OT: Appeal your property tax assessment by Nov. 30

[NotCranky]

Great replies,BG!

Good info on prop 8.

The property had nothing but an electrical pole, a few oaks, and a lot of chaparral. Nobody had ever lived in it or built anything on it. I am much more remote than the places you mention. The rural roads, fires,rattlesnakes, remaining shacks, commute times and gas prices make it undesirable for a lot of people. The short sales and foreclosures that come up around me sell to decent people quickly. From the street view it looks like some of the flips have been a struggle.

There was plenty of regular liar loan funny money around here too.

[NotCranky]

Yes, Flu,
There are rules against selling to yourself.

[EconProf]

I’ve had some interesting bouts with the Yuma County Assessor, where I bought several properties over the years. Yuma values have fallen as much or more than San Diego’s (hold the catcalls) and I have appealed the assessments. On some buildings with very close comparables, the assessor immediately slashed my assessments. But on some land parcels with no comparable sales, I have no ammunition to bring to the argument. But I am positive values have fallen drastically (land falls more in a falling market than other real estate types). In fact, I can point to comparable for sale parcels where they are asking way less per square ft. than my assessed value. Sorry, says the assessor, that’s not a comparable sale. This conclusion is so ridiculous that I am considering a court challenge.
Anybody have a similar experience with an assessor?

[Coronita]

[quote=EconProf]I’ve had some interesting bouts with the Yuma County Assessor, where I bought several properties over the years. Yuma values have fallen as much or more than San Diego’s (hold the catcalls) and I have appealed the assessments. On some buildings with very close comparables, the assessor immediately slashed my assessments. But on some land parcels with no comparable sales, I have no ammunition to bring to the argument. But I am positive values have fallen drastically (land falls more in a falling market than other real estate types). In fact, I can point to comparable for sale parcels where they are asking way less per square ft. than my assessed value. Sorry, says the assessor, that’s not a comparable sale. This conclusion is so ridiculous that I am considering a court challenge.
Anybody have a similar experience with an assessor?[/quote]

What are the rules for selling to a C-corp or S-corp you own or between corps?

[desmond]

[quote=EconProf]I’ve had some interesting bouts with the Yuma County Assessor, where I bought several properties over the years. Yuma values have fallen as much or more than San Diego’s (hold the catcalls) and I have appealed the assessments. On some buildings with very close comparables, the assessor immediately slashed my assessments. But on some land parcels with no comparable sales, I have no ammunition to bring to the argument. But I am positive values have fallen drastically (land falls more in a falling market than other real estate types). In fact, I can point to comparable for sale parcels where they are asking way less per square ft. than my assessed value. Sorry, says the assessor, that’s not a comparable sale. This conclusion is so ridiculous that I am considering a court challenge.
Anybody have a similar experience with an assessor?[/quote]

Tough break, sounds like the assessor there does not have any sense of yuma.

[NotCranky]

EconProf.

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.

[EconProf]

Flu: Interesting. Establish comps by selling my land at FMV to an S-Corp that I own. They would probably claim it was not an arms-length transaction.
Regarding the other two comments: The assessor and their representatives are in a tough spot in negotiations. They naturally want the county to keep as much revenue as possible, but they have to at least appear to be fair and honest. They want to minimize reassessments and not be flooded with appeals. Since they are far more experienced at arguing for their side than the public they deal with, they can sometimes “educate” the public as to why the assessor is right and the homeowner is wrong. They will invoke their “expertise” in the discussions, and it can be a little intimidating to the average citizen. But if you have mustered the evidence and believe you are correct, you must persevere. The truth will win out, and you will prevail.
Your ultimate weapon is to say “I want a hearing”. You are legally entitled to one, and they dread hearing that, because it eats up 20 – 30 minutes’ time of a very expensive group of people. At that point, the other side will argue and argue and then compromise, unless your appeal is truly without merit.

[Author]

Posts