5 Sneaky Ways To Lower Your Property Tax
Posted on May 6, 2008 in the Property taxes category
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The National Taxpayers Union writes that as many as 60% of all homeowners are over-assessed and not in line with their home value. (“How To Fight Property Taxes” 2004 p.1) |
Many property owners do not want the city assessor to come into the interior of their building. If you have done extensive work, well, then okay, you have a reason. If you have done no repairs and feel the interior of the property is a bit to be desired, you may wish to invite the assessor inside.
Make sure you are available to walk around your property with the assessor and point out the bowed walls because the roof needs to be replaced. Point out the unleveled floor because the property has shifted a bit over the years and probably needs some support beams. Point out some good things as well, never dwell on just the bad points. This might help to lower your assessment, thus lower your property tax liability.
Look at your tax card at the county assessor’s office. You might find some interesting things about the assessment of your property. In a home, the assessor may include a room as a bedroom, but in all reality, you cannot fit a bed in the room. You can also see if they note any improvements or structure damages. If you see any information on the tax card that does not appear correct, talk to the assessor and have the corrections made. This is going to help lower your property tax liability as well.
If you think an in ground pool will benefit the family or a deck for fry outs, or maybe even a larger garage, you might think twice. Any permanent structure that you place on your property will increase your property tax liability. You might consider a nice above ground pool, a backyard barbeque area and forget about the larger garage. This will help keep your assessment value lower, this is a big plus to lower your property tax liability when the assessor comes knocking.
The next way to lower your property tax liability is to keep your decorating ideas at a minimum. Although assessors do follow a set of guidelines for assessing your property, something that looks like a splendidly elegant property will play a role in the assessment. You may find yourself with a higher assessment than a property similar because your property is elegantly decorated. You can decorate, but when the assessor comes to inspect and judge the property, you might not want to impress him or her.
The next thing you can do is know the neighborhood. Sometimes viewing similar properties just like your property may show you some inaccuracies as far as assessed values. Sometimes mistakes are made and you can point this out to the assessor. If you find a property exactly like your property, except it has a larger garage, newer windows, a shed or even a deck and it is valued lower than your property which has none of these things, you might consider calling this to the assessor’s attention. They can and do make entry mistakes as well as observation mistakes. You need to do some checking and thinking before the assessor comes to visit your property.
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32 Responses to “5 Sneaky Ways To Lower Your Property Tax”
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Thanks god that we don’t have that much of Property tax in india
Wonderful information for the recession. You humans are all in this together so help each other all you can. These tips can save you hundreds of dollars.
LOL, that is great… basically think of all the things you would say and do if you were selling your house and walking around with a prospective buyer, and then do the opposite.
Thanks for the real estate tips. waiting for new tips…
I recently had some success lowering my property taxes by changing the classification on one of my rooms from a bedroom to a study/office. I couldn’t even fit a bed in there, and my assessed value was drastically reduced.
Great tips which are useful to those who buy new homes..
It is always a good idea to check the town field card for accuracy. There are many times a mistake is made that can influence the assessment greatly like an incorrect square footage or extra bedroom or bath.
Good article. I have an assessor coming to my home in a few weeks and I like your idea of being sure not to impress them. Might be time to take down some decorations temporarily and hope that it has a good effect on their visit early next month. Thanks!
the conclusion is prepare yourself before the assessor comes.
ahh, nice, I’ll let my clients now about these tricks
Very helpful. This definitely paves way to lower the property tax. Thanks !!!
Union county in NC has some of the lowest taxes with excellent schools. We’re still the fastest growing in the state.
Do property tax assessors actually even enter properties? In Utah it seems like they just throw out a random number based on the age of the home and square footage.
Some very good points here. I’ll keep them in mind especially for Kansas where we pay almost twice the property tax on a lesser priced home than we did in Washington State. Only problem is that I love to decorate!
I think that really depends on what state you live in. For instance I live in Southern California and it doesn’t matter how bad your property is. You would be surprised on what some of the prices/taxes are on shacks in the ghetto neighborhoods are going for. I feel sad for the younger generations because they will never be able to afford a new home.
These are very good ways of trying to keep prices low from the next assessment! In one county where I live they’re based on 1969 values…so a house a $350,000 house might only be assessed at $10,000…their millage is through the roof though!
LOL. Very clever. Show some of the wear and tear to help bring the assessment down.
That’s very interesting. I wasn’t aware that an assessor will use the exterior embellishments like landscape and decor to add value to the property. It makes sense though because it adds to their impression of the house as a whole.
I also wasn’t fully aware of the permanent structure situation either. I know if you made improvements it increased the value, but I didn’t know permanence made a difference. This is good info to pass along to my clients.
Wonderful article. I’m a real estate agent and I just received notice that the assesment on my own property is going up 18% this year! Our house looks very nice, didn’t know that the assessors field observation make such a difference.
That was a very good point about the above ground pool versus the in-ground pool.
I agree with you on letting the tax assessor in. I had a new house built in Ohio and wouldn’t let them in because I was afraid they would over access me. Had the house been dilapidated, I would have only been too happy to let them in.
Great tips. An additional one (at least for Florida property, where prices have fallen!) is to challenge the appraiser’s valuation if you believe that it hasn’t gone down in line with market realities. County valuers were very quick to raise value during the boom but seem reluctant to follow the market down.
We use to have property tax in Malaysia. It was waived few years ago. This causing Singaporean buying houses in Malaysia. Singaporean afford to buy because of the currency exchange. S$1 equal to RM 2.30++. Almost twice the figure. With the property tax waived, Singaporean is smiling coming over to Malaysia. That’s why nearby Malaysian states prosper from it.
good timely post i think i have come across now since i am looking for a new house to purchase. hope this really helps me to check out tax properly. Thanks for your wonderful tips.
Now more than ever, is the time to challenge assessors valuations. When property values wain it can be very useful to know what the properties in your surrounding neighborhood are selling for. This in combination with your advice can save you many dollars.
Good point about looking around your neighborhood…I have been able to lower my property taxes by comparing my property with my neighbors and finding discrepancies (which worked out in my favor).
Good post! I think many of the people who are commenting are right…with home prices dropping dramatically and city governments slow to change property taxes, it is important to challenge you tax appraisal.
Another thing when you go to dispute your property taxes do not forget to research if on the sold comparables any of them had seller contributions. If they do then this money can be deducted from the selling price thereby giving a lower appropriate assesment of value. And with it lower property taxes.
Every year someone should make sure they dispute their tax assessed values to keep them down.
The lower taxes when it comes time to sell the property can actually be a positive in the eyes of the buyer.
With the property market coming down as if has the last 12 months, won’t the assessment values also come down? Or do they look at replacement value and not market value?
Thanks for the tips, there were a few here that I hadn’t really thought of such as looking at the tax card for inconsistencies.
Appealing property taxes here in Colorado Springs can be difficult. Especially, now that the assessed value for many properties is more than what the properties are actually selling for.
House prices are dropping worldwide.
I agree with your article and the most important thing is to take action, everything else will fall in place.