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In our previous article, “Property Taxes – Are You Paying Too Much?” we saw how the local government may be causing your home to be improperly valued forcing you to foot a bill that is too high. Now we’ll consider how to change your fortune by checking your home’s assessment and appealing.

If you feel that your home has been over valued, you can request an assessment to help reduce your real estate tax liability.

It’s common for your local government to allow approximately 10 to 30 days to appeal their assessment after they notify you. To ensure that the assessor hasn’t made any mistakes in describing your property you’ll want to review the property record card, which is a summary of the characteristics of your home. You can easily determine if an extra bedroom or bathroom has been reported; this mistake can quickly drive up your home’s value.

The appeal, however, can be a bad idea if you’ve made upgrades and renovations that weren’t taken into account by the assessor, you may drive your assessment even higher. But you needn’t be too careful, the effort to appeal is usually well worth it if you feel your property has been overvalued.

Note, too, whether the assessor has accurately described any issues that would force the property value down, such as flooding or a roof in need of repair.

Your most powerful weapon in an appeal is comparable sales. Think of the appeal process as a court hearing in which property owners present their case to officials, and the easiest way to convince them that your home’s value has been incorrectly valued is to show them the sales price of homes that are comparable to yours; comparable, that is, in terms of size, features, and neighborhood characteristics.

You can find recent property sales on the websites of many assessors’ offices. Look for home sales data between parties that aren’t related, as transactions between family members tend to be lower – also these sales are not likely to be accepted in an appeal in any case. If a sales document has the same last names, you should pass.

For areas that have little to no sales action to compare with, you may need to hire a professional appraiser. Another option is to hire a lawyer specializing in property-tax appeals.

See also:
Wrapping Up Year-end Financial Matters
Size Matters, Know Your Home Loan Type
What to Expect in a Home Inspection