Making Sense Out Of Property Assessments
Posted on February 26, 2009 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) |
Homeowners are disputing why their property taxes are so high. Often they will look at similar homes as theirs and notice the property tax assessment is only an point of view of value that needs be looked at closely. When one gets the right figures they may end up disputing into the tax assessment process. The tax assessors may need to be held accountable for the aggregate routine to be fair.
Most people have the erroneous idea that the tax assessor comes up with the assessed value of their property. Actually tax assessors almost never value a home. The job is bid out on a bid basis to professional area blanket appraiser businesses who determine market value for the homes in a given neighborhood.
The appraising party needs to make a return on their per house bid charge and have to allocate a minimum amount of their time per appraisal. They blanket large areas and make their conclusion of value rather quickly because of money and time restraints. Misjudgments frequently occur. Consumer Reports gives the error rate equals 40%.
Unfortunately there exists a method that seems to confuse the problem in that the market value of a house is divide by a sales ratio and that fraction and is given as the assessment. Everything of property assessments depends on the sales ratio. Different states and jurisdictions call sales ratio by other names but meaning the same thing. This can be called, based on on the jurisdiction, assessment level, director’s ratio, the average ratio, the common level of 100% of true value, RAR (residential assessment ratio) or the equalization rate (which may not always be equivalent to the sales ratio).
NOTE THIS FORMULA: The market appraisal of a property = the “assessed value” that the county tax assessor came up with DIVIDED by the sales ratio. That looks like smoke and mirrors to a lot of people.
Most get duped by this appraisal approach and don’t know what the firm score is.
For instance, if the sales ratio for an area is pegged at 50%, a $500,000 dollar home should be assessed at $250,000. So, if the homeowner sees that their home is assessed at $400,000 he/she might be thinking they are getting a super deal, but in reality they are getting gypped.
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I am looking to purchase a piece of investment property for rental purposes. It is just an average home, nothing special about it. It is priced about $15000 above market value. Any help appreciated.
Earlier this year I could find what each property was assessed in Knox County, Indiana. Now, the site in not working. Manatron was the company that had been used. any idea how to find the new site without calling someone at the court house and asking?