It was hard to comp my property, for both the assessor and me, because where I live there are few legal, “two on ones”. They wanted to value the square footage as a total and compare it to neighboring detached single family properties. We all know that is wrong. The assessors appraiser said since there are no local “two on one” comps he did what he had to do. I countered that since there are no local comps, taking a method that works against me is wrong. Tying my hands behind my back rather than looking at how two on ones work in other zip codes compared to a detached house was wrong. I did this in writing and kept pushing my point. There were some other factors but this was mostly it. I was prepared to take an full appraisal to hearing even though first year additional tax savings would barely cover the appraisal.
What I am getting at is that “no realistic comps” shouldn’t be used against you as leverage. I think you might be able to take that out of their hands without court. I feel like I did that. Of course, there is no written or even verbal concession on my argument from the assessors office, but the numbers dropped to where I wanted them. I did go over the appraisers head to a supervisor with more authority to be helpful, if they wanted to be, and they were.
I don’t want to make it sound like these people were jerks because they weren’t. Still, if they need help, keep giving it to them…in writing if you haven’t already.
