Today was the last day to appeal property taxes for 2009 in Sacramento County (and in most if not all counties in California). If you did not dispute your taxes this year, you will have the opportunity to do so next year. You can expect new assessments for 2010 to come out at some point between May to July 2010 depending on which county you are located in. The assessment appeals period will then go from July 2010 to either September 15, 2010 or November 30, 2010 (depending on which county you are located in). Remember, your property assessment for next year will be based on your property’s value on January 1, 2o10.

If you have any questions or a story to share, comment above.

www.lundquistcompany.com/blog Assessor Value vs. Market Value: A Difference of 2.86 Million Dollars

The subject property is around 1400 square feet and all blue dots above represent the past 2.5 years of neighborhood sales between 1200-1700 square feet. This range of square-footage is meant to show comparable properties to the subject since a typical buyer would likely look in this range when house hunting. The vertical line represents January 1, 2009, which is the date of assessment.

As you can see, an assessed value at $210,000 looks higher than basically all sales in the neighborhood, and actually more consistent with a home value from previous months or years. It’s true that a property can sometimes sell at the highest level in the neighborhood, but the subject property does not warrant such a circumstance. When observing recent sales above $150,000 in the market, it’s clear that the vast majority of these sales come from superior tracts in the market area or are remodeled throughout (sold above all other sales because of upgrades). 

I am not saying the Assessor’s Office gets it wrong in every case. That’s not true, and I certainly do not wish to vilify the Assessor because that’s not the way I do things. I’m simply saying that in this case, and in others I have worked on lately, assessed value should have been much lower. I typically take on tax appeal situations where the home owner is clearly over-assessed, and so there is an obvious potential economic savings to be had. Most of the properties I did not take on this year were assessed fairly well or off by 5-10% (too high). 

If you have questions, give me a call at 916-595-3735.

www.lundquistcompany.com/blog The Assessor says $210k, but Market Value is $130k: A Real Life Property Tax Appeal Situation

Isn’t it amazing to see the impact of the housing bubble burst? Three years ago many quadruplex units in Sacramento County were selling between $400,000 to $600,000, but the bulk of sales lately have been easily hovering around $200,000 +/- or lower. With prices so low right now, many investors have understandably been purchasing 4-plex units. The ideal scenario would be to pick up a quadruplex, have postive cash flow, and then re-sell the property in a number of years when the market turns around.

I actually just finished a property tax appeal for an investor who purchased a fourplex in late 2009 for under $200,000, but the Assessor still had his property valued in the high $300,000s. He is scheduled to pay over $1,000 too much in property taxes this year because the Assessor’s records are not consistent with realistic trends in the marketplace. This is a common problem for so many properties that sold near the top of the market and are now re-selling in today’s market.

Let me know if you have any questions. Comments are welcome. Ryan 916-595-3735.

www. The Crashing of the Fourplex Market in Sacramentolundquistcompany.com/blog

When looking at all model match sales, it’s not hard to see that the Assessor valued this property too high. In this case, the assessed valued was only about $30,000 higher than true market value, but this amount is still $300+ out of the home owner’s pocket for the year. It’s more common for me to help property owners dispute their taxes for residential properties when there is a greater savings of $500, $1000 or even thousands of dollars, but in this instance the home owner felt strongly about moving forward to contest the Assessor’s value.

Let me know if you have any questions. You are welcome to call me at 916-595-3735 or visit www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com. Remember, the deadline for appealing property taxes in many counties surrounding Sacramento is November 30, 2009.

www.lundquistcompany.com/blog The Assessor’s Value vs. True Market Value

Disputing property taxes does not make good economic sense for everyone, but if it does (or might) for you, let’s talk. If you have questions about the appeals process and whether you might be a good candidate to contest your property taxes this year, feel free to call 916-595-3735 or email me at ryan@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

NOTE: If the Assessor sent you a letter and specified a certain appeals deadline for your property, whether commercial or residential, then disregard the deadlines below and stick with what your local Assessor said.

County / Deadline for Formally Appealing Property Taxes

• El Dorado County (November 30, 2009)
• Merced County (November 30, 2009)
• Placer County (November 30, 2009)
• San Joaquin County (November 30, 2009)
• Sacramento County (November 30, 2009)
• Solano County (November 30, 2009)
• Stanislaus County (November 30, 2009)
• Sutter County (September 15 if they sent you a letter in the mail, but otherwise November 30, 2009)
• Yolo County (November 30, 2009)
• Yuba County (November 30, 2009)

You can visit our website at www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com, call us at 916-595-3735 or email us at info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com so we can look into your situation and figure out if appealing your property taxes looks like a good move for you this year. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

http://www.lundquistcompany.com/blog Reminder: When is the deadline for appealing property taxes in various counties? (Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Sutter, Yuba, Solano)

Remember, the assessment figures are supposed to be based upon the worth of your property as of January 1, 2009. If you think the Assessor didn’t get it right for your property, let’s talk soon and explore what your options are. If it makes good economic sense for you to appeal your property taxes, then we’ll be glad to provide our services to you.

By the way, per the Yolo County website, the Yolo County assessment Roll is over $20 billion and consists of more than 62,000 assessments.

http://www.lundquistcompany.com/blog  New Assessments Available in Yolo County for 2009-10 Tax Year

If you don’t know your parcel number or need some help looking it up, just give me a call at 916-595-3735 and I’ll look it up for you (or I can email it to you). I am happy to help where I can. Remember, the assessment figures are supposed to be based upon the worth of your property as of January 1, 2009. If you think the Assessor didn’t get it right for your property, let’s talk soon and explore what your options are. If it makes good economic sense for you to appeal your property taxes, then we’ll be glad to provide our services to you.

By the way, according to the Placer County Assessor: The 2009-2010 Placer County Property Assessment Roll consists of 174,088 assessments with a value of $ 56.5 billion dollars.

http://www.lundquistcompany.com/blog  New Assessments Available in Placer County for 2009-10 Tax Year

We are glad to help home owners understand the process of appealing property taxes and we can take a closer look at your situation so that we can figure out if it even makes sense for you to dispute your taxes this year. We serve home owners in the following counties: Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Yuba, Sutter and Solano. We cover a wide territory and we’ve been getting a good deal of phone calls and business lately from curious home owners throughout the Sacramento Region.

Our phone number is 916-595-3735 and our regional tax appeal website is located at www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com. You are welcome to email us too at info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

http://www.lundquistcompany.com/blog  How to Appeal Property Taxes in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Solano, Stanislaus, Merced, Yuba & Sutter Counties

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