Does anyone know how to calculate taxes on a sfh purchase in Miami dade?

I went to the county property assessor website and the amount came out to more than 3 times what the current owners are paying!

Is this accurate? And if so is there any way around this to keep the taxes closer to what the current owners are paying?

Miami-Dade County has one of the highest median property taxes in the United States but rents are also extremely high which does help offset the expenses.

The County uses a complicated formula to determine the property tax owed on individual properties, thus it's not possible to condense it into a simplified tax rate. Every owners property taxes depend on a variety of factors however it's ultimately at the discretion of the individual property appraiser who assesses your property, so it can vary significantly.

I assume the current owners are receiving the Homestead Exception, which you won't receive if you are buying as an investment property. Even if it was currently a rental property, the assessed value resets when there is a change of ownership so you can never assume the tax rate will stay the same when you are buying. 

Yes, you can appeal the property tax amount. Every year, the Tax Assessor mails out a Notice of Proposed Property Taxes to property owners after they have assessed and determined a property tax amount. This happens around August and you have several months to appeal it. It can't be an arbitrary argument, like you just feel the amount is too high. You would need to have a proper argument, such as incorrect facts in their assessment. 

What is the amount you think you will be paying and what are the property details? I just paid around 25k in property taxes for Dade alone.

25k on one property?!?

@Timothy Lewis

Lol, no! That’s for several

@Nat C.  It’s going to initially be a primary residence. The current owner owned the property for over 20 years and I will most likely purchase it for about $1mill

Is there any way for me to know the tax amount prior to purchasing it?

@Fradel Barber whenever you purchase a property, the taxes inevitably adjust according to the price you paid. I usually use the following formula (sale price * 0.8 * 0.02). That is 2% of 80% of the sale price. If this is your primary, you should ensure you apply for the homestead exemption which should limit yearly increases after the initial increase from year 1.

Originally posted by @Fradel Barber :

@Nat C. It’s going to initially be a primary residence. The current owner owned the property for over 20 years and I will most likely purchase it for about $1mill

Is there any way for me to know the tax amount prior to purchasing it?

This is the best resource to estimate the value-

Miami-Dade County - Property Appraiser - Online Tools

Thanks @Nat C. that was where I initially looked so I’m going to go with that estimate

@Carlos Rovira thanks for that tip!

The property appraisers website is generally pretty accurate. 

@Raymond J. Rodrigues thanks!

What if I purchase the property in cash? Does that change anything? Can it be "recorded" as a lower amount?

Originally posted by @Fradel Barber :

What if I purchase the property in cash? Does that change anything? Can it be "recorded" as a lower amount?

 Yikes, no, on so many levels. That would be completely illegal and would be such a bad idea for so many reasons. Your title insurance will only cover up to the purchase price (God forbid you discover title issues down the road, you would be really screwed). It would also be risky for your property insurance if you needed to make a claim for something.

How much property tax is the Tax Assessors website estimating you will pay? There are professional companies who solely handle reduction of property taxes. I would recommend you engage one of their services if you really want to try something to reduce the amount. 

Feel free to message me with all the details if you want me to take a quick look into it.  

Originally posted by @Nat C. :

Originally posted by @Fradel Barber:

What if I purchase the property in cash? Does that change anything? Can it be "recorded" as a lower amount?

 Yikes, no, on so many levels. That would be completely illegal and would be such a bad idea for so many reasons. Your title insurance will only cover up to the purchase price (God forbid you discover title issues down the road, you would be really screwed). It would also be risky for your property insurance if you needed to make a claim for something.

How much property tax is the Tax Assessors website estimating you will pay? There are professional companies who solely handle reduction of property taxes. I would recommend you engage one of their services if you really want to try something to reduce the amount. 

Feel free to message me with all the details if you want me to take a quick look into it.  

While generally the amount of insurance under an owner's title insurance policy defaults to the purchase price on the assumption that is the fair market value of the property, it is possible to purchase a policy with a higher amount of insurance if you ask the title agent.  You'll have to demonstrate to the insurer's satisfaction the actual value is or will be higher than the purchase price though.  Keep in mind, the maximum recovery amount under the policy is the less of the amount of insurance or the then fair market value of the property.  That means if you have $100k of insurance and suffer a total failure of title and the then value of the property is $75k, you'll receive $75k at most from the insurer.

The good news is that at least we don't have income tax & you can appeal the tax assessment once you get TRIM notice next August. No guarantees the appeal will be granted & definitively worth a shot. 

@Malgorzata Sadowska that’s true! Thanks