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Placer County Property Taxes

Should you sign a “tax withdrawal” when appealing your property taxes?

August 17, 2011 By Ryan Lundquist 2 Comments

When appealing your property taxes and you get a form that looks something like the one below, should you sign it? Let me walk you through the decision process.

First off, the official form to fill out to contest your property taxes is called the “Application for Changed Assessment” (not the “Decline in Value” Prop 8 form). This application must be completed by November 30 in many counties surrounding Sacramento (or September 15 in Placer County). After you fill this out, the appeals board will eventually do one of three things: 1) Agree with your opinion of value and ask you to therefore withdraw your appeal; 2) Ask you to agree with a new value they pick and therefore withdraw your appeal; or 3) Set up an appeals hearing to discuss your situation further.

If the Assessor does #1 or #2 above, you’ll get a form that looks something like this.

Should you sign this form? Here is what I tell my clients as well as home owners who contact me. If the Assessor’s new value is pretty close to your listed value (or mine if we worked together), then it probably makes good sense to sign this form. Some home owners get scared of signing something like this, but all you are doing is saying you agree with the Assessor’s new value offer and you will no longer pursue an appeal. For example, the Assessor said the property above was worth $211,758, but after my appeal they offered a new value at $150,000. By signing the document, the new assessed value became $150,000.

Accept or Fight? Keep in mind that every $10,000 in assessed value equals about $125, so if the offered value is fairly close to yours, then it probably isn’t worth the time and energy to contest it any further. Just accept the value and move on. However, if the value is off by multiple tens of thousands or a couple hundred thousand dollars still, then it may be worth staying in the fight by going through with the appeals hearing. Just make sure you have a convincing case. If I did your appeal, I can give you advice about this when the time comes (or if you hired me to represent you at the hearing anyway, don’t even worry about this because I have it under control). Even if you didn’t hire me, give me a call and I’ll help where I can.

Do you have any questions? I hope this was helpful.

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 or subscribe to posts by email.

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Filed Under: Property Taxes, Resources Tagged With: "Decline in Value" Prop 8 form, advice for property taxes, Application for Changed Assessment, appraisal service in Sacramento, deadline to dsipute property taxes, Lundquist Appraisal Company, Placer County Property Taxes, property tax consultant in Sacramento, property tax tip, Real Estate Appraiser in Sacramento, Sacramento County Property Taxes, Saramento Tax Appeals, should you sign the tax withdrawl form, tax changed withdrawal form

Property tax appeal tips & deadlines

August 12, 2011 By Ryan Lundquist Leave a Comment

I wanted to give you some tips and important dates for appealing your property taxes if you are considering doing that in a county surrounding Sacramento.

  1. Value Date for 2011:  Your property tax assessment for 2011 should be based on January 1, 2011.
  2. The Assessor’s Word:  Check to see what the Assessor says your property is worth for 2011. It only makes sense to dispute your property taxes if there is a savings to be had (see links below). Every $10,000 of over-assessment equals about $125 out of your pocket.
  3. Deadlines:  Know the deadlines for your local county. In most counties surrounding Sacramento you can appeal your property taxes between July 2 to November 30, but Placer County has a deadline at September 15, 2011.
  4. Costs:  Many counties have a cost to file a formal appeal anywhere from $30-45, while some counties are still free. We often hear how there is no fee to contest property taxes, but that’s just not the case in many counties.
  5. The Right Application:  Make sure you fill out the “Application for Changed Assessment” form. The Assessor has a “Prop 8 Decline in Value Form” you can try first for free, but this form is NOT an appeal. If you do not file the proper form before the appeals deadline, you have not officially appealed your property taxes (and you cannot fill out the form after November 30). I speak with many home owners every year who failed to file the right form.
  6. Support Your Value:  Provide support for your opinion of value. Don’t lowball the Assessor or simply throw out a preferrable number for your property taxes. Show evidence for what your property was worth on January 1 of the given year. Do not use current comps, but rather sales from January 1 to March 31 if possible. If you need help doing this, please contact me since I run a property tax appeal company and I can give solid support for your property’s value at a very reasonable cost (usually around $100). I find most cases do not warrant a full appraisal, but rather a mini-report.

Check your assessed value for 2011 by clicking on the following links. You may need to enter your APN (assessor parcel number), and you should be able to quickly retrieve that on the Assessor’s website. If not, call me and I’ll get it for you.

  • Sacramento County Assessor’s Website
  • Placer County Assessor’s Website
  • Yolo County Assessor’s Website
  • El Dorado County Assessor’s Website
  • San Joaquin County Assessor’s Website
  • Solano County Assessor’s Website

I hope this was helpful to begin to lay a general framework for important property tax details. If you have any questions about the tax appeal process or would like my tax appeal company to look up your property for free, please click here.

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 or subscribe to posts by email.

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Filed Under: Property Taxes, Resources Tagged With: Application for Changed Assessment, appraisal company property taxes, dispute property taxes in Sacramento County, El Dorado County Property Taxes, how to lower property taxes, how to reduce property taxes, Lundquist Appraisal Company, Placer County Property Taxes, Prop 8, property tax consultant company, property taxes in Sacramento County, Sacramento Tax Appeals, San Joaquin County Property Taxes, Solano County Property Taxes, tax grievance, tips for appealing property taxes, Yolo County Property Taxes

Some things to keep in mind about property taxes in the Sacramento area

May 9, 2011 By Ryan Lundquist Leave a Comment

I call this time of year “property tax season” because conversations with home owners start to really heat up now that April 15th has passed and most local Assessors will soon publish their 2011 property tax figures. Ever year around this time I get a great deal of calls about reducing property taxes in the Sacramento area. Let me share with you three of the tax situations I encountered last week:

Owner of vacant parcel: I just spoke with an owner of a vacant parcel in Sacramento, and his land is easily overassessed by $250,000. Vacant land is often assessed high for investors who purchased in recent years since land values have plummeted since the cost to build often currently exceeds resale value. 

Paying twice as much: In the past two days I spoke with a home owner who is paying more than twice as much in property taxes as he should be. His house is worth less than $200,000, but it is assessed at $400,000. Keep in mind that every $10,000 in assessment equals about $125, so this owner is essentially overpaying by $2,500 per year.

My own property taxes: The Assessor agreed to reduce the assessment on my own property by $27,000 for my 2010 property taxes. They ended up agreeing with my appeal last year, so on Friday I faxed back a “tax withdrawal” form to say I’ll accept the new value. This is not a huge savings, but I don’t mind getting a refund of $330 or so. I’ve been successful at appealing my own taxes for three consecutive years.

How do you know if you should appeal your property taxes? First of all, please do not pay anyone to appeal your property taxes until you know how much your property is assessed for 2011 and also if it really makes sense for your wallet. As an FYI, 2011 assessments will be announced anytime between May through July for most counties surrounding Sacramento. I made the video below last year and I think it may help provide a good context for understanding whether you should appeal or not. You may also wish to read some FAQs on my property tax appeal website. Note my fee is now $99 instead of $89 for a typical house – not vacant land or anything complex. There are so many companies ripping people off too, so I also included a second video, “Two reasons to be careful of those ‘lower your property taxes’ mailers“, to help illustrate what types of companies to avoid. I know a video like this sounds like I’m saying “work with me – not them”, but it’s really not self-serving at all. This is about helping locals understand the tax appeal process so property owners are equipped to make a well-informed decision.   

 

Email Sign-Up: I am glad to keep you in the loop about important property tax appeal deadlines and general information for counties in the Greater Sacramento Region. There is no obligation to do business with me and I’ll only email you once per quarter. Click here to get email reminders about important property tax information and deadlines (only 4 emails per year). Call or email me if you have any questions.

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.

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Filed Under: Property Taxes, Resources Tagged With: appraisal service in Sacramento, decline of property value over time, how to lower your property taxes, Placer County Property Taxes, property tax consultant, Property Taxes, reduce property taxes in Sacramento County, SacraemntoTaxAppeals, Sacramento County Assessor, Sacramento Tax Appeals, San Joaquin County Property Taxes, vacant land property tax appeals in Sacramento County, when to appeal your property taxes in Sacramento County, Yolo County Property Taxes

Two reasons to be careful of those “lower your property taxes” mailers

February 11, 2011 By Ryan Lundquist 4 Comments

Have you received one of those mailers from a company promising to reduce your property taxes? I’m not saying at all there is some sort of ethical problem with these companies, but home owners in the Sacramento Region would be very wise to not hire companies like this to dispute their property taxes in the early part of the year. I made a brief video PSA to explain why (or watch HERE).

 

I know a video like this sounds really self-serving at face value, but it’s not, and here is my logic why. In the first quarter of the year when these mailers typically get sent out, the Assessor’s Office has not yet published their yearly assessed values. In my mind, why pay someone to reduce your property taxes before you know if the Assessor is going to automatically reduce them? The Assessor is supposed to adjust assessed values up or down depending on what the real estate market has done in the previous year. Secondly, the formal time period to disupte taxes in most counties surrounding Sacramento is July through November (or September for Placer County) – not the first quarter of the year.

What do you think?

If you have any questions about the tax appeal process or you’d like to sign up on my property tax email list to let you know about important tax appeal dates and deadlines for the Greater Sacramento Region, comment below, send me an email, fill out this form on my tax appeal website, or call 916.595.3735.

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Filed Under: Property Taxes, Resources, Videos Tagged With: avoid tax company mailers, El Dorado County Property Taxes, Placer County Property Taxes, property tax consultant, property tax mailers, Property Taxes, Reduce Property Taxes, Sacramento County Property Taxes, SacramentoTaxAppeals, San Joaquin County Property Taxes, Yolo County Property Taxes

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