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.

Last week was “Condo Week” on the Sacramento Appraisal Blog. I really enjoyed writing about condos every day and talking through the content with so many people here and on Twitter & Facebook. Though I’ll not be doing a second week of condo posts, here is a glimpse of all one-bedroom condo sales in the City of Vallejo. A graph like this really helps to show just how much the condo market has been impacted in recent years. What do you think?

I know how painful it is to see graphs like these since I purchased my current home in 2004. Apart from the loss of value, there is at least one redemptive take-away for us to consider when looking at graphs as such. If you bought your home in recent years you should be paying far less in property taxes these days in comparison to what you were paying five years ago. My advice for home owners is to pay close attention to your property taxes to ensure the Assessor’s Office has taken into account the drastic decline in property value. Keep in mind that every $10,000 of overassessment equals about $100-125 in property taxes out of your pocket.

I have helped many home owners appeal their property taxes over the past several years and I actually personally disputed my own property taxes three years in a row too. If you have any questions, let me know or visit my property tax appeal website.  

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. 

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.

“Hi ho Silver”, let’s take a closer look at an Elk Grove property tax situation. This is a real life example I just completed for a home owner in Sacramento County (Elk Grove). Acting in the role of a property tax consultant, I pieced together the best available comparable sales and put together some very solid trend graphs to help illustrate what the specific neighborhood real estate market was doing. 

The Assessor had valued the home owner’s property at $314,000 as shown with the blue dot in the graph below. When looking at the graph, you can see very clearly that this is a “lone ranger” assessment. There is nothing in the neighborhood that has sold even close to $314,000 for quite some time. It’s very clear that the market was not supporting values above $250,000 for much of 2009 and particular on January 1, 2010, the date of assessment. By the way, this is a typical tract subdivision, so there is nothing about the subject property that would warrant an assessment way above all other sales.

You might think $64,000 in property taxes is not that big of a deal, but this equals about $800 in property taxes. Breaking things down further, that is overpaying taxes by $67 per month. If you have questions about property taxes or would like my property tax consulting company to investigate your property, call 916.595.3735 or visit www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com. Remember, the deadline to appeal your property taxes in Sacramento County (and many surrounding counties) is November 30, 2010.

What do you think of the “lone ranger” assessment?

When should a home owner formally appeal his/her property taxes? How do you know if you should dispute the Assessor’s value? The rule of thumb is really simple. If there is enough savings left for you after you have paid someone to help you appeal, then it’s absolutely worth it. If there really isn’t any potential for money to come back to your wallet, then don’t even bother.

Have a look at the video below (or HERE) and see how a home owner in Sacramento County paid me $89.00 to save $1,016. Not a bad deal, right?

I act as a “tax appeal consultant” instead of a real estate appraiser when I do tax appeal work. See www.SacramentoTaxAppraisals.com or call 916.595.3735 and I’ll check out your property for free to see if it looks like there is any potential savings to be had. This offer is good for residential property owners in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Solano & Merced Counties.

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?

Here is a trend graph of all 2-4 unit sales in the city of Vallejo, CA over the past five years. The information is based on data in Bay Area MLS. The residential-income market sure has been impacted. It’s amazing to see the low point around $250,000 several years ago has now become closer to the higher end of the market over the past few months for 2-4 unit properties.

If you own a duplex, triplex or fourplex in the Vallejo market (or Greater Sacramento region), I’d be curious to hear what has happened to your rent levels over the past five years. Also, has the Assessor decreased your property taxes?

On Monday I wrote about my property tax refund of $398.96 from Sacramento County, and I ended up making a complimentary video. I am now using Sony Vegas HD Studio 10 and my friend Jenny is letting me take her green screen for a test drive before I purchase one myself. This was my first stab. There are some things I would do differently, but over the next few months I’ll be cranking out some more videos and honing my skills. Honestly, I REALLY enjoy making videos and it’ll be something you see more of from me.

What do you think?

After returning from a camping trip to Shaver Lake this past weekend, I was very happy to find a property tax refund check had come in the mail from Sacramento County. Yes, I appealed my own property taxes in 2008 and they cut me a check to rightfully put money back in my pockets (I’ll get another check for 2009 too). If I had not disputed my property taxes, I would have never seen this refund.

What should I do with the money? Any ideas?

Brainstorming Ideas for how to spend the money:

1. Buy 228 cups of vanilla rooibos herbal tea.
2. Make a dent in the purchase of Sony Vegas Pro.
3. Flipcam.
4. Pick up two used kayaks on Craigslist.
5. Pay for the traffic violation that someone in my household recently earned.
6. Bills.
7. Buy a Micro Portable Loudspeaker Dock for iPod
8. Have glamour headshots taken to start a career as a super model.
9. Easily fund the next camping trip.

If you have any questions about how to reduce your property taxes, let me know. I run a property tax appeal website for the Greater Sacramento Region and I am glad to help you (if it makes good sense for you – if there is money to be saved).

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….).

Home owners and real estate agents ask me property tax questions all the time, so I figured it would be helpful to make a video to answer some of the most common questions. In the video below or HERE I walk you through the calendar year of events and deadlines surrounding reducing your property taxes so you can know what to expect throughout the year. 

Common Questions Covered in the Video: When is the best month to appeal property taxes in Sacramento or another local county? What date does the Assessor base my property value on? Why is it not a good idea to respond to the “reduce your taxes” mailers in February and March? When do new assessed values come out in Sacramento and surrounding counties like Placer? Why does the Assessor have a positive publicity campaign before releasing new assessed values? When is the deadline for disputing property taxes?

Please see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com for additional information and let me know if you have any questions. You can use the “Contact” page on the website to let us know about your property so we can do FREE research to determine if there is any potential savings for you on your property tax bill. You may also call 916-595-3735, or email info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com. Thank you.

Do you have any questions about property tax appeals? In your experience, has your local Assessor valued your property correctly over the years?

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.