It's going to be based on your purchase price and new comps. Not historical data prior to your purchase

Yes,twice. At the time, it was easy. I understand now they basically require a formal appraisal.

I think they ought to have to buy it at the taxable assessment or lower that value.

I told them if they would give me that amount I would gladly sell it for that and walk away on air.
There are only about 5 houses within a mile of me and none of them are on par with mine. So, pretty hard to prove.

Thanks for the help everyone. After some more research I found in GA SB346 that the state law is required to change the FMV to the purchase price of the property in the year following purchase. Looks like I can cancel my appeal hearing.

God bless prop 13. Here in CA we are limited to the purchase price at 1% + 2% max increase per year.( so If you buy for 1mm your tax is 10k and next year even if it's worth 1,500k your max assessment is 1,020,000). I bought in 2008 and was under water for several years so I pulled comps on recent sales and cherry picked the worst in my neighborhood within a few blocks. The lowered my tax base substantially. The downside was when the market came back with a vengeance and they not only brough my assessment back to what I paid they tacked on the 2% increase per year. My assessment just came in the mail a few weeks ago and they say I'm worth about 2/3 of current market but only 50k more than what I paid so what can I say.

The real winners are folks who have owned forever and their heirs. My parents bought in 1971 for less than the price of a 2017 crappy car. Prop 13 locked in your tax base at 1977 levels (if you owned then). Their house is worth about $1mm and their tax base is 45k. The great news is if I inherit that house the law has a provision for parent to child transfers and I will get their tax base.

My grandparents paid about 5k for their house in 1941 and my mom and aunt sold it after they passed 2 years ago. They were paying about $800 a Year on a million dollar house. Prop 13 was passed becuse as values went up there was no cap on assessments and old folks were literally forced out of their houses becuse they couldn't pay the taxes. No way my folks could afford the tax on their house if they had to pay the true market value assessment.

Another kicker is old folks can 1 time take their tax base with them To a new house. So my folks could buy another house ( must be a purchase less than sell for) and take their low base with them

Of course the commies in this state despise these favorable to the homeowner laws and want them all repealed

Hi ElToro....

I just looked at my assessment here in the Bay Area and mine went up 105k. Yes we do like prop 13 out here.

I did a renovation last year and pulled permits etc. They then had me fill out a form with everything we did. Thus the 105k.

At the end of the day my home is assessed about 375k below market value, so I'm not gonna fight it.

Taxes just suck for everybody no matter where you live .

Hell yes.

We have a real first class douchebag cocksucker for an appraiser that for some reasons the townships and county continued to contract to. Our first encounter was 2 weeks after we moved in to our newly built house, in April, you know, the rainy season. He knocks on our door, identifies himself as the appraiser and proceeds to March past us into our house. Says he needs to go through the house and take measurements etc. Well, ok, I guess so. Can you please take off your boots so you don't track dirt and mud into our BRAND NEW HOUSE? "NO. I have to leave my boots on, I have bad feet" as he marches up our carpeted stairs. Another case of getting caught off Gaurd by insanity. After leaving our house he goes to the neighbor who had just moved in that day, TOTALL exhausted. Dickhead.

Anywho, about 6-7 years ago we got re-assessed. We get the assessments showing what our neighbors come in at. We live in a development in the bluffs of the Mississippi, about 20 lots on a mile + of roadway. I see our value went through the roof and was suddenly much higher than a couple of houses that were a bit nicer than ours but had building sites that overlooked the Mississippi from the top of the bluffs. There was a Township meeting where the owners could come to dispute the assessment. When we got our turn after the hoards of people that showed up he sai "well yeah, your house is right on the edge of the bluff overlooking the river"

WTF is wrong with you? Even by looking at a map you can see we are 1/2 mile from that and on the other side of the road facing the opposite direction? You didn't even drive through the tucking neighborhood, did you? He didn't even deny it, just said he assumed that's where we were. He did sdjust our assessment, though still not enough IMO. A couple of my neighbors were there to protest and had the same experience.

Meanwhile the folks that did live on the bluff didn't get a bump at all which is fine by me, good for them.

In 2012 all of our real estate was appealed for taxes. First step was to have property appraised , then he completed all required forms and comps. The protest resulted in a reduction of taxes by roughly 25% across the board.

Yes. Just did it several months ago after the County notified me of an 8.14% increase in my 2017 assessment. Ended up being rolled back to below what my 2015 value was.

In Tennessee the law requires reassessment of all properties every few years to equalize property taxes. The City/County cannot increase total tax $ received, so the rate will be adjusted to compensate. This year Metro Nashville reassessed all properties. The assessor said that the total would go up 35% & if your property reassessment was less than 35% your taxes would decrease. I have never had an assessor come inside my home in 40 years of home ownership.
Yes, once I had an adjoining wooded lot that was unbuildable, The assessment was dropped to 10% of original assessment.

Most years I do (unless the appraisal value went down) and I've almost always been successful at getting it reduced by some percentage. Sometimes it's not much, but just showing a personal interest and politely engaging the Appraiser directly seems to be a positive first step in getting the appraised value reduced.

Not just having a list of your comps in the area, but also knowing what the Appraisal Office is using for comps is important to your argument. I've always been successful at picking apart each of their comps and demonstrating that my house doesn't equally compare. "This is not my house. This house has this, this and this, but mine doesn't" is how I frame the argument against each comp. I love catching them using "comps" from the higher-end neighborhoods that surround us.

My county provides the ability to see the comps they are using online and can even file a protest and recommended value using their website. If the homeowner's counter-offer is refused, then we can call and actually speak to an appraiser over the phone. Only if that is not successful (and I think I have a strong case) will I go to the 3-person board in person to protest in person.

spoke with the Number one assessor in Iowa today

40% - 55% of the people trying to get an adjustment will most likely get one.

Just ask for an appointment with the assessor and have them explain why they did what they did.

Rule # 1 be nice , you are just seeking clarification .

fist pounding, aggressive attitude, "do you know who I am ?" statements, threats and submitting letters from law firms are steps way in the wrong direction.

three reasons that you got what you did
Mis-communication, mis-information, and a mistake in the paperwork.

The people n the board get information by lots of people most good some , not so much.

quote:

Originally posted by triggertreat:
In Michigan we have the Headley Amendment that limits the % increase of the property value.All that goes out the window when a property is sold and the assessed value go to the current real value.Does Georgia have a similar law?

Went through that twice in a Detroit suburb late 80's/early 90's. From my experiences at the time, as the house was purchased earlier that year the assessor tried to value the house at the earliest listing price and not taking in consideration the difference between the original listing price, the later listing price and the amount we actually paid which was less than the later listing price.
I used the "willing seller to willing buyer" as the fair market value vs. the inflated value placed on the house by a commission based Realtor.
Also a list of comps sold in the area in the previous six months helped.

Another part of this was the house was listed as having two lot parcels. When the sub was platted in the early 1920's a 40' wide was the normal and code there. By the time the house was built in 1979 minimum lot size was 50' wide. Because the assessor never combined the two lots into one parcel they had been taxing it as two buildable lots for the ten previous years even though the city had inspected the house during it's construction. And since they assessed it as two individual lots they made more tax money off it. Had the two combined, now taxed as one buildable parcel only albeit at a lower rate.

Following year they misfactored the house again, the assessor suddenly decided that we had lakefront property instead of lake access property. That little "oopsie" caused the assessment to jump about 33%. When I brought that up they got a little defensive (ok, a lot) and I got the distinct feeling that they did not like me.

Didn't matter, the lowered the assessment. The following year Governor Engler's property tax relief was put in effect, keeping honest municipalities honest. Somewhat.

my own appeal to county tax assessor was for a couple of small store front buildings in the middle of a rural area 'right downtown'.

Admittedly the rates are low to begin with; still, one year they bumped my rates nearly 30%.
They have to 'reassess value' every 10 years or so.

Found the new rate was based on what the inflated rates were on a couple new remodels within a few blocks; "therefore YOURS should be worth more".

Talked to my realtor & bookkeeper for ideas.

Wrote Tax office nice comparison with the actual SELLING amount the preceding couple years within my zone.

They revised evaluation and dropped my rate to within a couple dollars of the old rate.

I did 3 times and won every time. I appealed to the county in February and reduced my appraisal value by 24%.
Funny that only 19 people were scheduled for the hearing and just 3 of us showed up.
Each town, county has a reserve for tax appeals the less that appeal the more likely you are to win. All the pool money not spent, they keep, To piss away on nonsense.
Also tax laws are very detailed, I hired a firm to do all the comps and procedures, but they can NOT appear on your behalf, cost $99, well worth it!