Good enough for me

Well, I was successful at getting our house assessed at a lower value.

The town originally reassessed it $60K upwards to $263,500. That's a HUGE tax increase, so I appealed it and decided to try the informal route first. I met with this woman and provided her with a spreadsheet of all houses in my neighborhood that were sold since we moved in, with the date of sale, price, square footage, any features taht we didn't have that I was aware of (ie. new kitchen), and the price per suqare foot calculation for each house.

I also provided her with the average price/square foot calc. for all of the houses.

I then provided a sheet summarizing the info. for my house, and then listed all of the features taht we don't have (original kitchen cabinets and counters, original siding, no pool, etc.). and provided her with the appraisal from the sale which was at $244,000 (which we always thought was too low, but it came in handy for this particular purpose.)

I argued that the appraisal of $244K was the correct #, but in reality, I figured that $255K was most likely the correct #, based on what I know of the homes in this area, and that was my goal.

Well, I found out today that they reassessed it at $256K. Close enough for me! So, now I don't have to waste my time going to the next stage and arguing my case before a panel of "judges".

It's still a huge increase, but it's a lot closer to where it should be...