Real Estate Blog - MARKETING IDEA FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS AND LOAN OFFICERS. HELPING YOUR CLIENTS SAVE MONEY

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MARKETING IDEA FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS AND LOAN OFFICERS. HELPING YOUR CLIENTS SAVE MONEY

THANKS ALLISON STEWART. I read Allison Stewart's thoughtful post this a.m. about the "trickle down" affect on the depressed real estate market in her area, St. Cloud, Florida. It gave me an idea about helping past home buyers. Your services could also help future home sellers in your sphere.

Allison mentioned "Also Nov.1 st the Property tax bills were due in Florida." Allison's post made me think of a way to (1) help some of our past buyer clients and (2) give your past buyer clients something positive to remember you by when they need future real estate services.

APPEAL THE PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENT. Due to falling real estate values in my area, I recently appealed my property tax assessment and had my annual real estate taxes reduced by over $1,700. Some of the success of the appeal was due to the high assessment when my home was built. Since that time, property values have, what's the word? PLUMMETED!!! The savings is real. I don't mind paying my fair share of taxes, but $1,700 is a lot of money and it's better in my bank account than in the hands of any government office. The process is quite simple and the forms are often on line or should be easily obtained from the county tax office.

Real estate in my market area has not lost the percentage of market value as that experienced in other areas around the country. Property assessments are often a lagging valuation. Assessments for existing homes may be high relative to recent sales. Property is often reassessed when title transfers. Following the transfer of title, properties may only be assessed every several years.

If property values continue to fall, as I believe they must for the market to become viable again, I'll be back in a year or two with another appeal. Clearly, this is not suggested for markets where values have continued to rise. We do suggest that agents recommend to their buyers that they be aware of how tax assessments work.

NOTE: NEAL BLOOM made a comment about assessed value affecting price when selling. Overy the years that I've watched market value go up and down, it has had little to no relationship on assessed vlaue for taxation purposes. As I said, assessed value is a lagging indicator for taxation purposes. Many states, Maryland being one, assess every 3 years. The assessed value in the tax records is usually far below market value. If you believe that in your state that lowering assessed value for taxation purposes would be harmful to your client, then you shouldn't do it. That is not my experience.

If this sounds like a reasonable idea for your market, send a letter to the home owners in your database suggesting that they. . . .

APPEAL THEIR TAX ASSESSMENT.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your Name, [REAL ESTATE AGENT or LOAN OFFICER]
HELPFUL REALTY, INC.
3456 Main Street, Suite B
Yourtown, USA

Dear Homeowner [insert client's name],

Our records show that you settled your home in [month, year]. Since that date, an increase in real estate
assessments may have caused an increase in your annual real estate tax bill.

If you have an escrow account with your mortgage company, your taxes are paid by adding 1/12 of the
annual tax bill in your monthly mortgage payment. If you do not escrow for taxes, you have an annual
tax bill from the county.

We strongly suggest that you consider an appeal of your property assessment. Many of our past buyer
clients have seen their property assessments increase dramatically due to the rapid in real estate prices
in the years 2001-2005. However, these property assessments may not reflect real property assessed value
today.

Please find the form and instructions to appeal your property tax assessments. If you are requested to
provide supporting documents, i.e., recent sales in your area, we'll be glad to help you with a
comparative market analysis, or evidence of homes recently sold in your area.

If the appeal is successful, you could see your monthly mortgage payment or annual tax bill reduced.

As always, you can rely on us to help you with all of your real estate needs.

Yours truly,

Sam Wonderful
Sam@SamWonderful.com
000-000-0000

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Courtesy. Homefinders.com, Lenn Harley, Broker, 800-711-7988

Posted by Lenn Harley, Real Estate Broker, Maryland & Virginia on 11/08/2007 06:59 AM

Comments (29)

tax assessment, real estate taxes

29 Comments on MARKETING IDEA FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS AND LOAN OFFICERS. HELPING YOUR CLIENTS SAVE MONEY

NOV

2007

It seems to me if you can be assesed up you should be able to go down. Keep up the fight

LENN

Thanks for the great follow up- I recently had an article published in St. Cloud in the News (our local paper) giving the same advice. It was possible to have the Assessed Value lowered $33,000 and the taxes refunded retroactively for the previous year. That refund paid nearly a months mortgage payment!

Lenn _ I am now listing properties for less than assessed value. I did point this out to the homeowners, but I like your suggestion of actually sending out letters to past clients. I would probably send them an updated CMA especially if the drop is dramatic.

Now here's something with a little more ooomph than a recipe card!

Great idea, Lenn.

Allison. Your post inspired this when I put it together with the fact that I just got the assessment lowered on my home.

Charlie. Thanks for commenting. Home owners have to be proactive with this.

Jennifer. Get your folks out there to the assessment office. It will help.

Mike. Thanks. You know me, hard core real estate. Recipe cards?? Naaaa.

Lenn,

Iv'e been talking to friend of mine who appealed. He hired a company that does it and they charge a small fee based on the deduction by the year. The only issue I see is the value of your property goes down and if you sell it...it might be reduced even more than the present value.

Hi Lenn,

Keep up the fight. Thank you for the information.. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What great advice Lenn! I might have to figure out the process and write a similar note here! If your taxes are escrowed that 1700 amounts to just a little over $100 a month.

Neal. I thought of that but I do not believe that market value is based on assessed value for taxation purposes. I'm going back to add a blurb about that. Thanks.

Anthony. Thanks for dropping by. You are welcome.

Renee. Yes, it did. I prefer to think of it as $141 a month. That's two and a half tanks full of gasoline. I drive a Sequoia.

Lenn - Excellent idea! As someone who participates in a referral systems program, I would think anyone reading this would see this as a golden opportunity to use this as a form of "professional value" that we can offer our clients. I have done this with one client who recently settled a home in Round Hill and their assessments were over $100K over their sales price!

Great information Lenn, thanks for sharing your letter!

Irene. Irene. THAT is a perfect house for a lowered assessment.

Ana. My pleasure.

Lenn...I have several Clients that could really benefit from that and some "potential" clients who could also!

That is a excellant idea! Thank you...

Great advice. Except in MD there is no one home! The office that handles the appeals is currently unstaffed so all the requests are going unanswered. I wrote about this the other day after seeing an article in the Post....

NOV

2007

Joan. My pleasure. Anything we can do to save a client money is going to be remembered.

Josette. That is county to county. I just had a buyer in Woodmore in PG County schedule an appeal hearing. I gave her the comparables to work with. It looks like the Chair of the Appeals Board is vacant in Mont. County. I think the owner should be writing letters to the Governor's office. These people are apponted by the Governor. Mont. has 4 vacancies. No excuse for that.

Lenn, that is a great idea, however your clients still need to be aware that their taxes can actually go UP too! I just built a new home in Perry Hall and am considering appealing mine since they are through the roof because they went off of our purchase price. I have personally been assessed more than 3 times what I paid in my former town home! If it worked for you, I will certainly give it a try because I doubt they can really raise them any higher than where I'm at now, so what do I have to lose.

On a more personal note, did you supply them with comps with your letter?

Michael.

No, I didn't send comps with the letter. I have such a tremendous database, it would have taken forever to pull comps for those homes and some folks just don't pay attention to these things. I originally thought of this some years ago when an buyer called me because their mortgage payment had gone through the roof. It was all because of the increase in escrow when the mortgage company got the tax bill. She appealed and was successful. I couldn't justify the increase in assessed value and neither could the Board of Appeals.

I offer to provide them with comps, if needed, in my letter.

There are only so many hours in the day.

Thanks for a great post! And, thank you very much for that bit of marketing. Never thought of a letter like that as such. I also agree with you in regard to your response to Neal Bloom. I've never seen that distinct of a correlation between the two.

I was asking if you supplied them with comps for your own home when you appealed it?

Michael. Sure. I provided them with sold, active, pending listings and I provided them with market reports from our MLS that show trends. I buried them in paper.

I provided the same for my past clients that wanted the info too.

Marc. Thanks. That's the way it is. We have a lot of folks who believe that the value of their home is the same as the assessment for tax purposes. It's a lot closer in VA than in MD. but not the same. Assessment info is always old. We have folks who want to list their home "not one penny below "median price for the area". They have to learn too.

Lenn my friend, you hit it out of the park again with this one. We tell all of our customers to appeal, it's part of our services and we do remind them.....but to send out the letter just hits a little personal note that can be so helpful and many may not have considered. thanks!

NOV

2007

Lenn- We tell all our buyers to appeal and our sellers too! It is time to appeal! Get it done! Love the letter! Katerina

Ines. Thanks. We, as Realtors, know that the average home owners is unaware of some of the things that can save them money. We can help the home owners in our sphere. That will help our business too.

Katerina. Good for you. Some of the things we do to help our clients are so easy.

Lenn, thanks for all of your info, I am definitely going to try to appeal mine!

Lenn~

OK...You've done it again. That's why I subscribe to your BLOG...Thanks for the advice, and for suggesting that real estate professionals pass it on to our clients. We are strong in our market, but I have bookmarked this post...just in case..

Lenn - Over the years I have seen little correlation of assessed values and market values. This is all semantics when it comes to assessed value and tax rates anyways. A town needs x amount of dollars in order to function properly and within constraints/budgets. If all the assessments move down than the tax rate will increase. It is simple economics that towns have to achieve the revenue needed to operate.

Bill. You're right of course. We don't want everyone's assessment lowered, just the clients of folks who read my blog.

Michael. Good luck. You're in Baltimore County which has notoriously high assessments.

JaneAnne. Don't you just love Active Rain and the ideas we get from each other?? I surely do.

Lenn: This is a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing it with us; this loan officer is going to generate some business good will with this one.

With appreciation,
Mike in Tucson

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