Author Topic: Is it worth appealing my property taxes?  (Read 2127 times)

NorCal

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Is it worth appealing my property taxes?
« on: May 02, 2019, 07:01:22 AM »
We bought our first home last year, so I'm new to property taxes.

Situation:  We bought our home in Denver 7/31 for $695K.  It had appraised for $720K.  We got it for that price because the seller was motivated to close fast, and there was a small amount of deferred maintenance that didn't show up in the appraisal.  For example, the house is close to needing a paintjob, and there's some minor drywall repair needed.

We just got the property tax notice appraising the home at $725K (as of 6/30/18), compared with the $630K appraisal from last year.  Denver real estate is crazy.

Any thoughts on whether it would be worth challenging it using the $695K actual market transaction?  Would the assessor more heavily weight our actual market transaction, or our appraisal that came it right next to theirs?

One

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Re: Is it worth appealing my property taxes?
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2019, 10:31:10 AM »
We challenged ours and saved a few hundred dollars a year.  My thought is that they do this to everyone and only a few complain. We live in a different state than you but the process was easy.

YttriumNitrate

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Re: Is it worth appealing my property taxes?
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2019, 01:37:27 PM »
I've appealed my property taxes a few times, and if you have a recent fair market transaction on the property the appeal should be quite easy.

kpd905

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Re: Is it worth appealing my property taxes?
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2019, 07:46:43 PM »
I pulled a few recent sales in the area and calculated the $/square foot of each one to compare with their assessed value of my house.  They dropped the assessment enough to save me about $300/year in property taxes.

NorCal

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Re: Is it worth appealing my property taxes?
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2019, 09:56:40 PM »
I pulled a few recent sales in the area and calculated the $/square foot of each one to compare with their assessed value of my house.  They dropped the assessment enough to save me about $300/year in property taxes.

Yep, I get the principle.  In my case, the cities assessor is within $5K of the original assessors value, and even right inline with all of the random online calculators.  I just ended up paying $30K less than the assessed value.  I'm curious if there's a general rule on which one governs, or if it's up to me to make the case.

Catbert

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Re: Is it worth appealing my property taxes?
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2019, 02:21:22 PM »
I would likely appeal if I were case.  Your house was worth $695K on 7/31/18 because that's what it sold for on the open market.   (I'm assuming that you didn't buy it from a relative or something.)

frozen

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Re: Is it worth appealing my property taxes?
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2019, 05:14:25 PM »
In my county, our county commissioner holds appeals workshops at regular intervals. I watched the last one on Facebook and he said everyone should appeal their taxes at every opportunity. For us, this is twice per year.

I live in a condo and our association hires an attorney who  appeals 1 time every 3 years. I am trying to find out how I appeal the other 5 times.

I am going to his appeal workshop in a couple of weeks so I’ll come back and post if I learn anything that might be useful to the group.

A Fella from Stella

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Re: Is it worth appealing my property taxes?
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2019, 12:07:43 PM »
Yes, appeal. If you lose, nothing changes.

 

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