Here is the tax letter!
Sorry for the delay. It took me a bit to retype this. Some of the price fields are blank and also where I put "house we purchased", that actually originally read the address or you could put the street name house. Example "Baker Home". Hopefully, it will all come through on here copied/pasted.
Property Value Attestation for __________________.
Date: _________________
Subject: Evidence to support the decrease in taxable property value for ____________________ Parcel number _______________.
To Whom It May Concern:
I am respectfully requesting your consideration of reducing the taxable value of above stated home to reflect a more accurate true market; therefore, tax value of the property. This property is grossly overvalued for tax purposes and it is my desire to reduce this heavy burden. Currently the assessed value is $_________ or greater than $_______ in Market Value! I believe that the assessed value of this property should be $_________ ($_________ market value). I am supporting my claim with the recent purchase price of the property, comparable property values and sales prices from before the housing decline and applying common sense in respect to the true assessed value.
On December 3, 2008 my wife, ____________, purchased the house for the amount of $____________from ________________. The seller was an unrelated third party we had no previous relationship with. The asking price was in the mid-thirty thousand dollar range. On December 20th ________________. a sole proprietorship, owned by myself, purchased the house property from ____________ for the exact same cost i.e. $________. The house is a two bedroom one bath 896 square foot home with a small yard and a basement built in 1927. There is no garage and in all respects this home is in above average condition.
Last month we were advised to contact the auditor’s office to seek a tax value reduction. On the advice of the Auditor’s office they suggested and assisted in running comparable estimates “comps.†on homes similar in size, bedrooms etc. in the area. The representative at the auditor’s office was very helpful and ran a few comps. on the system (AREIS). The representative admitted that unfortunately, there were very few houses in that area that have recently been purchased. The most recent purchase in a comp. for a home in this area was December 2007 just prior to the recent housing value crash. The parcel report for this home and the others are included in this request. This particular home was located at ______________. The house was a two bedroom, built in 1948, considerably newer than the house we purchased, has 814 sq. ft. one bath, with an attached garage (whereas the home we purchased has no garage at all). The sale price was $____________.
The next comp. is strong evidence to reflect the true market value of the home Taxable value is grossly over valued. ___________________ pulled by the Auditor’s office as a comp. for the house we purchased. This Elsie Avenue house was sold in July 2007, again just prior to the housing value crisis, for $__________. Prior to this sale the same house was sold on September 25, 2006 for $60,000.00. This is a two bedroom home built a few years after the house we purchased, 872 sq. ft and again with a detached garage. This house also has a full basement. It is clear this property offers more value than the house we purchased, especially when considering that it has a detached garage and is almost exactly the same size as the house we purchased. The sale price was at the height of the housing market and was still far below the current taxable value (based on market value) of the house we purchased.
In January 2007 a house at ___________. just a few houses away from the house we purchased, was sold for $68, 340.00. Just prior to that in December of 2006 this very same house sold for $53,334.00. Again at the height of the housing market and at the cusp of the crash. This house at _______________. has two bedrooms, an attic with 810 sq. ft. a full basement, 842 sq. ft. of living space and a detached garage (again showing a higher value than the ______________ as a garage would add value). Once again I believe this is good evidence to show that _________________. is grossly overvalued for tax purposes.
In addition to these strong examples I have included two other comps. that were run by the representative at the auditor’s office. One is a three bedroom home, 880 sq. ft., with a garage, sold in January 2007 for $69,000.00. Another that is a two bedroom house with a detached garage, 932 sq. ft. sold in Oct. 2007 for $71,000.00.
I am including copies of the “Lucas County GIS Viewer Parcel Report†of all of the above described properties. Furthermore, I am including a copy of the Lucas County GIS Viewer Parcel Report for my property at _____________________________.
Unfortunately, the above comps. were the most recent and available when we checked last month. It is important to remember these sale prices were at a time when homes were valued much higher in Lucas County. It is a well known fact that values dropped severely throughout 2008. Many homes in the same area are for sale. Unfortunately, there have been none recognized as comps. that have sold recently. However, many homes are offered for sale in this area between $35,000.00 and $55,000.00. Continuing to keep the property value for tax purposes for this house we purchased at this rate will discourage investment in this area and likely lead to more vacancies.
My analysis of the value of the house we purchased is conservative. It is backed by the fact that this property only has a current market value of $___________ based on the recent purchase price. Likewise, purchases of comparable properties were valued far below the house we purchased. The housing market in Lucas County, much like the rest of the nation, continues to decline at a rapid pace. Applying common sense and a scientific approach correcting the grossly overvalued tax burden for the house we purchased is more than justified in the above.
It is my sincere plea to the decision makers of this county that you make the right decision, the just decision and the logical decision to reduce the tax value on the house we purchased from $83,200.00 ($29,130.00 assessed value) to $35,000.00 ($12,250.00 assessed value). I would only want what is fair and this request is truly conservative as the requested new value is 10% higher than the most recent sale price of the property. Unfortunately, the property value has likely decreased since the most recent purchase in 2008 as property values continue to plummet.
Yours truly,
Detailed yet concise and to the point – thank you very much for sharing it and to your husband for writing it – really a great letter.
Your very welcome. Hopefully, it will help someone out get their taxes reduced too :D
#2 Off Topic Contributor
- Real Estate Investor
- the villages, FL
Here in TX, you protest and receive a hearing. I protested quite a few of my properties, using the price I paid for them at foreclosure. I received on average, about 30% reduction. The hearing person was really stressed and seemed very receptive to my requests. All total, I received over 600K in reductions, and that is important here in TX. Go protest or do whatever you can. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Rich.
rich that is how it works in most places around the country including toledo oh where she is from. not sure you read her last post on this topic but she just sent this letter rather then follow the normal procedure and it worked she got them lowered. that is what was pretty amazing and she promised to post the letter that worked around the normal system
Originally posted by Scott M.:
Detailed yet concise and to the point – thank you very much for sharing it and to your husband for writing it – really a great letter.
"Detailed" - yes; "Concise" - not so much. I ran out of steam on that one Kel. But I do appreciate that you printed the letter which will benefit all from this community. What I do for my comps to keep it concise is to merely present a table with: Date Sold, Price, Sqft, Price/Sqft. Then I average out the Price/Sqft and project the value of my own home based on this. Easy to read and hard to dispute.
Originally posted by Tom K:Originally posted by Scott M.:
Detailed yet concise and to the point – thank you very much for sharing it and to your husband for writing it – really a great letter.
"Detailed" - yes; "Concise" - not so much. I ran out of steam on that one Kel. But I do appreciate that you printed the letter which will benefit all from this community. What I do for my comps to keep it concise is to merely present a table with: Date Sold, Price, Sqft, Price/Sqft. Then I average out the Price/Sqft and project the value of my own home based on this. Easy to read and hard to dispute.
Most attorneys, my husband included can be long winded and in his case, include as much "evidence" as possible. So when it took some time to retype that you can see why. But the end results are what mattered in that it worked. Hopefully others if they wish can use it if for nothing else but an outline of what to include in their own letters....perhaps in a readers digest version instead though :mrgreen:
I liked it. I am getting ready to dispute tax value on 5 of my homes in Atlanta. Thanks for your contribution.
HA HA – I guess I should have been more clear – “concise†for an attorney!
But indeed it is true, no matter how many or how few words, it's the results that matter! Great job!
#3 Off Topic Contributor
- Investor
- Viera, FL
Kel you're awesome! Thanks for doing this.
Tim