I ran the numbers on CA Property Tax Appeals – and it's a winner

I ran the numbers on CA Property Tax Appeals – and it's a winner(appealseal.com)

9 points by philippb 233 days ago | 5 comments

spriha 233 days ago |

This is great! Is there a limit to how often one can get property values reassessed? I'd pay for a service to automatically optimize my property taxes of it kept up with Zillow/redfin and auto-appealed each year that the market value was lower than the assessment.

philippb 233 days ago | |

I'm focusing on the annual assessment appeal. So this you need to do every year. For me this year, for the first time, they kept the assessed value low.

Zillow and others don't use the right way to look at comparable homes in the assessors and assessment appeals board view.

I could auto appeal each year for you. Right now I'm just trying to get as many people to appeal before the deadline of Dec 1st for the remaining counties. But if you enter your address and email, then I'd run it next year and inform you.

jalapenos 233 days ago |

Seems like it could be made much simpler by making the assessment a put option.

Think it's worth less? Easy sale, easy profit!

Keeps the assessor honest

philippb 233 days ago | |

Can you elaborate, not sure i fully understand what you are thinking. But I want to :)

jalapenos 232 days ago | | |

It's an old solution to value-based taxation that's very simple and effective:

If someone declares a value, the other party can take advantage of it if it's off the mark.

So if the value is self-assessed, the state has the option to buy at that price (and vice versa if state-assessed).

This nullifies cheating without any complexity or contention required.

You won't undervalue your property to get an e.g. 30% lower yearly tax rate if that risks the other party then buying it to realize a 30% profit (and 30% of total loss for you).