Challenging my property value

You get to pay MORE Property taxes.....

Back in July I got a notice indicating that my property tax bill was going up...

Which is complete bull in my opinion since all the houses in my area are slowly dropping in price... not rising.

So I decided to call up the County offices and inquire as to why they believe my property rose 0.753%

Apparently, the last 3 months of 2010 we sold two 2 bedroom units in my complex and since there has not been a single one bedroom unit sold in around a year, they took the information from the 2 bedrooms and applied and scaled it down to my one bedroom...

There is just one problem with those kinds of estimates. They don't take into account the condos next door to me that are similar in amenities that sold at the end of September for $115,000 and $113,000... or the one that sold at the end of November for $113,000.00.

Since those units are a little bit smaller in size (square footage wise my unit is slightly larger), I decided to contest that my property value is worth $115,000.00.... not the $120,903 that the assessors office believes.
So I filled out the online application, and later today i'll have to print, sign, and mail it to their offices. It takes a while to process, so if they eventually award the decrease I'll see the difference in the form of a refund.

While I was chatting with the gal, she told me that apparently since i'm a homeowner living in my actual unit that they have a program to reduce the amount of property tax you have to pay. Its the "Homeowners Exemption" program and its free to apply for it. I just have to fill out a free form and they will knock off $5,600 of my value for this year, and then next year it jumps to $7,000.00 and remains in my file for as long as I live here. Sounds great to me! I wish I would have known about this earlier! Since i'll be applying for the homeowners exemption program in 2011, it won't help me this year--- but it will for next year!

The gal will be mailing me out the form so when I get it I just fill it out and return it back to their offices.

Then I wait. It can take 6-9 months for someone to be assigned to my appeal (if no one contacts me in 2 years, its automatically accepted apparently). So I just wait for someone to call me and I can fax them the information i've gathered on the other units selling prices at the end of 2010 and then i'll have my little meeting to discuss and bring everything in if the guy doesn't just agree to change it once he's investigated my proof.

***Crosses Fingers***