Property Tax Question? (Lewis: new house, buying, assess)

[max7418]

Originally Posted by NYNewbie

Why are we overtaxed when we pay more taxes than the average dragged down by ratholes like Florida and Alabama? At what point is one overtaxed? Which services are you tired of?

I left Florida to move here precisely because of the willingness on the part of New Yorkers to pay what it costs for good schools and other services.
I pay $5500/year in taxes on my dump-of-a-house and haven't thought twice about the move - and I make relatively little.

Be careful with the anti-tax rhetoric, as it usually precedes the rise of Republicans who are more than willing to leave their corporate positions to become "public servants," who drop taxes, degrade schools THEIR kids don't go to, destroy unions, and readily strangulate the options of government with strangulating debt. Be careful.

Do I have to disagree with everything you said to be a republican? I'm not one. But I think I'd sooner put a bullet in my head than argue for the high taxes of LI. Selling my nesconset townhouse which had $8000 taxes plus $300 a month maitenance was the best thing I ever did. Couldn't the local government be a little more efficient with our tax dollars?

[KellyFG]

there is no way the town will tell you they lowered your taxes even if you paid a dollar for the house. We just used Mark Lewis it required NO EFFORT from us. Our taxes were lowered $1383.12 a year. We paied mark lewis a one time fee of $766.56

[momix5]

Mark Lewis is great, as far as the taxes being so high the administrators salaries need investigation, and why are there so many darn administrators anyway? And yes there are bad schools on Long Island and therea are good schools in Fla.

[Smash255]

Originally Posted by momix5

Mark Lewis is great, as far as the taxes being so high the administrators salaries need investigation, and why are there so many darn administrators anyway? And yes there are bad schools on Long Island and therea are good schools in Fla.

Some bad schools on LI & some good schools in FLA? Yes, but if you compare the areas as a whole Long Island Schools are MUCH better and one of the best in the entire country.

[alexei27]

for those who greived their taxes...

I have heard Mark Lewis is fantastic. However...my new home is grossly overassessed to the tune of about 150K. Its assessed at 450K and the new appraisal is 300k. If the grievance is successful I stand to shave $3500 a year off my taxes (according to the tax assessor). Has anyone ever grieved on their own? If so...how difficult was the process. I would like to avoid having to pay over $1700 if possible. thanks!!

[TomMoser]

To pay 1700 once to save 3500 every year is a good deal. Grieving your own taxes is akin to performing your own dental work.

[alexei27]

Thanks...Tom. The NYS Real Property tax website makes it sound like all you need are comparable sales....and proof that your house is overvalued (arms length sale price). I imagine. I guess there is more involved than what they say? Not surprised I guess...:-)

[2011littlehouse]

This is an old thread, but I did not want to start a new one.

Want to understand the exact method of calculating property taxes (to have the ability to grieve them .

Here is what browsing around tells me:

Notations:
PP - purchase price for a property
MV - fair market value (county records)
AV - assessed value for tax purposes (set fraction of MV)
LoA - level of assessment (=AV/MV)
PT - paid taxes on a property (not considering any exemptions)
TR - tax rate (=PT/AV) - this is variable depending on the money that need to be raised, approved budgets/increases, on the AV-s of houses in the region, successful grievances...

Calculations:
PT = TR*AV = TR*LoA*MV

Questions:
Q1: Where can I find the current LoA and TR (or at least the ones for the last tax year)?

Q2: What is the region/block/unit around a house that has the same TR? In other words, is there a TR-map or sorts, indicating which streets etc carry the same tax rate as my house? I don't think the TR is the same across a school district. Presumably, this is important to know, so that comparisons of MV are made.

Q3: It appears that MV is the only variable that one can contest for grieving taxes. For a recent purchase, how does PP come into the equation:
a) if PP is lower than the MV on record, can the PP be used to adjust MV?
b) if PP is higher than MV on record - does that lead to automatic increase/adjustment for tax purposes?
c) Or is it some more complicated formula using PP, prior MV and other factors?

Thanks!

[amyla]

We used Mark Lewis and they got us a reduction of a few thousand dollars. The new house we are buying is assessed at over 100k from what we will pay. I spoke to Mark Lewis and we are expecting a reduction-cross fingers-

[majortom1981]

Originally Posted by amyla

We used Mark Lewis and they got us a reduction of a few thousand dollars. The new house we are buying is assessed at over 100k from what we will pay. I spoke to Mark Lewis and we are expecting a reduction-cross fingers-

I live in a condo development and the whole development got our taxes reduced also. So getting them reduced can be done.