I have contested our property taxes almost every year for decades.
They tell me they are not in the business of buying property so they are not interested in buying mine at the taxed amount.
One year they had gone up a stupid amount. When I called to schedule the protest they told me it would be six months before they could get me on the schedule and by then it was too late to protest, so I might as well just go ahead and pay the higher rate.
I did my homework, really .... really well and found out who was on the review board for the county. I then looked at the history of their homes and the tax rates for thier properties. As well I looked at the Mayor, the Police Chief and all the City Council members properties as well. I had my ammunition.
I also did an extensive amount of research on our own property and had that information as well. I even went as far as to have an appraisal done (for insurance back-up)
During the protest meeting I plead my case. I told them property values are down all over the country, not just in our county. I provided seven comps of sold properties that were similar to our own. I provided interior images to argue what they said was in this particular home that was not actually there.
The comments were, they felt the property was adequately valued and they did not believe I had enough evidence to lower the value and asked if I had any other comments before the rendered the case.
"Well, I said....." and I began to go over every single one of their properties and all the city and county leaders properties and how in this economy thier property values had decreased, some by as much as 48% form the previous year.
I asked why would property values decrease so much on "Selected Properties" and increase so much on other properties. I then told them maybe this is an argument the media should look into, because they would have the money to investigate this more thoroughly. Then I asked them if they would like to reconsider our property tax evaluation or their own property tax evaluation.
Needless to say they dropped our property values by 45% that year. I did not pull out the appraisal because the new value they proposed was considerably lower than market value.
Funny how the next year we didn't have any problems.
________________
Ferrari Killer
Steve
Must Sell Right Now
.