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3
Real Estate Tax: Won Battle #1 : This is not finished
March 3, 2008 | 2 Comments
Last month we had to abate (appeal) the Real Estate Tax Assessment the town had placed upon one of our rental properties. We got $25,000 shaved off the assessed value. We still think the town is over-assessing the property by $25,000. At a 1.2% rate, we are talking about $300 we will be saving now year over year, and $300 that we are overpaying (in our opinion). Still, we must count our blessings: we just saved $300. And we plan to abate/appeal again.
Some owners may say that a yearly savings of $300 (or $600 if we win our second appeal) is not worth it. We sent copies of the forms we sent to the fellow condominium owners (6 in total) to facilitate their filing. We even sent copies to other and we where surprised that only two of us challenged the government. Apparently people are rich in the state of Massachusetts, as $300 is not enough enticement! It doesn’t even buy an iPhone.
I think that we spent about 3 hours for that process. Lets see, I charge $125/hr for computer consulting work, and I am not capable of charging a cent for real estate tax advice – since I have no degree on such matter. Lets just say I earned $100 an hour – not bad!! I didn’t even had to sell my services! With the potential for more savings year over year, this just gets sweeter. (Not to mention it gives me bragging rights about winning something! And some Blog Fodder as well.)
I write this article as an encouragement to face your government and challenge the excessive or unfair taxation practices. I prefer the town to raise the tax rates or cut spending, rather than being sneaky and appraising our properties higher than they really are. Talk straight to your people.
Other bloggers talking about Real Estate Taxes:
- How Your Broker can Help You Lower Real Estate Taxes
- The Inside Scoop on Getting Property Taxes Reduced
- Your link goes here.
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[...] Estate Tax: Won Battle #1 : This is not finished unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptLast month we had to abate (appeal) [...]