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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

Build It. They Will Come. For Real Estate?

In Field of Dreams, a movie about the last Great American Pastime before Internet Cruising, Shoeless Joe Jackson tells Kevin Costner's character, "Build it. He (They) will come." But does this advice hold for Real Estate Websites, the Realtor's Field of Internet Dreams?

Recently 2 Websites, Trulia and Zillow, have been fighting it out for dominance in the Online Real Estate Marketplace. Trulia leads with comScore's unique visitor rankings, while Zillow leads on Hitwise's market share numbers. together these sites have more traffic than any Real Estate Website other than the NAR and Move's Website, Realtor.com.

Zillow, the Seattle start-up, generates a Web-page for almost every home in the US with a "CMA Light", called a Zestimate in about 10 seconds. "Quick and Dirty" is getting better as the computer algorithm improves and their data is more current. Zillow relies on Owners, Agents and Brokers to supply their listing data, has their own increased-traffic algorithm to spot homes for sale and a recent contract with 11 Newspaper Syndicates to supply their listing data. (But only 10% of homes for sale ever appear in the papers.)

Trulia, from San Francisco, started as a mapping mash-up and has proceeded to dominate street address searches on Google for all the homes Agents and Brokers push out to them. Trulia's Web-pages and domain names are optimized for the street address and any part of the street address. Trulia's SEO (Search Engine Optimization) generates a great deal of Google Search Traffic. I guess this makes Pete Flint the "SEO CEO", at least of Real Estate.

In Western New York, many people have heard of Zillow, but few have heard of Trulia. I guess they haven't searched on the home address or Zip Code of the property they're looking for recently.

The big questions for these Real Estate Verticals with Ad-Sale Models are:

• Once built, will they come?
• Once they come, will they click?

Since Trulia and Zillow are privately held, they don't have to reveal their CTR (click-through-rate). And always remember there are: "Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, and Real Estate Numbers", and my other favorite Real Estate sayings and advice:

• "If you can't be #1 in your niche, find a new niche."
• "You've got to be number one in something."
• "Ninety-five percent of all Real Estate numbers are made upon the spot."

Locally (WNY), few Agents and Brokers have taken up Trulia and Zillow's free offers to post Agent contact information and pictures. I'm surprised when I search on Google for the addresses of some of the most expensive properties in Rochester.There is no Agent information (free to the agent) on the Trulia page for that address. As Trulia and Zillow get bigger and dominate the market, it may not only be dumb, but also become a violation of our fiduciary responsibilities to our clients to not put our contact information on the Trulia and Zillow listing Web-pages.

Western New York is still pretty conservative. Many Realtors are still suspicious of Zillow. They're not as suspicious of Trulia, because Trulia gives maps and general information. Realtors don't see Trulia as much of a direct threat as Zillow, which provides a Virtual CMA.

Build it. They will come, for Real Estate?

We'll soon see for Trulia, Zillow and Real Estate.

The buyers eyes are coming, but how soon the Agents, the Brokers and the Advertisers Dollars?

Happy Searching.

Posted by: Cliff Jacobson

Adapt Or Die!

WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing