My husband and I just purchased our first home in September (hooray!) and received a letter last month from our school district attorneys saying that they want to reassess our property value at 87.5% of our purchase price. My husband wants to attend the hearing and represent us himself (he is not an attorney). My feeling is that this is either super-Mustachian or super-stupid. If my husband represents us himself, we save the attorney fees, but there's a chance he gets steamrolled by the school district attorneys.
Thoughts from any of you who have experience with something similar?
Some more details:
We purchased our house for $190,000 in Sept - it was a competitive market and we were in a time crunch so maybe paid a little more than we should have. We have not discovered any undisclosed problems with the property since we moved in that would affect the resale price.
Our current assessment value is $115,000
School District Millage Rate 25.49
Annual Taxes: $2931.35
Proposed new assessment value is $166,250
New Annual Taxes: $4237.71
This is an annual increase of over $1300, so I think it could be worth it to hire an attorney if we can get significant tax relief. I'm just not sure if it's likely that the court will rule in our favor.
We got quotes from three attorneys: one quoted a flat rate of $350, one a rate of $550 and one said they didn't think our potential savings would warrant paying their fees.
I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice!