WebHomeUSABlog

The Target Market Efficiency Rating: Visitors/Homes For Sale/Month, For Online Real Estate

Does Real Estate need a new online metric? My local real estate search Website, needs to stand out. I don't have the huge traffic numbers of Trulia and the other national Websites, or the legacy and reputation of the large local Websites. If I can't be #1 in a metric, then I need a new metric. I need an efficiency rating.

For my Website and Blog, I track my traffic, page views and other numbers with my Web-master's analytics and Google Analytics. To any one familiar with different analytic programs, you'd be surprised at the difference between the results for the same metrics.

There are 3 national companies tracking Website traffic for many business sectors including Real Estate: comScore, Neilsen Online and Hitwise (an Experian Company). Google hopes to enter the online traffic watch market soon with their own Website tracking system based at the server level. ComScore, Neilsen and Hitwise are all paid services. Google's new program will be free.

In my weekly reports from both my Web Analytics and from Google Analytics, I primarily track: Total Traffic, Unique Visitors, Page Views, Page Views/Visit and Time on Site. (Google Analytics can provide a neat feature which rates your metrics against Industry Website averages. Very Interesting.)

Based on business models, there are 2 types of Real Estate Websites:

• Media or Ad Revenue Model Websites (Zillow, Trulia, Google Base, Yahoo Real Estate and MSN Real Estate). National Media Real Estate Websites, sell ads like Google and Network TV and Network Radio. 
• Retail or Home Sale Revenue Model Websites (Realtor.com, RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, etc. and Local Real Estate Broker and Agent Websites). Retail Websites sell houses and generally have little or no outside advertising.

The metrics that are important to these Websites differ as well. Retail/Home Sale Websites are interested in people who need to buy or sell a home in the next 30 to 90 days. They generally are in the service of the 7% of agents who sell 93% of the homes. (The 93/7 Rule for Real Estate is the new play on the old 80/20 rule.) Prime metrics for Real Estate Retail sites are unique visitors; not total traffic, page views or time on site, since the greater majority of visitors will buy or sell only one home at a time.

Media/Ad Sale Websites are concerned with different metrics, the ones that are important to their advertisers. The ones that they sell to their advertisers. The majority of ad revenue to Media sites comes from Pay-Per-Click (PPC), as well PPV (Pay-Per-View) or PPM (Pay-Per-[M]Thousand). The same person can go to a Website many times, view many pages, stay for a long time, and click on a number of ads. So the metrics of total traffic (vs unique visitors), page views, time on site and click-through-rate (CTR) are most important.

But what if you have a Website that's a combination of the two? My start-up, WebHomeUSA.com, is a Local Real Estate Website with an ad revenue model, not a home sale model. So my traffic numbers don't compare with the 3-4 million monthly visitors of Zillow or Trulia, or the relatively high visitor and page view stats of the local brokers. What's a Realtor to do?

The 2 established Real Estate Websites in the 11 County Greater Rochester, NY are:

• HomeSteadNet.com: The Greater Rochester Association's (GRAR) site
• Nothnagle Realtor's Nothnagle.com.

HomeSteadNet gets about 6,000 visitors/day (180K/M) and Nothnagle gets about 13,000 visitors/day (390K/M). At WebHomeUSA.com we attracted over 2,000 visitors/day (60K/M) during May, 2008.

To bridge the gaps of comparing my numbers to both national media Websites and local broker and association Websites, I thought of comparing our sites based on the target of number of homes for sale in our market.

The Target Market Efficiency Rating = Visitors/HomesForSale/Month

In any month, if Zillow and Trulia get 4MM visitors for the 7MM homes for sale in the US, and Nothnagle gets 390K visitors, HomeSteadnet gets 6K visitors, and WebHomeUSA gets 2K visitors for 8K homes for sale in Greater Rochester, then:

• Nothnagle's Visitors/HomesForSale/Month =           48.8
• HomeSteadNet's Visitors/HomesForSale/Month =    22.5
• WebHomeUSA's Visitors/HomesForSale/Month =      7.5
• Zillow's and Trulia's Visitors/HomesForSale/Month = 0.57

What's your Website's Target Market Efficiency Rating(TMER)?

As they say in Real Estate, "If you can't be Number 1 in your niche, find a new niche."

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

Challenge My Tax Assessment 101

You can't fight City Hall?

After 3 posts on my Real Estate Blog about Rochester, NY's property tax reassessment, Meaghan McDermott, a Staff Reporter for Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle (D+C), asked me if I'd give some advice to a local property owner who planned to challenge his home's new tax assessment.

Meaghan seemed surprised that I was a local Real Estate blogger. I'm not aware of another Real Estate blogger in the Rochester, NY Area. We're very conservative and a bit behind the e-times here in Upstate, NY.

Meaghan's article appeared in the Wednesday, 6/11/08 edition of the D+C: Front Page and above the fold, no less. Imagine, free advertising and branding coming from Real Estate Blog posts. Who'd 'a thought?

I wasn't sure of the deadline for her article, so I answered her questions on challenging your home's tax assessment, by copying and pasting her email into my email, and answering her questions directly in the body of her email.

I've found it's best to give any reporter as many written documents and as much follow-up information as possible. They then have the correct spelling and the correct URL's, domain names and links. And they have to work a lot harder to mis-quote you.

1) Your email:

"Cliff: I'm a reporter with the Democrat and Chronicle. I'm going to tag along with a Greece (NY) resident tomorrow when he hits the formal hearing to grieve his lakefront assessment.

I saw your website and a couple of blog posts you made about challenging assessments. I was wondering if we could chat about the process and

Q 1) if you think the process is fair for the average homeowner."

In Rochester, NY, he process is about as fair as any other civic/government process I'm familiar with. The assessors use computer programs and comparables, based on their available home information, just like Realtors do. Your only arguments are:

• Features: Does the Town's description of your home's features match your home, ie: bedrooms, bathrooms, lot size, etc.
• Comparables: From your County Clerk's Office, A Realtor, RealEstateABC.com, Zillow.com, etc.
• Condition: Computers don't know the condition of your home.

"Q 2) It's up to the homeowner to prove the assessor wrong...do you think that's a fair way to go about it?"

The tax assessment process is like most other civil processes. I'm sure Tom Golisano (Of PayChex fame and Rochester's resident Billionaire, who's actively challenging his home's tax assessment) would make it out to be "Guilty until proven innocent". But my take on the process and my experience with the process are not that way. In Rochester, I'd rather fight a tax assessment than a traffic or parking ticket, any time.

"Q 3) What advice do you have for someone who wants to challenge their assessment?"

The general points from "My Three Posts":

• First Questions: Is it worth the time and money to appeal? What can I gain?
• Know your local tax assessment appeal process and what you need to do to appeal. Cutoff dates and the correct forms are very important.
• Document your case as much as possible: Town forms and your other documents and photos
• Think like an assessor: Think of the questions the assessor might ask. Think of the points and arguments he might make. "What do you think your assessment should be?", "Why do you think your assessment should be lowered?", etc.
• Practice your responses alone and with your family and friends.
• Pick a Strategy to argue: Incorrect house information, Comparables and/or Condition.
• Go to the appeal with a competent, composed, non-professional friend or relative for support.
• State your case clearly, succinctly and with some passion. Use your bullet points. If possible, don't read.
• Calculate and know the % and $ reduction you want.And what you'll settle for. (A 50% reduction in your tax increase or "split-the-difference", is usually a very good outcome)
• Show respect and courtesy to the assessor. Try to join with him and not be adversarial or argue with him. Say things like:"That's a good point; and...". "This must be a tough job." He'll be more likely to lower your assessment if he likes you and you get along.
• Leave documents and supporting information with the assessor. Make it easy for him to agree with you and to make your case to his superior to lower your assessment
• Resolve your assessment issues through the informal process whenever possible.

One last tip: In our present market, where homes sometimes sell under assessment, take your purchase documents to the Town Assessor right away. There's no better proof of a change in "current fair market value" than your purchase documents with a lower selling price.

"If you like, you can call me at the number below, or we could chat via e-mail.

Thanks for your time."

Thanks again, Meaghan, for your time and interest, (Does the D+C have any Real Estate Bloggers, or Real Estate Business Bloggers yet?)

Cliff

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

A Realtor's Nightmare

With the economy in the dumps, the sub-prime mess screwing over most of my buyers, and the gasoline price taking a bigger chunk out of my budget, I was heartened by all of the NAR's victories in our settlement with the DOJ.

You can fight City Hall. You can fight City Hall. You can fight City Hall. And win. And win. And win.

"We're from the Government, and we're here to help you." My sleep was great. Why count sheep, when you can count victories?

At first, the night like any other night. I was still basking in the glory of all the NAR's victories in our settlement with the DOJ.

I was particularly happy, the NAR could now keep those pesky Search Engines away from our listing data. I didn't like the way those companies like Zillow.com and RealEstateABC.com come up with a virtual CMA in about 10 seconds. It often takes me hours. Just because their computers were bigger than mine, doesn't mean I'm irrelevant. Size doesn't matter. Right? I won't have to go back to selling used cars, will I? I'll just go over my "But Zillow says..." objection handler script a couple more times.

But, before I woke up, my NAR dream settlement had turned into a Realtor's nightmare:

It was announced today that Google, after winning "Internet Map Wars" by buying Pictometry, was going to focus on Real Estate.

I vaguely remembered back in the early 2000's, when the NAR was in negotiations with Google to provide the NAR's Real Estate Search. But the NAR's demands to conceal their data, on the Hidden Web, conflicted with Google's stated vision to: "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful".

But now Google, with the NAR's victory settlement over the DOJ, had to join every local Association of Realtors with an MLS to get all the listings on Realtor.com. Google said, "The $500,000 we paid to join all 900 US MLSs cost a lot less than the $1.65 Billion we paid for YouTube. "Pocket change", said Sergei Brin and Larry Page. "Hardly a rounding error".

"In the past, to avoid copyright infringement claims, we had waited for Brokers to push their listing data out to Google Base. Why wait? We're brokers now. The NAR says we have to be. We don't even need traditional agents."

"A Google Computer can do the work of a thousand agents. The money we save by doing our CMAs in 5 seconds, we can pass on to home buyers. Our Google Computer Agents (GCAs) don't need as much gas as the traditional agent, either. Our budget for E + O insurance is less for computer agents too."

"We only wanted to be a Real Estate Search Engine working with Brokers, providing them with free exposure of their properties and free advertising. The NAR's victory forced us to become a Real Estate Broker in all 900 MLSs, and to actively sell Real Estate. We didn't want this. We really didn't want to do this, but the NAR made us do it", said a spokesman from Google on the condition of anonymity.

Move.com, Realtor.com and the NAR.org were not available for comment.

Although Google would not comment, sources close to the matter said Google would first use their great computer, search and Internet dominance to start an MLS-Only listing service called GMLS. Google next planned to get into discount brokering with, Google Discount Broker (GDB), referred to as "Redfin-On-Steroids".

"Google Real Estate (GRE): Great Real Estate always starts with GRE."

"Googled Your Home Lately?"

No! No! No! Not Google. Not Google. Anybody but Google.

I'm glad it was just a nightmare. It wasn't Google. It was never Google.

It was Zillow!

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

Open Letter to Google Base, Yahoo Real Estate, MSN Real Estate, Zillow and Trulia

Dear Google Base, Yahoo Real Estate, MSN Real Estate, Zillow and Trulia,

Welcome to the NAR.

For many years and many millions, we at the NAR have fought to keep banks out of Real Estate (then we've started mortgage brokers and bankers of their own). But in our settlement with the DOJ, we've made it necessary for you search engines to join us in the NAR, and become active RE brokers, to get our listing data.

On behalf of Realtors everywhere, Welcome!

One of our "victories" in the settlement with the DOJ was that we can require anyone wanting to access/scrape our MLS data, to be actively involved in the sale of Real Estate. To be, active, or not to be, active? That is the question.

We've always loved new competition. And we've always embraced new Real Estate models. Haven't we? At least that's what we told the DOJ?

Our dues are pretty much the same for little one-agent brokers and big national franchise brokers, like RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, and soon Google Base, Yahoo Real Estate, Zillow, Trulia, etc. We've set the bar for admission pretty low.

Please don't bring your computer skills, Internet expertise and billions in funds or millions in VC money to establish discount or MLS-only brokerages. We've had enough trouble fighting the DOJ and a bunch of under-funded Real Estate discounters and Internet start-ups.

Although you have to become a Realtor and actively sell Real Estate to get our data (unless we give you our data, as so many of us already do), please don't. In the past we were so afraid you'd become active brokers, but we didn't really mean to force you to become active brokers. Please don't.

You're pretty good at selling ads. And we're pretty good at selling houses. Let's just keep it that way. OK?

We didn't mean all those mean and nasty things we said about you, the discounters and the MLS-only models in the DOJ case. You're nothing like the banks. They sell money. You sell ads. We've kept them out of Real Estate. We've made you come in.

We're tired of spending our NAR and Local AR dues to fight to keep our data closed and on the Hidden Web. Then we go and pay our brokers a Website fee to push our listing data out to you. Why, you guys even adopted the RETS Standard before all our MLSs did. That's not fair.

Why do you offer free advertising and free exposure for us and for our listing, anyway? What's the catch? Is it anything like the free CMAs we offer to our clients? Please cut out those 10 second Virtual CMAs while you're at it too. The sellers still need us. Don't they?

We're not afraid of you and your ad-revenue model. Everyone knows that the only money in Real Estate is in selling the house. Not in selling those stupid little text ads on the side of the page that no one ever looks at.

Should we continue to boast to our prospective clients about the number of Websites we push their listings out to? Then try to hide their listing data from as many of you search engines as we can?

We'll play nice. We'll obey the rules. Can't we all get along?

Thanks for listening.

And again, Welcome!

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

Be Careful What You Wish For, The NAR And The DOJ.

The NAR's settlement with the DOJ, effectively brought the NAR, kicking and screaming, into the Twenty-First Century. Since then, there have been a number of articles and comments about what the NAR won in the settlement. Won?

One aspect of the decision was that the NAR and its MLSs could prohibit a company, not actively engaged in the sale of real estate, from accessing MLS data, and re-publishing it.

But there is the Law of Unintended Consequences. And you must, as always, be careful what you wish for.

When Zillow started in 2/06, there was much Realtor paranoia (Zillo-noia) that Zillow would start to sell homes and become a Real Estate Broker. Despite Zillow's statements that they were a media company, selling ads not homes, there was much concern when Zillow became a California Broker to get access to California listing data.

There's still fear that Zillow, with their 5-10 second Zestimates, or CMA-Lites, and their $87 MM in VC cash, will become a Real Estate Broker. Will a media company, selling ads like your local newspaper's classifieds, become a broker, selling homes? Will a company wanting to become the Google of Real Estate suddenly want to become the next RE/MAX, Redfin or Zip Realty? RE/MAX or Google? Choice?

Do we make the big Search Engines in Real Estate: Google, Yahoo and MSN and the Real Estate Verticals like Zillow and Trulia become Real Estate Brokers to get our information? That scares me much more than cooperating with the search engines, using their free advertising to sell our listings, and benefiting our clients, by getting their homes listed on as many search engines as possible.

I still haven't heard a good argument for prohibiting search engines from posting our listings. It's part of our fiduciary responsibility and our obligations under our "Exclusive Right To Sell" contract, that we get our owner's home listed on as many search engines as we can. To block a free potential-search-engine listing should be a violation of our fiduciary duties.

The NAR has fought for years to keep the banks from selling Real Estate. Now we could force Google, Yahoo, MSN, Zillow and Trulia to be our competitors, join the NAR and sell Real Estate? What if these search engines used their great computer knowledge, dominant Internet power, and vast VC millions, to become MLS-only Brokers or Mega-Discount Brokers? They'd become Redfin and/or Zip Realty on steroids.

Our dreams of data control will become our nightmares of sales competition.

There has been some comment that Realtors own their listing data. Under Copyright law, you don't own the data, just the presentation of that data. You could argue that you do own your home photos. But do you really want to make that argument? What's in the best interest of our clients?

If we do our best, sell houses, and let the search engines do their best, sell ads, we can all get along. And do very nicely at that.

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

NAR, Welcome To The Twenty-First Century

The NAR just settled their court case with the DOJ. The NAR now has an invitation to join the rest of Real Estate on the Internet, in the Twenty-First Century. But will they (we).

Google changed the game for keeping general data secret on the "Hidden Web". But NAR and Move.com didn't change and continued to:

• Keep our data hidden.
• Drive buyers to only our Real Estate Websites.
• Give buyers and sellers what we want, not what they want.
• Keep buyers dependent on us.

Real Estate Brokers have fought banks, since there have been banks and Real Estate Brokers. Real Estate has sought a permanent ban on banks in Real Estate. Yet, do you know a RE Broker who doesn't have its own mortgage company, or a Daisy-chain relationship with one?

The NAR was fighting to keep Real Estate listings private, while most big Brokerages are mass uploading their listing data to the likes of Google Base, Yahoo Real Estate, Zillow and Trulia.

Now we pay dues to the NAR to keep our data private and fees to our brokers to get our listing data out. That's the dual agency that I'm most afraid of now.

One of my pitches/scripts to prospective sellers was, "We'll put your home on 8 different Websites." Now I can't count the number of Websites my listings are on. The more the merrier.

In our Association's "Exclusive Right To Sell" contract we have a clause where the seller must approve a lawn sign. I've proposed a clause where the seller has to approve an agent's not putting the owner's home out on the Internet to as many Websites as possible. No takers so far.

It seemed the NAR wanted to insert a clause best called, "The Exclusive Right Not-To-Sell On The Internet".

Now that the Zillow-noia has died down and the Trulia SEO and Google Results jealousy has just begun, we can get on board (or on net) with them, Google Base, Yahoo Real Estate and MSN Real Estate to fulfill our fiduciary responsibilities to our clients and market their properties where over 75% of home buyers start their search, continue their search and find their home.

Welcome to the Twenty-First Century, NAR. Your mission, should you decide to take it.

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

How We Challenged Our Tax Assessment

In Rochester, NY the Local Property Tax Assessment Season opens just before the Road Repair Season. And tax assessment season can be more rough, rocky and strewn with pot holes than road repair season. I helped my fiance, Beth, challenge my future Mother-In-Law, Mary's, home tax assessment. Here are some of the lessons we learned from successfully challenging our tax assessment.

Tax Assessment: The assessment had increased over 20%, or $20,000, from $98,000 to $118,000. This was over the 4 year reassessment cycle, or about 5% a year. Mary didn't want to fight the assessment, but Beth prevailed. In Monroe County, NY, we have an informal process to avoid a more formal appeal to a Board of citizens familiar with Real Estate.

Preparation:

Strategy: 1) Information 2) Comparables 3) Condition

Comparables:

• I ran the comparables and my CMA valuation was $116,000 (I said "Why bother", but the decision to challenge had already been made.)
• Zillow, at the time, was only giving the old assessments
• RealEstateABC.com gave an estimate identical to the Town's at $118,000

I copied a couple of the best comparable homes (in our favor), but we chose not to argue comparables.

Condition: Our best argument. We kicked our own tires:

• New roof needed: $8,000
• New driveway needed: $2,000
• Other Updates: $3,000

Location:

• Backs up to the 490 Expressway (picture).
• NYS Highway Dept does not take care of the border (picture), fence and vegetation.
• Thought to build a deck or a 3-season room, but didn't because of the traffic, noise and view (early Spring picture with no leaves). I even thought of bringing an audio tape of the sound/din of the traffic.

Informal Appeal:

We arrived 15 minutes early. The door was open to the appeals room. The fellow ahead of us was challenging his appeal terribly. He educated us big-time.

What Not To Do:

• Argue, sometimes loudly.
• No supporting documentation.
• Trying to convince the appeals officer by just talking.
• Leaving nothing with the officer, but a bad impression.
• If you attack, they attack back. If you negotiate, they negotiate.
• Leave on bad terms.

My resolve was to do: "None of the above".

Our Appeal:

• We had typed up our bullet points and gone over them several times.
• I prepared several possible questions he might ask: 1) Why should your home's value be lowered?2) What value do you think it has? 3) What do you base your opinion on?
• Small talk. Common friends and acquaintances and local history.
• Mary (45 year resident on fixed income) did most of the talking. Beth added details and had data and documents, with copies for the appeals officer. I just sat there for moral support, to monitor the proceedings and take notes, if necessary.
• We presented our bullet points without reading them.
• We left copies of all our information with the assessor. 

Result: I'm still getting married and I got a nice home-cooked, "thank-you" dinner for my help. The assessment was reduced $8,000, from $118,000 to $110,000, or about 6.8% for the next 4 years. With a 4% tax rate, that's $320 a year. We had been told to hope for "split the difference" or a 50% reduction. We got a 40% reduction of the increase and settled for that.

Chicken Parm, Anyone?

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

Lessons In Assessment Challenge From Rochester's Re-valuation

Rochester, NY just finished its 2008 (every 4 years) City-wide tax reassessment. "All Real Estate is Local", and that goes for Real Estate Assessments too. Your local tax assessment process may be different. Even so, there are many lessons to learn about challenging your assessment from Rochester's 2008 Re-valuation.

The Rochester Process:

• December 2007, Rochester property owners received notice of the change in their home valuations.
• Owners had until 3/18/08 to either request an informal review or file a formal challenge with Rochester's Assessor's Office.
• Formal challenges are heard by the 12 member Board of Assessment Review (made up of City residents with Real Estate experience).
• Formal challengers can negotiate privately before the matter is presented to the Board.
• 5/1/08 was the deadline for the City to finalize the assessment role.
• After the Board Decision, dissatisfied challengers can still take their case to court.

The Rochester Numbers:

• 66,700+ properties in the City of Rochester
• 11.5% increase in valuation since 4 years ago
• 41% with an increase and 59% with either a decrease or no change
• 4,200 (16%) property challenges
• 66% of property assessments successfully challenged
• 6.9% average reduction in assessment. (When I helped my future Mother-In-Law challenge her assessment, her reduction went from $118K to $110K, or 6.8%)
• 550 (13%) of challengers made formal appeals to the Assessment Board.

Percent challenges varied by area from just above 0 to just over 20%. The highest areas of challenge were in the areas where the valuations went up the most. The lowest areas for challenges were where the valuations went down.

One local condominium group challenged their reassessments. Through their Owners Associations they hired a property appraiser and filed their challenges. The group of 97 owners had their assessments reduced by 7%, from 20% to 13%.

Take Home Points:

• To challenge, or not to challenge? Is the challenge worth your time, money and aggravation? Your home's market value and its assessed value should be the same.
• Be Prepared: Know your local system and find Comparables (Zillow.com, RealEstateABC.com, a Real Estate Agent, an Appraiser)
• Document: Photos, Comparables, estimates and copies for the appraisal officer
• Pick Your Battle: 1) Home features 2) Comparables 3) Condition
• Be professional: Take 5 minutes to make your bullet points, be polite and respectful.
• Resolve Informally: Try to resolve your challenge informally

With a 2/3s success rate for property challenges, Rochester is a good place to challenge your assessment. 87% of challenges were resolved without going before the Board.

In today's often down Real Estate Market, if you purchase a home below assessment, you can immediately challenge your assessment. Your home's assessed value should equal its market value.

The 3 most important things in Real Estate may still be "Location, Location, Location". But the 3 most important things in challenging a Real Estate Assessment are: "Document, Document, Document".

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

Top Ten Tips To Challenge Your Assessment

Monroe County and Rochester NY, are now going through their 4 year cycle of property reassessment. There's been a lot of griping about assessment increases, which seem based more on the peak of the Real Estate bubble, than on the reality of the sub-prime mess.

Adding to all the local excitement, Tom Golisano, founder of Paychex, has had a well publicized fight with his tax assessor. His home value is assessed at $5MM vs his value of $2MM. Mr Golisano has run several full page ads in our local paper telling home owners how to best fight their tax assessment. He points out with assessments: you're "Guilty until proven innocent". In other words: you need to prove the assessment wrong. The assessor doesn't need to prove himself right.

In my review of several articles, online and offline, local and national, and my own experience of challenging assessments twice, I found my Top Ten Tips To Challenge Your Assessment:

1) Should You Challenge Your Assessment? Depends. If you think your home would sell for much more than the assessment, it may not be worth your time and effort. Some people challenge their estimate every time, but it may not be worth the effort and expense for you to mount a challenge.

2) Preparation. You'll have to do research and provide data, information and pictures for documentation to support your case. You'll get what you pay for, in time and money, as well as help. Practice Hard. Play Easy.

3) Find out about your Assessor. Your local assessor's offices has a personality (easy, tough, fair). You can often find out about their attitude by asking friends, neighbors and Real Estate Agents. If your assessor tends to be lenient (66% challengers got reductions in Rochester, NY), it may be wise to contest your assessment. If your assessor is tough, it may not be worth the bother and aggravation.

The numbers for the 2008 Rochester assessment:

• 66,700+ properties in the City of Rochester
• 4,200 (16%) property challenges
• 66% of property assessments successfully challenged
• 6.9% average reduction in assessment.

4) Find out about your Assessment Process. All Real Estate is Local. And All Real Estate Assessment is Local, too. The assessment process varies with jurisdiction. Information and forms to challenge your assessment should be available at your assessor's office, and now often online. Make sure you comply with deadlines and other basic requirements.

• "I'm so sorry. Your time is up."
• "I'd like to help you, but I can't."
• "Have a nice day."

5) Get your Assessment. Although this may seem obvious, in some jurisdictions they make it difficult to find out exactly what your assessment is. You may also need to do calculations in areas not using 100% valuations.

6) Check Home Information. One way to have your assessment lowered is to challenge the description and features of your home. Make sure the square footage, lot size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and garage size are correct. Might the assessor be counting unfinished space in the basement or garage; or improvements you don't have? Document with pictures when and where possible.

7) Check Comparables. This is how the assessor calculated the value of your home, and your best way to dispute your assessment. In the past you might have used a Realtor to get comparables. Today you can find comparables on Zillow.com, RealEstateABC.com, Eppraisal.com and a number of others. If worse comes to worse, you can get comparables at the assessor's office. Some jurisdictions now have them online. It's suggested you get 3 to 5 homes comparable for: square footage, lot size, age and style. Compare a ranch with a ranch. Most Assessors use computer programs which may not be up to date on the data or the condition, and rely too much on square footage.

Two local high-rise condominiums saw their assessments rise by 20 or 21 percent. The owners hired a property appraiser through their condo board and filed appeals. Their increases were reduced to 13 percent, well worth the investment.

8) Document Condition. Condition can be important in challenging your assessment. At best your Assessor has done an exterior evaluation of your home (Our County has purchase the "Birdeye View" from Pictometry). Does your home need a new roof, a new driveway or other major repairs? Bring pictures and possibly even estimates. Document, Document, Document.

9) Informal Proceedings. Most jurisdictions have informal proceedings. This is usually the best place to resolve issues. Generally when there is an adjustment, the difference between the old assessment and the new assessment is split. Be prepared to:

• Be Professional: Make your case clearly and succinctly (Answer the question,"Why should this house be valued lower?")
• Be Prepared: (Take it from the Boy Scouts) Document your case completely (Photos, estimates, comparables and other documents). Write down what you plan to say. Practice it with family and friends. Make copies for the assessor (The person you meet with often doesn't make the decision there and may need to present it to someone else and justify his decision.).
• Be Polite. Courtesy can go a long way. Remember, you may be the 20th person he's spoken with already today. "You can catch more flies with sugar, than with vinegar."

10) Formal Appeal. Many jurisdictions have a formal board where you can take disputes after the informal meetings and before a court hearing. These formal appeals are often open to the public. You may be able to attend, which should help you in your own preparation. It may be wise here to have the more formal documentation of a Real Estate Agent or a Certified Appraiser ($300-$600).

When all else fails, you can take your challenge to court. You'll have to calculate the court costs in terms of your time, as well as your legal fees.

If you purchase a home below assessment (more common now with the bubble bursting), you can often challenge your assessment right away.

In my challenges, I won both times, with 25% and 50% increase reductions. I haven't been as lucky with my parking tickets.

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing

Trulia Takes Zillow-Like Heat

Well, it happened at last. Trulia is finally taking some Zillow-Like heat from the Real Estate Community. So much for the welcoming and warm embrace tauted by the NAR and the Real Estate community to the DOJ (Department of Justice) for all the new Real Estate models.

The NAR, Move, Realtor.com and all the Broker Websites just got caught with their Google Page Placements down.

Now Zillow isn't the only spear catcher for the ad-sale-model of Real Estate Websites. Trulia has never sold a house and offers agents and brokers free advertising and exposure, but they must be doing something wrong. Realtors provide Web-pages for homes. So Trulia can't.

The NAR ePro designation, the CRS course on "Driving Buyers To Your Website" and many articles in NAR publications taut SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Trulia works SEO into their virtual DNA and now the NAR is all over their case. Be careful what you wish for. Mike Ferry must have a script for it. (I've called Pete Flint of Trulia, "The CEO of SEO".)

You mean the Broker and Agent Websites aren't as good as Real Estate Agents say they are? And there's an easy way to check, on Google, where I do all my other searches? You mean Google agrees with Trulia about its Result Page Position vs yours.

Trulia has embraced SEO for the street address. The address is right there in the domain name(Trulia.com/123MainStAnywhereNY11000). This means Trulia is not only optimized for the whole address (Google the street address of any home-for-sale address on Trulia), but also for the Zip Code and the City or Town. With Trulia's Top Ten Traffic for Real Estate, no wonder they're so high upon every address search for directions.

Realtor.com has just started adding parts of the street address to their domains/Web-pages for their listings. They're late to the game, but with the most traffic in all of Real Estatedom, anything can happen.

Trulia hasn't done anything illegal or unethical. Trulia has just tapped into the ad sale revenue which NAR, Move, Realtor.com and all the Agent and Broker Websites have left on the table.

Be careful Mr. Flint. The NAR, Move and Realtor.com don't always play fair.

Keep your SEO powder dry.

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing