Lower Your Property Taxes!

[Jmoody10]

My wife and I bought 24 acres last year and started building a house 6 months ago. We cut out one acre from the parcel for our home. We got our first tax bill for the remaining 23 acres. We were surprised to find a 50% hike from the previous owner's bill.

I went to the tax office and talked with the appraiser. He showed us how to file an appeal, what information to gather, and how to come up with an estimated value. We compared recent sells on surrounding land to come up with a fair value. We then applied for two tax reduction programs in our state (GA). The whole process took about 6-8 hours of work/research/meeting with people.

Our property tax bill for the land was $773 a year. It is now $87 a year!!

[arebelspy]

The neat thing about this is the time you spent now will not only save you money now, but in the future (as when they hike it, that current low number will hopefully keep it lower).

Way to go!

[Jmoody10]

That is very true! We found out that if we would have paid the tax, a future appeal would have been more difficult.

In GA, we do have an advantage.  The burden of proof for the value rests on the county.

[CommonCents]

Yep, my parents did this too.  Takes some work but can be worth it.

[Elderwood17]

Great job!  Definitely worth the time and energy.

[Rural]

Good work! I just got back the new lower valuation statement on our second parcel, so it's definitely doable. I was very surprised at how helpful the people at the assessors office were. Also, there haven't been many  land sales around here, so our appeal was based on the topography of the land rather than on comps. There are lots of good options out there.

[Spartana]

Good job! Here in Calif property taxes are set at 1% of the purchase price (regardless of what the former owner paid in taxes) and can't go up by more then 2%/year so you always know ahead of time what you'll pay. Buy a $100K place, pay $1,000 in prop taxes. Next year they will be $1,020 and so on... So the former owner, if they bought it a a lot lower cost,  may have a very low property tax rate compared to the new owner. Hard to get them lower unless you can prove that the market value dropped since you bought it.

[SwordGuy]

I was in Ethiopia when my NC house got re-evaluated for property tax value.  This was in 2009 and the appraisal was done at the height of the market in 2007.    Our property taxes were going to be jacked up by 60%.

Our county has property tax records for current and past years online, so I was able to do some comparisons.   On a 6 house street the percentage increase varied from 24% to 65%.   It was essentially random, there was no way to justify it.

I wrote up an appeal and got our % increase dropped by a third.   Still too high, but I felt better about it!

[enigmaT120]

My taxes are pretty low.  Not only is most of my land in a forest related tax deferral scheme (I pay severance taxes when I sell trees.) but I'm in one of those counties with lots of BLM public forest lands that has been getting welfare from the feds because the feds don't pay property taxes.  The counties don't provide any services to the federal lands,  but never mind that. 

So for my little house and 32 acres I pay under $900 per year.  If I were across the river in Marion county, it would be more like $3,000.

[Bob W]

When we bought our house 3 1/2 years ago I immediately called the county appraiser and had his office come out.   I had not restored the basement yet.   We received a 50% reduction in taxes which has stayed intact even now that the basement is finished. 

The great thing is when we sell the house we will be able to show our annual tax bill.   It is about $800 lower.   $800 equals about $8000 in equity in my book.

We also have a ground source heat pump that keeps our utes 50% lower than similar sized homes.  About $1000 per year lower.  Double score! 

It takes my neighbors $1,800 per year more to keep their houses.    That doesn't seem like much but with an annual savings rate of 24K it equals 9 month less work time till retirement. 

Do you think I can find 10 other things I can save 1,800 per year on and thus retire 90 months sooner?

I bet I can!

[viper155]

I live in Suffok County, NY. I grieved my taxes in early 2012 for the tax year 2011. I received a refund in June of 2014. No back interest.Such efficiency!

[Bob W]

I live in Suffok County, NY. I grieved my taxes in early 2012 for the tax year 2011. I received a refund in June of 2014. No back interest.Such efficiency!

My house in the Ozarks is valued at around 250K and my annual taxes are about $750  (yes per year!).

Give me an idea what your tax rate is in Suffok County, NY or really any east coast, west coast or big city location?   I could use a boost today. lol

[UnleashHell]

I live in Suffok County, NY. I grieved my taxes in early 2012 for the tax year 2011. I received a refund in June of 2014. No back interest.Such efficiency!

My house in the Ozarks is valued at around 250K and my annual taxes are about $750  (yes per year!).

Give me an idea what your tax rate is in Suffok County, NY or really any east coast, west coast or big city location?   I could use a boost today. lol

I'll cheer you up.
New Hampshire. property tax on a 4 bed single family home valued at 210K..   4K a year.... no sales or income based tax there though.
Florida 3 bed single family valued at 150k - 1,400 per year (including a bond payment of 700 that will finish in 2 years)

[freeedom]

Jeez... I've gotta get out of NJ.

[dandarc]

Thanks for the reminder - gotta file that homestead exemption paperwork on the new house.  Won't help this year, but best to not forget for next year.

[Spartana]

I live in Suffok County, NY. I grieved my taxes in early 2012 for the tax year 2011. I received a refund in June of 2014. No back interest.Such efficiency!

My house in the Ozarks is valued at around 250K and my annual taxes are about $750  (yes per year!).

Give me an idea what your tax rate is in Suffok County, NY or really any east coast, west coast or big city location?   I could use a boost today. lol

Oh I can top this - even here in expensive Calif. Part of our prop 13 tax laws allows you to transfer your property tax rate between parent (or grandparents) and kids (visa=versa too:Kids to parents or grandparents) if they buy your house. Back in 1996 I bought my Mom's house from her when she moved into a retirement condo. I paid FMV (minus the extra I would have paid for realtor fees etc...) for $125K for a major fixer. My property taxes SHOULD have been 1% - $1250/year - but I was able to get her rate which was $300/year. That rate couldn't go by more than 2% a year so once the house value increased to $500K or so over the years, my prop taxes were still were under $350/year! Not counting all the other weird stuff they add on like trash and sewer charges. Had I kept that house the taxes would have ben about the same and once I was 55 I could transfer them to any new house I bought as long as it was the same or less then what I sold my place for. So if my place had sold for $500K and I bought a new place for $500K, I would have transferred my tax rate and still had an approx. $350/year prop tax. Sweet! Of course I sold the place like a knucklehead but still a good deal while I was living there.