This particular home owner contacted us literally a couple of days before the deadline to dispute property taxes last year. It’s a good thing he reached out to us. Otherwise that $2,000 check would never be coming his way.

As a side note, when an appeal is filed and the Assessor ends up agreeing with the appeal, they’ll send you a “Tax Change Withdrawal of Application for Changed Assessment.” Basically this means they are asking you to formally agree to the new opinion of assessed value and simultaneously withdraw your appeal. Usually home owners we help have some questions here because nobody wants to sign something they are unfamiliar with, but we tell people to sign off if the value looks good. There is no reason to keep the appeal in process or pursue an appeals hearing if the Assessor has already agreed with the accurate value we presented to them.

We’ve had so many stories like this and we expect many more for 2010 property taxes. Let us know if you have any questions. If it looks like the Assessor has valued your property too high, we are glad to help you. We are honest and we do a good job. Call us at 916.595.3735 or email info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

Before you make a decision to hire someone to help you reduce your property taxes (including our tax appeal company), wait until new assessments come out to determine if there is a real savings to be had. If you live in Sacramento or Placer County, for example, the Assessor has not yet posted their latest assessments yet, so it doesn’t make much sense to dispute your taxes until you know what their assessment is going to be for 2010.

Why are we telling you this? Because we are committed to being honest with you about the property tax appeals process and how you can save money. If it looks like the Assessor has your value wrong, we are glad to partner with you to help the Assessor understand true market value. Our company’s fees are very reasonable too. On the other hand, if it looks like the Assessor has your property assessed accurately, you don’t need to do a thing.

If you want us to send you an email reminder when new assessments come out, click “contact” in the upper right hand corner of this page (or fill out the sidebar to the right), and we’ll get in touch with you soon. For now, if you have any questions about appealing your property taxes, or if there is anything we can do for you, let us know. Thank you.

By the way, the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office typically publishes their new assessments in the month of May, but right now they are expecting to get this information out at the very beginning of July. You can expect Placer County to get their information out in July also.

Sacramento Region Property Tax Appeals
TEL: 916.595.3735
FAX: 916.361.1964
www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com
info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com

NOTE: This advice is good for a traditional “decline in value” tax appeal only (it’s not applicable to a base year appeal or calamity reassessment….).

Common Questions Covered in the Video: When is the best month to appeal property taxes in Sacramento or another local county? What date does the Assessor base my property value on? Why is it not a good idea to respond to the “reduce your taxes” mailers in February and March? When do new assessed values come out in Sacramento and surrounding counties like Placer? Why does the Assessor have a positive publicity campaign before releasing new assessed values? When is the deadline for disputing property taxes?

Please see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com for additional information and let us know if you have any questions. You can use the “Contact” page on the website to let us know about your property so we can do FREE research to determine if there is any potential savings for you on your property tax bill. You may also call 916-595-3735, or email info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com. Thank you.

Keep in mind also that there is a good chance the Assessor’s office will mail you a letter or call you to attempt to bargain with you. For example, maybe the Assessor had your property valued at $300,000, but you said it was worth $225,000. So then they come back to say they’ll “lower” your property taxes to $275,000. Their “lowering” might sound generous, but if your property was over-assessed in the first place, then there is really no generosity here at all.

We serve the following counties: Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Solano, Sutter, Yuba, and Merced.

Call 916-595-3735 or email info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com. We are glad to help you.

This is not a huge sum of money. There are certainly clients that will save $10,000+ because of the work my company provides. Yet at the same time, every dollar counts and I’d much rather save $350 than relinquish my hard-earned money to the local Assessor.

The wild thing is that these were property taxes for 2008. I turned in the Application for Changed Assessment in November 2009 and the Assessor just got back to me about these taxes last week - sixteen months later. Despite the unfortunate delay in getting a refund, had I not formally appealed these taxes, I would not be getting a check in the mail. Besides, I appeal every year I need to, so I should be getting a refund every year, so there is a pattern and sense of normalcy in the midst of waiting.

If you think you are a good candidate for lowering your property taxes, then it’s important to take action before the deadline for appealing property taxes comes (that’s either September 15 or November 30 depending on which county you live in).

I’m happy to answer any questions. Give me a call at 916-595-3735 or shoot me an email at ryan@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

7/25/2000 – $110,000 sale
7/16/2002 – $278,000 sale
8/18/2004 – $435,000 sale
2/10/2005 – $459,000 sale
9/08/2008 – $377,500 sale  (maybe a short sale – did not list in MLS)
5/01/2009 – $104,250 (transfer to bank – foreclosure)
7/13/2009 – $140,000 sale

What do you see? Does anything stand out to you? Let me know if you have any questions about the local real estate market or your neighborhoood. With the decline of property values in the Sacramento Region, it makes it very important to keep make sure that the Assessor reconciles their assessed value to a consistent level of true market value (it’s not always the same – at all).

When looking at all model match sales, it’s not hard to see that the Assessor valued this property too high. In this case, the assessed valued was only about $30,000 higher than true market value, but this amount is still $300+ out of the home owner’s pocket for the year. It’s more common for me to help property owners dispute their taxes for residential properties when there is a greater savings of $500, $1000 or even thousands of dollars, but in this instance the home owner felt strongly about moving forward to contest the Assessor’s value.

Let me know if you have any questions. Remember, the deadline for appealing property taxes in many counties surrounding Sacramento is November 30, 2009.

www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com The Assessor’s Value vs. True Market Value

The graph below displays all sales in Sacramento County for duplex properties. I know, Sacramento County is an enormous territory, but sometimes viewing large ares helps to see an overall trend.

What do you notice when looking at all duplex sales in Sacramento county? It seems the bulk of sales are well under $300,000, and that the median sales price level easily lost $200,000 or more over the past three years. Ouch. There certainly are an enormous portion of sales between $100,000 to $200,000 too, aren’t there? 

Let’s take a closer look at a specific area in Sacramento by viewing sales in North Sacramento in the 95815 and 95838 zip codes. No, that’s not a ski slope, but a trend graph of all duplex sales.

It’s interesting to see what looks like two markets at hand above: One market below $100,000 and another market hovering between $150,000-$175,000. Market segmentation (bifurcation) is common depending on condition, location, size, or even the nature of the sale – short sale vs foreclosure vs typical arms-length transaction.

One more. What’s happened in the city of Rancho Cordova’s duplex market over the past thirty six months? No surprises. It looks similar to the graphs above.

When it comes to duplexes in Rancho Cordova and surrounding areas of Sacramento, the majority of recent sales are reo properties (bank-owned). For example, in a recent duplex appraisal I just completed in a Sacramento neighborhood, 84% of all duplex sales over the past 12 months within this neighborhood were REO sales and 10% of all sales were Short Sales. It’s not an easy market when 94% of all sales carry some level of distress.

Contact me at 916-595-3735 or info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com if you have any questions.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com The Bursting of the Duplex Market in Sacramento