Another ? about grieving taxes

DH and I noticed a house for sale on MLS..$660k. We are not willing to pay this much but have our eyes on it in case the price comes down...it's new to the market. Anyway, the taxes are over $17k.

Let's say we bought the house for $600k. There is at least 1 house in the area that sold for $620k this year and the taxes are less than $13k for that house. Is it possible to grieve taxes down that much? I mean if we ended up buying the house for $600k, then that is the houses value. Could we grieve the taxes down to $13k?

TIA!

Re: Another ? about grieving taxes

I would look at easytaxfix.com and see if the taxes on that home you want to purchase can be appealed.

I used the site when I appealed more than 1 year ago and it really works great in helping me succeed.

Just punch in the address and it'll tell you if the home is overassessed. If so, you have a great chance. Also do the same for the other comparative home...

Good luck!

Re: Another ? about grieving taxes

You cannot grieve your taxes down to a certain amount. This is the most common misconception. Grieving taxes is actually a misnomer.

When you protest your taxes, you are not actually protesting the taxes, but the assessment on the house. The assessment multiplied by the tax rate (which changes each year and generally increases each year) gives you the amount of taxes you pay.

To figure out what the proper assessment on a house should be, you would take the market value and multiply it by the assessment ratio (RAR) for that particular assessing jurisdiction.

Using the SCAR (small claims assessment review) procedure, the biggest decrease in assessment you can receive in any year is 25%. The only way to receive a higher reduction is to pursue the matter in supreme court - which can take several years but as long as you continue to file each year is retroactive.