I’m a fan of good news, so I wanted to share something with you. A property owner I helped last December just got word that the Sacramento County Assessor has agreed with my opinion of value for his property. They had 
previously assessed his Elk Grove home for 2009 property taxes at $945,000, but my company provided detailed support to show his assessed value should be at $750,000. The Assessor’s office agreed!!! This means the home owner will receive a refund check around $2,000 because he overpaid on property taxes in 2009.
This particular home owner contacted me literally a couple of days before the deadline to dispute property taxes last year. It’s a good thing he reached out too because otherwise that $2,000 refund check wouldn’t be showing up in the mail.
As a side note, when an appeal is filed and the Assessor ends up agreeing with the appeal, they’ll send you a “Tax Change Withdrawal of Application for Changed Assessment.” Basically this means they are asking you to formally agree to the new opinion of assessed value and simultaneously withdraw your appeal. Usually home owners I help have some questions during this phase because nobody wants to sign something that sounds so unfamiliar. But if the value looks good, you should sign off. There is no reason to keep the appeal in process or pursue an appeals hearing if the Assessor has already agreed to an accurate reduced value.
I love stories like this and I’ve been hearing quite a few of them lately too. It never gets old to hear a home owner will get a refund check of $2,000. Keep me posted if it looks like you might need help or if you simply want me to check out if there is a potential savings for you. Call me at 916.595.3735 or see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.
Congratulations Ryan on helping out your clients. I am marketing to homeowners in my area for tax appeals also. People do not seem motivated though to get the appraisal. I would say the return on investment of your services was well worth it in this case. Look forward to hearing more positive stories.
Thanks Tom. It feels good. In my opinion, in most cases a full appraisal is not needed during tax appeal situations for most of the areas I cover anyway. I provided a more limited report for most of these situations, and even for the $200,000 reduction as mentioned in this post. The limited report is sufficient despite not being a full appraisal – obviously in light of the results. Last year I did do some full appraisals for tax appeal clients, but most were a very limited Assessor-friendly report I developed. Some clients needed more extensive research and others just needed a couple of stellar paragraphs explaining the market and a few solid comps.
What a great story! I agree with Tom, that is a great return on investment. And it is very interesting about the limited assessor friendly reports that you develop.
Thanks Bryan. The home owner is very happy. I’m a fan of getting checks in the mail too. I’d wish that my own appeal check was $2,000, but my house didn’t decline in value that much from the previous assessment (only $350 check for me – I’ll take it though). This is a bittersweet thing too because the home owner can rejoice on one hand that he has saved $2,000, but at the same time this means his house has declined greatly in value since it was once maybe legitimately valued $200,000 higher.