.

Also, my attorney recently told me that people are being asked to declare their address as Indian Land, SC 29707 or Fort Mill, SC 29707 at closing.