How much do you pay in property tax for your home? (2 Viewers)

[ragincajun]

Pay your taxes Louisiana

They tax the crap out of me.

 

[Johnny Rock]

$3,600 - 4,750 sq ft (not all finished), 40+ acres on a lake in MN.

 

[Drifter]

Around 6k for a 3000 sq ft house on 10,000 sq ft lot about 20 minutes from downtown Seattle. Of course, that doesn't include trash and utilities that throw on close to another $600 or so a month

 

[gianmarco]

Has anyone filed a property tax appeal before?  Our house that was just built was assessed more than it should have been it seems.  Both through comps to 2 other homes on our street as well as the actual cost to build, I stand to lower my annual taxes significantly but have never done so.  There's instructions online but I'm not sure how successful owners typically are in these types of things and/or should I actually hire someone to help to make sure I can get somewhere with it. 

Thoughts?

Yes.  Got the county gubmint re-appraised value lowered based on sales comps in the neighborhood.  It was a raw deal money grab with no real basis other than wanting more money and figuring most people wouldn't take the trouble.  My wife is a RE agent/broker and it was easy for her to fill out the forms and get the comps.

Appraiser was your typical lazy local gubmint loser.




Maybe you or your wife might know, but would I be better off using comps or showing what we paid to our builder?  I know the comps will be lower than the current appraised value but not sure if it'll be as low as the building cost.  I just don't know which carries more weight.  Did you have to show up to the hearing and give the information or did you just turn it in and then waited to hear back?






I don't know and I asked her and she doesn't know for sure ...but would think that the county doesn't care what you spent - it has everything to do with the market value formula they have come up with.  So showing how true sales compare to their calculations and where that puts your home was the way to go for us.  As an example, the country had swimming pools as a sizable addition in value - when in reality, in our area, a pool adds no value at best.     






After several more calls, finally got a supervisor in the appraiser's office.  I sent them closing statements and details of how much we paid our builder and somehow got a call back later that day.  They agreed to lower the appraisal by about 14% (almost to the amount I asked) and will save me over $2k in taxes this year.  Even better is the fact that I don't have to go through the actual appeals process.  The frustrating thing was the amount I had to pay by end of March and they don't even start appeals until May so I would have had to pay "under protest" and go through so much more just to get it done.  I'm a bit surprised it happened that easily but I'll take it.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

After several more calls, finally got a supervisor in the appraiser's office.  I sent them closing statements and details of how much we paid our builder and somehow got a call back later that day.  They agreed to lower the appraisal by about 14% (almost to the amount I asked) and will save me over $2k in taxes this year.  Even better is the fact that I don't have to go through the actual appeals process.  The frustrating thing was the amount I had to pay by end of March and they don't even start appeals until May so I would have had to pay "under protest" and go through so much more just to get it done.  I'm a bit surprised it happened that easily but I'll take it.

 Awesome man!  Its always worth a chance - especially when you know they are way off.