Should You Appeal Property Taxes?

Cutting your expenses may be at the top of your financial to-do list. Even if you decide to get a reverse mortgage to supplement your income, you still may need to find ways to reduce your bills. Reverse loan proceeds can help pay for property taxes, but why pay more than you owe?

Review Tax Bill

Review your next property tax bill closely. You may be able to cut your property taxes by appealing the assessment. With property values down across the country, there’s a good chance you can convince your local government to lower your taxes.

Even if your property value has decreased, it’s unlikely your tax assessor is going to update the information without your efforts. Make a trip to the tax assessor’s office to find out the procedure for filing an appeal. The appeals process varies depending upon where you live, so make sure you follow all the steps for your area.

Should You Appeal Taxes?

So when should you appeal your property taxes? If you find errors on the bill or in your tax records, such as incorrect square footage or too many rooms. You also may want to consider appealing if you paid more than you should have for your home when the housing market was booming.

Check Out Comparable Homes

Usually when you appeal your taxes you need to show that at least three comparable homes in your area have lower assessments. A real estate agent can help you find comparable homes using the multiple listing service. You also can choose to hire an appraiser to value your property and comparable ones in your neighborhood. Expect to pay an appraiser around $250.

Lowering your property taxes is just one way to make your money stretch further if you choose to borrow a reverse mortgage.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.