This week I attended an event where my local property tax assessor explain how she does her job. She is responsible for distributing an $86 million dollar tax levy across 3,600 properties. The task involves a fair amount of investigation and subjective decisions. I’ve compiled a video to capture 10 points that you can use to get your own assessed valuation under control. We all need to pay taxes to support municipal services and the schools, but where I live the assessor aggressively pursues physical improvements as a means to elevate the assessed valuation of the town. This means if you do work on your house, and file a permit, you are very likely to pay more taxes. The only recourse is to grieve the assessment or go to small claims court and make a case that your assessment is too high based on a new appraisal, comparable sales or other info. I hope these tips are valuable to you.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtg1QR6CGGI[/embedyt]
SECTIONS
1/ 1:00 You Control Interior Inspections
2/ 1:39 Take Down MLS Pictures
3/ 2:00 The Town Needs You to Hack the Tax Cap
4/ 2:24 Mass Appraisal, with adjustments
5/ 2:40 Inferior Site Desirability
6/ 3:06 Grievance Day
7/ 3:37 Small Claims Court
8/ 4:14 For Sale By Owner (FSBO)
9/ 4:45 Rat On Neighbors
10/ 5:09 Solar, AC and Generators
11 (BONUS)/ What counts as a bedroom?
