Whether you are a real estate investor or a homeowner, whether you own one property or one hundred, PLEASE read on and save yourself some money. According to the Tax Foundation and the U.S. Census Bureau, property taxes are rising at more than twice the rate of inflation in this decade. That was bad enough when home values were on the rise. Now, if you don’t take action on proposed higher property taxes, your cash flow may suffer even more.

This is the time of the year when properties are reassessed. Property Tax authorities or assessors offices will send property owners an update on the “assessed” value of their property which, in 9 out of 10 cases, will be higher than the past value. What should you do to protect yourself and fight?

Appeal the Proposed Increase!

1. Call the assessor’s office and find out how they arrived at this value. In some counties the tax value is based on a percentage of the property’s estimated value. Find out how this value was established—this is vital in markets where property values have dramatically declined.

2. Research property values in the neighborhood and verify the properties’ assessed values within one mile of your residence. Several years ago I appealed the proposed property tax for a rental property I owned. I won the appeal because I was able to prove 2 of the houses in the neighborhood with identical floor plans had lower assessed values. Since I was able to prove this, the county had to lower my assessed value. In my case, it made a $200 difference on my tax bill! So it was worth the effort.

3. Build your case and do it quickly. There will be a deadline on your proposed assessment to file an appeal. Do it immediately. There is no cost to do this and the worst that can happen is you lose and the property stays at the proposed value.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under General Interests, Investing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.