Assessors place a value on your home, now let’s discuss how they come up with these values. The value should accurately reflect the fair market value less the assessment rate. ( expected sale price of home $150,000 X .25 assessment rate = $37,500 assessed rate then the assessed value is decreased by any applicable exemptions and then is multiplied by the levy(tax rate) to give you a property tax bill). Every state and even some cities will set their own assessment rate. Cook county Illinois is assessed at 10% while the rest of Illinois is assessed at 33 1/3%. Some states like Iowa have an adjustable assessment rate and some states like Massachusetts assesses 100% of fair market value. This information is available on your counties website or by calling your local assessor.
The common factor all states use is fair market value (fmv). Virtually every assessors uses mass appraisal to place a blanket value on your home. Your assessor likely uses CAMA software to value hundreds or even thousands of properties at once. Do you believe this is an accurate way to value your home?
The Property Tax Dr. knows this is not an accurate way to value your home. The home you live in is as individual as you are. Mass appraisal only looks at size, age, and area of build. This is just a brief snapshot of your home and we look at over 500 aspects of value to determine the most comprehensive valuation for your home.
When the assessed value is wrong, it can cost you real money. A $150,000 home in an average Illinois county has an assessed value of approximately $50,000 and after a $6,000 homestead exemption, you will be taxed on $44,000. If the total levy ( property tax rate) is 9% the property tax bill will be about $3,960 per year. If your assessed value is higher than it should be by just 10%, you will have overpaid by $450 a year. We have found homes 38% higher than they should of been.
Ted P’s home had a fair market value of $360,000 (according to the assessor) and we used the Property Tax Dr. to thoroughly evaluate his home and what we discovered was that the value placed on his home was was far from accurate. As we evaluated Ted’s home we found square footage measurements off by significant amounts, we found errors in build grade, errors in depreciation, and errors in comparable home prices. These errors by themselves made moderate differences but combined they saved Ted $2,020.00 per year!
Property Tax Dr. is serious about saving customers real money. We welcome questions at info@accuratepropertyassessments.com or go to our secure website www.accurateproepertyassessment.com .