Appealing your property taxes is done because of inequities in market assessments, which incidentally runs 40-60 percent because of constant errors in blanket re-valuations that don’t get market values right.
The only way to fight your property taxes is to get rid of all municaple elected officials that live in the fantasyland of tax and spend. By electing a culture of conservative tax cutting, budget reducing legislatures.
Property tax re-valuations, contrary to many peoples opinion, do not increase the total amount of revenue raised by property taxes. Whatever the tax bill generated by the various schools, county government and municipal governments spending programs is divided up to spread the tax property tax burden based on the market value in the open market for your home. The municipality collects the amount of tax dollars for the expenses of local government based on their expenses. If the expenses go down, so do your taxes.
Property taxes take a beating supporting early retiring government employees. Senior employees are good for government providing they can do the job. With much of the government unionized in an archaic form, it is difficult to terminate or sideline an employee. Unlike a construction unions, where, if the worker is undesirable, the contracting firm can fire that employee. If that union member has issues that make him or her undesirable, that person simply does not get hired.
Reforming government unions should be high on the list of taxpayer reforms. A new competitive union needs to rise similar to that of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters for government employees. Benefits would accrue to the workers and hiring and firing decisions would originate with the government employer. Employees would be terminated as workplace changes dictate without penalty to the employer. Those hired would be on an as needed basis. Tenure would be replace by an apprentice program.
It is either that or some entrepreneur needs to step up to the plate and fashion a skilled workers program (similar to Manpower or other outside contracting agencies) to outsource jobs for all the categories of government workers. Naturally a mega agency would be too ambitious a start, but basic services could be outsourced.
Pressure needs to be put on government unions to reform or be replaced. Government is getting too expensive. Cost cutting reforms without cutting service has simple solutions but entail lots of political wrangling.
If employees work longer it give local, state or federal governments the benefit for having to pay fewer years of retirement. Considering many retire after 20-years service at 70% pay, the financial drain on taxpayers is enormous.
Taxpayers could get almost double the bang for the same dollar by insisting local, state or federal employees reach 65 years of age or work 40-years before they are eligible for retirement. That would put them on par with the majority of working Americans. There is no reason to treat government employees as a privileged class.
“The world is a dangerous place to live – not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” – Albert Einstein, scientist
Apply a property tax guide to any home or property: Get the right values and plug in the figures for your house. Don't get stuck on the learning curve scratching you head what to do next. Eliminate mistakes in property taxes and property tax appeals.
Builder, supplies, real estate connected jobs slump as housing related employment is effected. It’s no longer boom times in the construction industry. Interest rates have settled and offer a good chance to refinance at favorable interest rates.
Property tax appeals offer an excellent means to lower your tax dollars. To keep up with additions and subtractions the municipal building department missed, the mass appraiser is contracted. Mass property tax appraisers often use the most expensive property on the block to gauge properties against. Using error in judgement often results in not making location and other value adjustments. Maybe that’s why you’re over-assessed!
At the end of the day, the person doing the measuring has hundreds of measurements and calculations in his head. He probably will not even remember your home. He doesn’t have the same recall as an appraiser making an individual property appraisal.
Inaccuracies, math errors and observation made in haste and not recorded or misplaced occur frequently. Depreciation is not accounted for. For a good do it yourself property tax manual go to Property Tax Appeal Ax You might save yourself quite a few mortgage payments when you win.
Existing home sales are dropping sales at the fastest pace in 18 years. New home sales have improved slightly. The good news is the mortgage rates have dropped for the time being. Naturally, all hinges on the inflation fears and the perceived direction prices are going when the Federal Reserve eyeballs them. The sub-prime problems hurt the lender as much as the borrowers being the mortgage companies have to find a buyer to recoup their investment.
With the declining real estate prices in many parts of the country, now is a good time to scrutinize comparable market values to your home. In a declining real estate market winning your property tax appeal is almost a sure thing. Housetaxax.com is an excellent source of property tax appeals. House Values & Property Taxes Confidential information on house market values for property tax appeals.
When make an appraisal for a home mortgage the bias is for a higher appraised value. When engaging in a property tax appeal the bias is for finding a lower home value.
That, however, does not address the mass appraisal process that communities engage in. Mass appraisals are done cheaply. Often it is the lowest cost service that will hire college students to take the measurements and make observations. Past data is frequently rolled forward. The most expensive property on the block may be used as the point of reference. In equalities are abundant.
Consumer Reports (Nov.1992 v57 nil p.723) published that property tax records show an error rate of 40% exists in estimating property taxes.
The National Taxpayers Union ("How To Fight Property Taxes" 2004 p.1) writes that as many as 60% of all homeowners are over-assessed and not in line with their home value.
If your mortgage payment reflect a surge, it may be because your property taxes have increased. An excellent and inexpensive eBook that can guide you with the calculations you’ll need in the process can be found at http://www.housetaxax.com
According to the Appraisal Institute, problems with appraisal fraud could be addressed if lenders used only competent appraisers to begin with, and if mortgage broker and appraiser licensing standards were tightened.
Lender's spread is the fly in the ointment and it varies significantly from lender to lender.
The interest rate for a commercial property is comprised of an index, such as the 10-year T-bill, and the lenders spread. Lenders spread variance in pricing is due to the lack of three critical issues that need to be addressed about the property:
- Market Conditions
- Property Operating Performance
- Property Condition and Characteristics
These three issues will apply and vary from one property to another. Every commercial property type, including office, retail, industrial, self storage, mobile home park, mixed use, hotel, healthcare, and 5+ unit multifamily need to address these 3 issues in their loan package in order for the lender to narrow down the pricing into the most favorable rate.
If the mortgage broker does not address these three issues in their loan package, then there is no way for a lender to narrow down the pricing or lock your borrower into the most favorable rate.
For more information and/or quotes from multiple lenders click here: http://1stop-mortgage.com/commercial-loans.htm
