Something must be fishy if your model match neighbor is paying less in property taxes than you, right? Not necessarily. Is this a point you should bring up during a property tax appeal? It’s really not a strong point because your neighbor Joe could have purchased at a different time than you, and the difference in sales price will result in a difference in taxes paid each year. All things considered, if Joe purchased in 2002 at $247,000 and you bought an identical home in 2008 for $505,000, Joe is going to be paying about half as much in taxes than you do because of Proposition 13 in California. Assuming you purchased your home at a fair market value, your purchase price will most likely be the “Proposition 13″ value (also called the “base year value”). This means subsequent years of taxation will be based upon that value level – $505,000. If the market declines, then the assessor may issue a temporary decline in value under “Proposition 8″ (the real estate prop – not the marriage one), but that still does not take away the original $505,000 Proposition 13 base year value. If the market improves over time, your property taxes can still return to that level. That’s not going to happen for quite some time though in the Sacramento area.

Good or bad advice? I sometimes hear advice from real estate professionals for home owners to make a list of what neighbors pay in taxes, but this isn’t good advice to follow for reasons listed above. The Assessor even states on their website that “only open market sales that occurred before March 31, 2011, can be used to review your 2011-12 value” (not your neighbors taxes). While it may seem to be a secondary form of value support in certain cases, the best thing you can do is provide solid comparable sales between January 1 – March 31 of the given year. Or even provide sales between September to December of the previous year in addition to January to March. Hard facts such as sales from the market are worth way more than saying “but Joe next door pays less than me and I should pay less too”.

If you have any questions or you need help with the tax appeals process in Sacramento County or a surrounding area, let me know. I run a property tax appeal company and I’m always happy to help answer questions.

If you have any questions, or real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact Lundquist Appraisal by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Maybe you’ve wondered before if there is a difference between “assessed” value and “appraised” value? Here are five key distinctions.

1)  Assessed value is a dollar amount assigned to a property by the Assessor’s Office typically for the purpose of assessing taxes. Appraised value is an evaluation of a property’s value for any point in time by a professional appraiser.

2)  Assessed value is rendered by the Assessor’s office or county, while appraised value is rendered by a professional appraiser.

3)  Assessed value is deciphered through using a mass-appraisal process without inspecting each property, while appraised value most often includes actually inspecting the property to determine the value (not always though as there is such a thing as a desktop appraisal where the appraiser values a property without leaving the desk).

4)  Assessed value in California is based on the date a property was purchased, while appraised value can be based on any date – whether today, yesterday or years ago. As an FYI, assessed value in California is governed by Proposition 13, which basically means that a property will be assessed based on its purchase price from 1975 onward and will have annual increases limited to the inflation rate or 2%, whichever is less (read more here). The Proposition 13 value is commonly referred to as the “base year value” because subsequent years of taxation are based on that value.

5)  Assessed value segments land and improvements in the valuation, whereas appraised value may or may not do this depending on the needs of the client and scope of work. For example, the Assessor might state a property is worth $250,000 and the land in this circumstance is worth $100,000 while the improvements are worth $150,000 (house and anything on the site). 

Do you have any questions? Can you think of any other differences? Comment below. 

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook.

I got some great news recently that the Assessor’s Office in Sacramento County agreed to lower property taxes by roughly 1.5 million on some acreage that one of my clients owns. The detailed appeal I put together for his 2009 property taxes revealed a total value of $340,000, but the Assessor had this parcel assessed at $1,804,053 (just a little bit of a difference, right?). I’m so glad the Assessor agreed with my research. The tax savings for my client is almost $20,000 for the year. 

NOTE: In case you were wondering, there was previously a tear-down structure on the property valued at $53,060 by the Assessor. This structure was removed a couple years ago, so that’s why there is currently no value for it.  

If you have any questions or a need for an appraisal or property tax consulting in the Sacramento area, give me a call at 916.595.3735, send me an email, or catch me on Facebook.

Property owners ask me this question every year….. often after the deadline has already passed. The last date to dispute your property taxes in Sacramento County and in many surrounding counties is November 30, 2010. This deadline is for a typical “decline in value” reassessment. See the video below or share with friends.

If you have any questions or a need to convince the Assessor’s Office of the true value of your home, contact my property tax appeal company at 916.595.3735 or see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

How would you like to pay taxes on twice the value of your property? I just finished a property tax appeal today for a Sacramento condominium owner. This condo was assessed at $166,000 by the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office, but the actual value was $84,500. Have a look below by comparing the blue dot ($166,000) with the rest of the black dots, which represent all sales in the neighborhood. Isn’t that wild? This condominium was assessed nearly two times actual market value, which amounts to about $1,000 too much in property taxes for the home owner to pay. 

Condominium values have been hit hard in the past several years as the real estate bubble in Sacramento burst. Why? In addition to property values decreasing for condos just as value has declined for other types of property, crammed condo living and HOA fees have seemed less appealing for buyers who can now more readily afford a backyard of their own.

If you have any questions about property tax appeals, or would like to have my property tax consulting company look up your property for free, call 916.595.3735 or see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

What do you think of the property tax scenario above?

I shared some good news a few weeks back that Sacramento County refunded me $398.96 after I appealed my 2008 property taxes. Well, yesterday another check arrived in the mail for $449.02 for my 2009 property taxes.  Here’s my story.

Taxes are a part of life and we should only pay our fair share – and no more!!! Please contact my tax appeal company so we can see if there is a potential savings for you. If there is, let’s move forward to help you reduce your property taxes (we have very reasonable fees). If not, then we’ll shoot straight with you to let you know if the Assessor has you valued correctly. Click HERE and we’ll look up your property for FREE.

So how should I spend the $847.98?

This is a quick reminder that new property tax assessments will be coming out for Sacramento County on July 6, 2010. The Sacramento County Assessor will post them on their website here. Make sure to check out your property to ensure the Assessor has your house valued correctly. These new assessment figures should be based on the value of your property on January 1, 2010. Please let me know if you have any questions and see my property tax appeal website if you think you might be a candidate to dispute your property taxes or if you’d like us to investigate your property further (for free).

By the way, I just got word last week that the Assessor agreed to reduce property taxes by 28% for a local home owner I helped last year. That’s what I like to hear!!!

If you live in the Greater Sacramento Region and you’re wondering how to lower your property taxes, you’ve come to the right place. Here is my advice though. Before you make a decision to hire someone to help you reduce your property taxes (including my tax appeal company), wait until new assessments come out to determine if there is a real savings to be had. If you live in Sacramento or Placer County, for example, the Assessor has not yet posted their latest assessments yet, so it doesn’t make much sense to dispute your taxes until you know what their assessment is going to be for 2010.

Why am I telling you this? Because I am committed to being honest with you about the property tax appeals process and how you can save money. If it looks like the Assessor has your value wrong, I am glad to partner with you to help the Assessor understand true market value. My company’s fees are very reasonable too. On the other hand, if it looks like the Assessor has your property assessed accurately, you don’t need to do a thing.

If you want me to send you an email reminder when new assessments come out, click “contact” in the upper right hand corner of my tax appeal website, and I’ll get in touch with you soon. For now, if you have any questions about appealing your property taxes, or if there is anything I can do for you, let me know. Thank you.

By the way, the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office typically publishes their new assessments in the month of May, but right now they are expecting to get this information out at the very beginning of July. You can expect Placer County to get their information out in July also.

Sacramento Region Property Tax Appeals
TEL: 916.595.3735
FAX: 916.361.1964
www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com
info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com

NOTE: This advice is good for a traditional “decline in value” tax appeal only (it’s not applicable to a base year appeal or calamity reassessment….).

As you may know, I run a property tax appeal website for property owners in the Greater Sacramento Region. I help home owners dispute their property taxes when it makes good economic sense for them to do so (only if there is a savings to be had). I mention this because I am very pleased to have learned last week that the Sacramento County Assessor reduced my own property taxes by $36,622 after viewing the evidence I presented for a lowered opinion of value. They agreed with my value and the tax refund will be roughly $350. 

This is not a huge sum of money. There are certainly clients that will save $10,000+ because of the work my company provides. Yet at the same time, every dollar counts and I’d much rather save $350 than relinquish my hard-earned greenbacks to the local Assessor.

The wild thing is that these were property taxes for 2008. I turned in the Application for Changed Assessment in November 2009 and the Assessor just got back to me about these taxes last week - sixteen months later.

If you think you are a good candidate for lowering your property taxes, then it’s important to take action before the deadline for appealing property taxes comes (that’s either September 15 or November 30 depending on which county you live in). Had I not actually formally disputed my own taxes in November 2009, I would have been out of luck, and the Assessor would not be cutting me a check. I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of getting checks in the mail.

I’m happy to answer any questions. Give me a call at 916-595-3735 or shoot me an email at ryan@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.