Why You May Be Overpaying on Property Taxes and How to Fix It

After the mortgage payment, the largest home-related expense for most people is their property tax bill.

But shockingly, an estimated 40 percent of American homeowners pay more than they should on their property taxes.

Why is that? The primary reason is that your county assessor has placed an incorrect assessed valuation on your home.

This problem has been accentuated by the recent housing slump.  With property values declining in most cities, there is a good chance you could shave hundreds and possibly thousands off your property tax bill.  No doubt you have a few ideas for what you could do with that kind of cash.

Traditionally, homeowners have not had a good option for appealing the valuation of their home and the related property tax.  Filing an appeal with your local tax authority used to be an opaque, expensive, and time-consuming process–until now.

That’s because of a new innovative online company, called ValueAppeal.com that specializes in helping homeowners determine the fair market value of their home for tax assessment purposes.  The site makes it easy to generate a custom appeal evidence report to submit to the local property tax authorities, in order to request a lower assessment and a lower tax bill.

Here's how it works:

Firstly, ValueAppeal provides you a free, honest, unbiased opinion of whether you’re being over-assessed.  You simply enter your home address and the site compiles local "comps” showing what the valuation of what your home should be based on recent home sales in your area.  The results of this free analysis will tell you if you’re paying too much, and if you could save thousands of dollars by appealing the county’s assessed valuation of your home. (Note: The majority of homeowners who visit the site are told they’re NOT overassessed, so if you’re one of the unlucky few who are overassessed, you really should take advantage of the opportunity to save some money.)

Next, the site will generate a custom appeal evidence package proving your case for a lower assessment.  This is a document that is pre-formatted for you to submit directly to your local tax assessor’s requesting an appeal of your home valuation and contains the specific evidence needed to prove your case.

The appeal evidence report details your case from three different angles:

Comparable Sales: Shows what your home should be assessed at based on sales prices of comparable homes nearby.  It uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze hundreds of comp sales to filter out any that could disqualify your argument, and lists up to 15 of the strongest comps supporting your case. You use their Comp Selector Tool to see how different comps affect your projected property tax savings, and then pick the best five comps to support your case.

Unequal Assessment: Shows if your assessment is higher than other similar homes in your area.

Additional Information:  Allows you to include information about your home that county records might not be aware of that could lower your property value, such as leaks, cracked foundation, drainage problems, or fire damage. 

The assessment analysis is free, and the custom appeal evidence package--should you decide to generate and print it-- is $99.  You can create your custom report in less than 10 minutes. The average ValueAppeal customer has saved $839 on their property taxes.

Of course, if the free assessment does not show significant potential savings, you won’t want to buy it.  The best part is that the company guarantees that if you purchase their report and your appeal is not successful, they will refund the $99 – so, there is nothing to lose and potentially hundreds, if not thousands, to gain.

After you drop your appeal in the mail, your request may be automatically approved, and you will receive a reduction on your assessment and your property tax bill.  If not, usually a representative from the county assessor’s office may attempt to settle your appeal with a quick phone call, without a formal appeal board hearing. 

If you’re one of the few cases that do end up going to a hearing, ValueAppeal’s Comparative Analysis Tool can analyze the assessor’s comps and prove why they are not similar to your home, and unfairly support a higher value. Remember, your job is to prove why your comps are better than the assessor’s comps.

With ValueAppeal you’ll have all the information at your fingertips to win your case.

Homeowner’s filing appeals on their own are typically successful only about 40 percent of the time, but ValueAppeal’s customers are successful 80 percent of the time! No homeowner is happy about the recent decline in housing values.  But, at least it’s an opportunity to reduce your property taxes and save a considerable amount of money.

And now, ValueAppeal makes it easy.

Click here for your home’s free assessment analysis to get started.