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REDUCING REAL ESTATE PROPERTY TAXE IS FREE!
Every homeowner in Sacramento County, Placer County, El Dorado County and Yolo County need to be aware of the latest scam.
I can’ t believe all the people who stoop so low to take advantage of people.
Listen up, this is really going on and just in case you missed this in the news, Sacramento Real Estate Voice is looking out for you.
Everyone wants to lower their property taxes, especially those homeowners who purchased their house in 2004, 2005 and 2006. I have written several articles about how you can fill out forms, call the County Assessor’s office and all this is FREE. Let me repeat, you don’t pay anything to get your taxes reduced.
There is a company out there called Property Tax Adjusters, Inc. who has been sending letters to homeowners asking them to pay $95 to have their taxes reduced.
If you are entitled to have your taxes reduced, the County does this for FREE. Please do not be a victim of this. Apparently, the company doing this is not breaking the law but knows how to play the system.
Be alert and know that there are scammers out there, don’t be a victim. Keep your $95 and buy some gas.
For Homeowners living in Sacramento County, , click on the link for forms and phone numbers to reduce your real estate property taxes for FREE.
For Homeowners living in El Dorado County, click on the link for information on how to lower your home property tax bill.
For homeowners living in Placer County, click the link to read and download the request for decline in value for FREE.
For homeowners living in Yolo County, contact the County Assessor’s office at 530-666-8135
Please share this information with your neighbors, friends, family and those at work. I just hate it when people are taken advantage of so please help me to help others.
On a lighter note: Be sure to have a Great Mother’s Day. If you are wondering what is happening around Sacramento on Mother’s Day…here are some choices:
Southside Park – Breast Cancer – Walk to Empower starts at 9:00 am at 2115 6th Street, Sacramento
Mother’s Day Zoo Tour and Brunch at 11:30 at 3930 West Land Park Dr., Sacramento
East Sac Garden Tour, 10 am - 4 pm tickets $20, Lunch by Il Fornaio $15 more info click David Lubin
Have a great weekend and see you first thing on Monday morning.
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Other Property Tax Articles:
Property Taxes-Something for Homeowners to Consider
When filing an appeal, the homeowner needs to know a great deal about the current market conditions, the value of his or her property and extensive knowledge of comparable properties. This information serves as evidence that you are being over-taxed. Filing the appeals application on your own can cause your application to be denied and force you to pay higher property taxes than you should. The No.1 reason County Assessors deny appeals applications for re-assessment and summon homeowners to court hearings is because applications not completed by professional real estate appraisers often contain mistakes and inaccurate market information. Do yourself a favor and hire an affordable real estate appraiser that will do the hard work for you.
Sarah,
Yes, an appraiser can certainly accomplish that for a homeowner.
I read with great interest your story that you published. Gena, I am sure you are aware that folks don’t need to pay a real-estate commission to purchase property either. The internet has just about made it free. People are aware that the homeowner builds the reator commission into the sale price.
Realtors in NY were the greatest cause of homeowners getting in above their heads by pushing the potential purchaser higher instead of saying that you should pay no more than assessed value. I am not aware of the service that this grievance company supplies for its fee, but I deo agree that every property owner should grieve their taxes and pay no upfront fee and let the charges be tied to a percentage of winnings. The fee charged should include an appraisal done by an appraiser, not a BPO or AVM.
Hope you print this as well. Many corrupt realtors out there too. Be careful everyone and don’t let the realtor tell you that you should pay the offering price. if you really like the property hire a buyer’s broker and let the agents split the fee.
I am a victim of this company. Property Tax Adjusters, Inc. is definitely a scammer. They sent unsolicited mails, the format and everything is like from the county. Once they “fished” check, they will never refund you. They are under the investigation in terms of legitimacy. until the investigation completed…
http://jasonian.org/my-life/property-tax-reduction-scam-making-the-rounds/
baydweller,
Reducing your property tax is something that anyone can do themselves and does not require a company to do. It’s too bad that you took the bait and glad to hear that they are being investigated.
James,
Every home buyer has the opportunity to be represented by their own agent. Those that make that choice have obviously read and are informed of the advantage this gives them.
Here in CA commissions are split between the Listing Realtor and the Selling Realtor. This works out fine as long as it is a fair split in half.
Many sellers are unaware of the split since there are many agents who do not show the MLS printout to their sellers. In my opinion and in my business practice, the seller must sign the MLS printout.
I’m sure you are right that there are and were many agents who pushed prices onto the home buyer however, many home buyers wanted a house badly enough that they simply didn’t care what they were paying. The ball goes both ways in this case.
Hopefully, during this economic time, there has been a cleansing of these very agents that you are referring to.
Thanks for your input.
Yes, this company Property Tax Adjusters, Inc. is a scam. They sent unsolicited mails to the home owners collecting a fee of $125 in the Silicon Valley (depends on where you live). Their return mail envelope looks exactly like from the county assessor’s office. They immediately cashed my check and before any work could start they said they would not refund my money even I don’t need their “service”. They will never refund you and county offers property reassessment for FREE. I lost $125. But I filed complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. I suggest people who are victim of this scam do the same.
WATCH OUT THIS COMPANY!
Mimi, sorry to hear that you were taken advantage of. So many people come out of the woodwork when they think they can make money off of others. There are people out there, you being one who don’t know that this can be done for free.
I suppose there are homeowners who would rather pay to have someone do this for them and maybe that’s what these so-called companies had in mind.
As long as homeowners know that they can do this without having to pay and they chose to pay, then I have no problem with it. Perhaps, this may help someone else. Thanks for sharing.
So I’m a bit confused. You say you can do it yourself. Then you suggest hiring a professional. Can you use MLS comparisons in your area, or do you need to hire someone?
I did get the scam mail but figured if they can do it so can I. Where can I get instructions?
Kevin,
Don’t be confused. It’s really very simple.
1. Ask a Realtor to run the comps for your area for the given time period that your tax assessor says they wants for the sales in your neighborhood.
A Realtor knows which houses to use that are within your Thomas Guide area of your address.
(You might want to offer the Realtor a few $ for their time since they will be saving you several hundred dollars).
2. Fill out the form that I provided for you
3. Take it to the tax assessors office or mail it. I prefer doing it in person. That way everyone knows they have received it.
4. The other option is that you spend several hundred dollars and hire someone to do all that for you…it’s your choice.
So I am going through a refi right now (January 15, ’09) and got a preliminary call from our loan agent saying that the appraiser, just on computer looking at comps, before completing the appraisal on-site, is seeing our home appraised for a full $100,00 less than what I expected (Elk Grove). Yikes! I about hit the floor on the phone.
So, I will wait until the full appraisal is complete, but if it does come in so low, given so many lender-owned properties on the comparable list, do I just submit a copy of the appraisal with the “Application for Changed Assessment” form sent to Sac County Assessment Appeals Board?
Thanks for the info.
Big T, absolutely! Sorry it took so long for me to respond. Been busy helping home buyers become homeowners in Sacramento.
Good luck to you and congratulations on having equity enough to refinance and not robbing your equity through the years.
Sounds like you are a very responsible homeowner!!
when is the deadline to file the form?
Ray,
You can file anytime but the way the Tax Assessor conducts the value every year on January 1st.
They use the sold com parables from October 1st through March 31st.
Hope that helps you out.
I would like to know what form I can fill out to complain about our property taxes that has been raised this year, when our neighbors had there’s lowered about $1,000.00. Thank you Kay Lewis
Kay, give me a call and let’s talk so I can help you with this