Frankly, with prices dropping, it might be tempting to try to fight your tax assessment. Prove to the government that your place is worse LESS than tax assessment. Why not! Free money right? Use that cash for Disney World.
Wrong! Unless you are part of a collective effort to reduce the tax assessment for an entire building or county, it can hurt you if your taxes are $30,000 lower than a nearby similar house.
Why? Buyer agents still use the tax assessment as a benchmark when comparing 2 properties. If I see a property for sale with a $500,000 tax assessment and it is selling for $520,000, I don't care. But if I see another similar place sold for $490,000 and it had the same $500,000 tax assessment, 9 times out of 10 the interior sq footage and other valuations will be the same.
Obviously a buyer agent won't use this as their ONLY tool, but it might be on the shortlist of 5 ways that they might value a property.
So don't go running to the tax man to drop your tax assessment from $500,000 to $450,000 in order to save about $500 a year ($50,000 at about 1%) unless you are SURE that you will be living there for well over 10 years. Otherwise it might have an effect on your resale.
A lower effect.
Written by Broker Frank Borges LL0SA- FranklyRealty.com
p.s. Please report typos.
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