Yeah, Huckleberry, I’ve got similar houses around me, not even for sale. A couple of “room additions” started 7-10 years ago and never finished with paper/plywood exposed and air around the window frames. Half-finished concrete projects with rebar sticking out. Backyards (and sometimes front yards) full of debris for years. 80 year old trees unwieldy and in need of a $2-$3K trim/topping.
Guess what? I’ve decided I don’t care for the time being as I can’t sell for four more years. Some of these 60-70 year-old (some <1000 sf) "fixers" around me are actually selling right now (they're on good-sized lots) and dragging down property values. Due to that, our lofty county assessor just sent me ANOTHER letter stating they were voluntarily reassessing my property $26K LOWER for FY 10/11. Couldn’t have done a better job myself for NO WORK!!
This is after I already appealed in FY 08/09 and stipulated with them for the 09/10 assessment to be lowered $103K. This took 16 months and a multitude of letters, phone calls and paperwork.
My advice to you, Huckleberry? Check the comps to see if you can successfully appeal your tax assessment if it is too high. There’s a silver lining in every cloud :=)
