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.

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. 

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.

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.

I run into real estate agents and loan officers in the Sacramento area who say, “I wish I could still refer you business, but I can’t anymore because of HVCC.” The common thought is that because the appraisal ordering process for loans has changed in recent years (basically appraisers cannot be hand-picked by loan officers or real estate agents for specific loans geared toward Fannie Mae), that our paths cannot cross for business any more. That’s not the case though, so I wanted to give you the skinny on how we can still connect for business. I know, this post seems very self-serving, but since I have this conversation at nearly every Chamber of Commerce or real estate related networking meeting, I figured it was definitely relevant blog fodder.

1. Estate Settlement / Probate Appraisals: When an estate has a transfer of ownership due to death or inheritance, it is very common for a real estate appraisal to be needed for tax purposes. Home owners and attorneys order these types of appraisals (www.SacramentoEstateSettlement.com).

2. Divorce Appraisals: I handle appraisals during the divorce / mediation process, and I run a website at www.SacramentoDivorceAppraisals.com.

3. Property Tax Appeals: Do you know anyone who is paying too much in property taxes? Send them to me. I cover multiple counties in the Greater Sacramento Region. I founded www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

4. Second opinion of value: Sometimes a second opinion of value is needed. Maybe the buyer wants an outside opinion in place of the appraisal the lender ordered. Or maybe you as the real estate agent need some additional research to help the lender see true market value. Or maybe a transaction is heading south very quickly, and some value reinforcement is needed (research or full appraisal).

5. Appraisals during a short sale: Sometimes a bank will absolutely not budge to accept an offer lower than what they deem to be acceptable (even though their price is way too high), so the Listing Agent or home owner will hire me to do a full appraisal. I wrote a full post on this topic here.

6. Pre-listing appraisals:What is the current market doing? A pre-listing appraisal helps give some perspective for the home owner or agent.

7. Home owner wants an appraisal: I’m so grateful when local real estate professionals trust me with their clients’ needs. Sometimes a home owner will want to see an actual appraisal before listing their property. Or other times an all-cash buyer wants to make sure the cash purchase is consistent with market value. Or an owner needs an appraisal for some other reason, and their trusted agent will refer the owner to me.

8. Approval List: You can get me on the approved appraiser list for your favorite lender or attorney. I had a fantastic referral this year to a really great local company. They sent me quite a bit of work and they run an excellent shop. In fact, I sent the loan officer a referral this morning because he got me on their approved appraiser list (and he does a fantastic job).

9. Bankruptcy Appraisals: If a home owner needs an appraisal during the bankruptcy process, I can certainly help them with that. Read a full post here.

I sincerely vaule the relationships I have with local Realtors, real estate agents, and loan officers in the Sacramento area, and I appreciate the business we can send to one another. 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.

What does a good referral look like for you?

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.

“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?

While delivering a property tax appeal to the Sacramento County Appeals Board today, I took out my Flip camera to say a few words. It’s very important for locals to understand that November 30, 2010 is the deadline to dispute property taxes in Sacramento County (and many surrounding counties). Enjoy a short video.

FYI: The deadlne of November 30, 2010 is for typical “decline in value” reassessments. There are other types of appeals that do not have this deadline. 

Let me know if you have any questions. Call me at 916.595.3735, catch me on Facebook or visit my property tax appeal website.

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?

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).