5 Sneaky Ways To Lower Your Property Tax

Many property owners do not want the city assessor to come into the interior of their building. If you have done extensive work, well, then okay, you have a reason. If you have done no repairs and feel the interior of the property is a bit to be desired, you may wish to invite the assessor inside. Make sure you are available to walk around your property with the assessor and point out the bowed walls because the roof needs to be replaced. Point out the unleveled floor because the property has shifted a bit over the years and probably needs some support beams. Point out some good things as well, never dwell on just the bad points. This might help to lower your assessment, thus lower your property tax liability.

Look at your tax card at the county assessor's office. You might find some interesting things about the assessment of your property. In a home, the assessor may include a room as a bedroom, but in all reality, you cannot fit a bed in the room. You can also see if they note any improvements or structure damages. If you see any information on the tax card that does not appear correct, talk to the assessor and have the corrections made. This is going to help lower your property tax liability as well.

If you think an in ground pool will benefit the family or a deck for fry outs, or maybe even a larger garage, you might think twice. Any permanent structure that you place on your property will increase your property tax liability. You might consider a nice above ground pool, a backyard barbeque area and forget about the larger garage. This will help keep your assessment value lower, this is a big plus to lower your property tax liability when the assessor comes knocking.

The next way to lower your property tax liability is to keep your decorating ideas at a minimum. Although assessors do follow a set of guidelines for assessing your property, something that looks like a splendidly elegant property will play a role in the assessment. You may find yourself with a higher assessment than a property similar because your property is elegantly decorated. You can decorate, but when the assessor comes to inspect and judge the property, you might not want to impress him or her.

The next thing you can do is know the neighborhood. Sometimes viewing similar properties just like your property may show you some inaccuracies as far as assessed values. Sometimes mistakes are made and you can point this out to the assessor. If you find a property exactly like your property, except it has a larger garage, newer windows, a shed or even a deck and it is valued lower than your property which has none of these things, you might consider calling this to the assessor's attention. They can and do make entry mistakes as well as observation mistakes. You need to do some checking and thinking before the assessor comes to visit your property.

- Oliver Bugarin, Webmaster

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