The tax assessor staff uses their own data to build their case. You can hire an appraiser for an market analysis and usually he has to be present at a municipal hearing. It can be expensive. Some recommend a Realtor for a market analysis but this usually gets shot down at the hearing since little back up material is presented and itemized adjustments are not focused on as points of contention. My experience is that the Realtor is looked at as a second class professional when it comes to trusting his valuation opinion.
The cost effective method is to do your own appeal. When you win your property tax appeal you get a reduction in valuation from the board of equalization and get your tax bill adjusted or get a refund of taxes previously paid.
Overall property taxes seem to be increasing while property values are decreasing and unless the local municipal government and state government economize, taxes will simply increase. Unless there emerge a groundswell of public protest and spending caps on the ballot, spend and tax are the operable engine. Unless there is a percentage cap on spending at every level of government, it’s like giving your teenage son or daughter a credit card and letting them do with it as they will.
Indiana Property Taxes
Indiana property taxes has increased on the average of 8 percent in recent years. 55 percent of homeowners pay property taxes in excess of 1 percent of the value of their home.
The best remedy is to challenge your property taxes. Reducing your property taxes stands a good chance since there are good odds you are over assessed according to many experts. The best way to look over this leading guide for a homeowner to make his case at PropertyTaxAx.com
There is a move to capping homeowner property taxes at 1 percent of assessed value and raising the state sales tax by 1 percent instead of cutting out the fat. The politicians cry that they are scared of being put into a straightjacket when that is EXACTLY what they need.
"If a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws. Ancient legislators knew they could not reform the manners of a city without the help of a songwriter and a poet." – Andrew Fletcher, to Scottish Parliament in 1704
In the fight between the good, the schemers and the evil of deed, there is no autopilot system to reform local, state and federal politics made it's appearance.
http://www.wizardacademypress.com/shopexd.asp?id=37 makes an interesting discussion on visual and auditory messaging to get ideas on the radar screen. Poets and musicians may find useful neurological insights to further their emotional triggers to bold political statements.
Short of political talent, I can only point out the failings of Big Brother that cause tax increases to fund some of their incompetence. Big tax California, Massachusetts and New Jersey are creating a economic climate for workers and businessmen to exit the state.
The ridiculously high-tax cost of doing business for the businessman is becoming economically burdensome. The cost of living for the worker is becoming exorbitant and a stretch for keeping even. Free market forces have been challenged by an insidious political landscape. We find a high-tax bureaucracy with tentacles of job protected workers. Notice that these bureaucrats don't have to show a profit or cost effectiveness to justify their jobs most of the time; they are just there collecting their paychecks.
That protectionism seems to foster mediocrity, featherbedding and workplace complacency. When city workers and cops are making $75,000 and more and get pensions off after 20 years service while the rest of working America have to labor 40 to 45 years before retirement becomes an option. Do we have a fairness problem regarding government union monopoly?
Public Big Brother (one in five work for local, state and the federal government) have their ridiculously compensated wage contracts cemented with early retirement and other perks. Health insurance monopoly legislation and other protected monopolies have placed heavy stones on the backs of taxpayers.
So, when you have a chance to appeal your property taxes … don’t hesitate. Property taxes are incorrect 40-50% of the time. There are ways of looking at things that are not standardized by bureaucrats. Values are often derived erroneously or previous year’s errors rolled over. It pays to take a look.
Home sales have fallen to a 5-year low with existing home sales falling for the 6th straight month. The average home is now on the market for more than 10-months before it is sold. Prices a still falling.
Often a home’s values are lower than the sales price since many concession are made. Before putting it on the market, they may install new carpets, new windows dressings, ceramic tile, new kitchen appliances, redo the kitchen, new ceiling fans, repaint the interior or replace window air conditioner units. If the home still doesn’t sell they may paint the exterior, do extensive landscaping, walkway changes or change entrance features etc.
If after six months on the market, a potential buyer may like some of the home but did not add on features and ask for a price concession. Sellers may have to make numerous financial concessions, not reflected in the sales price to unload their properties. This is a buyers market.
If you sold you a house for $550,000 but gave you $50,000 in concessions, then that house's real value is $500,000. But, since only the sold price is recorded you can’t tell the Department of Revenue that home values is lower than the sales price when you use a comparable in your property tax appeal or appraisal unless you prove it with a study.
The housing glut, increases in property taxes and skyrocketing homeowners' insurance rates are reflected
in the real estate market. Price concessions are hard to prove and a study to prove a lower sold value for the comparable homes due to price concessions is debatable.
Often a home’s actual value is lower than the sales price since many price concession are made. If you are using a comparable sales to determine market value, that figure may in reality be much lower than the actual recorded price indicated.
Where is competent efficient government? Local governments spend a small fortune to reappraise our homes every few years and then hold a gun to our head if the homeowner can't afford to pay for their run away expenses. If the homeowner can't pay they seize the home from under him and sell it. We have absolutely no control of how they spend our money.
There is a FORTUNE spent on collecting property taxes. When you add the expense to collect our property tax money (cost of blanket property tax appraisers, the town tax collector, tax assessor, the cost of the office space, town cars, legal fees to the town lawyer for property tax appeals…. etc. and add it all together, it makes more sense to simply raise taxes with in increase in sales tax and/or income tax.
Politicians nowadays have the mindset that they have to come up with a bill or law they want passed to get elected. Instead they should point with pride to all the unnecessary expenses, jobs and bureaucratic overhead they got rid of.
We need politicians of a culture that says "NO!" to extra-ordinary expenses. Obvious expenses and savings abound. And then there are the bureaucratic perks such as the 20-year service and retire on a pension civil service contracts while the average American has to work 40 or more years before they get the chance to kick back. Or the over-the-top health and welfare benefits that the private sector simply can not afford.
Last week in an article in the Wall Street Journal "Bear Sterns is Tip of an Iceberg" warns of significance of the Bear Stearns hedge fund bailout.
It warns of a possible future unraveling of sub-prime loans (that includes both credit cards as well as mortgages) which would cause higher mortgage rates. That coupled with the already dead-in-the-water real estate market would sink the ship lower. Property values will plunge more. The opportunity for property tax appeals increases because lower priced comparables abound! Take advantage of it.
Higher credit premiums can threaten other highly-leveraged instruments further shaking up financial stability. This could foretell a liquidity crunch that can effect your investments as well as your home’s market value.
