I have been challenging homeowner’s property taxes for the past 9 years and during that time I have represented hundreds of homeowners and helped them achieve thousands of dollars in savings, savings which they enjoy year after year.
I fell into my specialty by accident when a friend asked me to help them with their tax assessment grievance. At the time I had my real estate sales license, and I was a certified Real Estate Appraiser, an aspiring Real Estate investor, and just all around interested in Real Estate, so I thought “Sure, why not learn about grieving or challenging property tax assessments”.
My first case resulted in a tax savings of $4,000 per year for my friend; that is where my new career started. The first thing I thought was, “Why doesn’t every homeowner challenge their assessment or at least have it reviewed to see if it is fair?” I mean, I don’t know anyone who wants to pay more than their fair share of income tax, do you? Yet, there are thousands of homeowners who overpay on their property taxes each and every year without even giving it a thought.
Let me share a sobering example with you. I had a client who was over-assessed, and over-paying on their property tax assessment to the tune of $16,000 per year. They had been over-paying for 10 years, for a total of $160,000 in unnecessary tax bills.
Why would anyone do this? These were intelligent, financially literate people who lived in a beautiful home, it was really hard to understand. So my question to everyone out there is what are your reasons for not investigating/challenging your property tax assessment? I would love to know. Please take a moment to share your reason with me so that I can help homeowner’s keep more of their own money.