Strategies You Can Use to Lower Your Georgetown Property Tax Bills

Are you struggling to pay your property taxes, or just feel that you are paying too much? Now, there are plenty that you can do about that. In this blog, you’ll come across many strategies to use to lower your property tax bill. Owning a house is expensive as property taxes can be extremely burdensome. Since annual tax bill tends to rise steadily over the years, even if you pay your mortgage, the taxes keep coming. Many homeowners do not realize that they need to pay less, also don’t know how their taxes are calculated. Most household takes their tax assessment at face-value, and thus their property gets over assessed.

Property taxes can be extremely burdensome to home owners and so once you pay off the mortgage they keep coming. The good news however, it that you can look for Georgetown property tax protest and come up with strategies to lower your tax bills. This way you’ll lessen the pain and also the burden. In this blog, you’ll find few tips to follow to challenge your assessment and save money.

#Understand the process

Local govt. sends assessment notices in the first few months of the year. Even if the schedule may vary, the notices render every detail of the contact you need to contact if you disagree with the assessment. This also renders the info related to making an appeal and a particular timeframe is given where you can challenge a case or a file. The timeframe varies in different locations. In some location, it is 2 weeks, some it may also exceed 6 weeks. So, if you miss this appeal window, you may need to wait until the next year for Georgetown property tax protest. You also need to need to check how the property tax is assessed in your particular location.

#Request for property tax card and review it

The property card is often included with the assessment notice, but this can also be accessed via online method. As an alternative process, you can go to the town hall and request for a copy of property tax card from the office of the local assessor. This card contains details used by the assessor to identify the assessed value of your house like number of bathrooms, bedrooms, dimensions, garage, size of the property and many more.

You can check for any discrepancies in the card as these are most commonly known. In case of any incorrect information, you are free to raise an issue with the tax assessor. As such, they will make correction and re-evaluate in their process of conduct.

#Gather evidence of homes in neighborhood

You can research 6 to 10 homes that are comparable in value & size to your house in the neighborhood. You can check the price at which they have been sold and also check the cost of comparable houses in real estate sites. Have the picture of the house with the size & price. You’ll know that if your house has been overvalued, you can build your case and request for a review by the assessor.

#Do not add or build on to house

If you’re making a structure changes to your house, there will be a rise in tax bills. The property tax bill is directly related to the home value. If you add a new swimming pool, porch, deck, new bedroom, or any permanent fixture in your home, your tax burden will rise. You can investigate the cost of adding new things in terms of property tax prior to the construction from your tax department and local building.

#Appeal yourself

You must appeal yourself instead of searching professional help, as third party professionals like consultants, appraisers, and attorneys charge fees up to 50% of the first year’s reduction. Also, some appeal boards are sympathetic towards home owners who represent themselves.

#Maximize your property tax savings

Now, many programmes outlined above are stackable, which means you can apply them for your tax lowering process. You need to study all your state offering carefully and ensure that you are taking benefits of everything that you are eligible for..