One service I offer clients is to help them appeal their taxes post close. I make no guarantees, but I helped so many families this year that next year I think I may contact past customers and offer a seminar!

Why is appealing your taxes worth it?! The process takes seriously less than about 30 minutes. When you get your annual assessment papers in the mail, typically between late January and late February, you will usually see a website for downloading appeal forms. The forms will ask for some basic info. including price, improvements you've made to the home, why you think your taxes are too high, etc. If you win an appeal, you could save hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Here's a concrete example. I have some friends who bought in July of 2007 for $130,000. Their Taxable Value was about $74,000. Their Assessed Value was $84,000. The City of GR states that the Assessed Value must be approximately 50% of current market value. Based on the City's assumptions, their house would be worth $168,000! Well, it simply isn't. They paid $130K, and any appraiser and underwriter will tell you a home is worth what someone paid. So, their AV should have been around 65K. The next year their taxes, big surprise, jumped up- their TV uncapped and jumped to the 84K. Now their TV and AV were the same at 84K. The following year the City bumped up their AV to 92K. So, in this declining market their home was supposed to be worth a whopping $184,000? They bought at the top of the Michigan market or just when it started to dive.

So, they came in, we filled out the simple forms, my girlfriend drove the forms over to the City, and within two weeks they got a favorable response! Both their Assessed Value and Taxable Value are going down to $67,000, a much more reasonable and fair number. Now their taxes are going down, they're saving about $35 per month, and that makes us all very happy!