San Diego, CA · Member since 2020 · 21 posts · 18 votes
I made the error in using information from Zillow on the cost of my property taxes. I dug deeper into the cost by going to the county's website and the rate was higher. There are also annual fees for trash and stormwater services that I'll have to pay. The error doesn't kill the project but it does impact the cash flow amount.
The error was my fault. It wasn't difficult to find out what the current tax bill was/is for the property that I was looking into. I know that market values can & will change, causing an increase in the taxes. Either way, I will not be making this same mistake again.
There is little to actually "trust without confirming" on Zillow... All the portal sites are that way since they are pulling data en masses from other sites via syndication and Information Data Exchanges (IDX). Sometimes, there are transcription errors. To top it off, then the portals try to add value by trying to make their own calculations.
Good thing you found this out on a smaller scale. Take care.
What works for me is finding the property through the tax assessor. Google search [city, state tax assessor] and find a link that allows you to look up the property through the address. You will get a wealth of knowledge from the tax assessor's website. You can also find how much the city charges in property taxes per $100 assessed value = you can predict how much it will increase based on the price you purchase it for. I hope this helps in the future :)