Have Your Property Taxes Skyrocketed? Try an Appeal

If you’re upset about a significant rise in your taxes, I encourage you to appeal them. Learn how to do that right here.

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Today’s topic is all about property taxes: how they work, and how to appeal them.

Back in 1997, Oregon passed a measure which cut the real market value by 10% to start evaluations. Real market value is the value you can reasonably expect to get when selling your home.

Along with this, the assessed value of a property can only increase by 3% per year. This being the case, the values of homes have many times increased more than 3%. For example, over the last two years, they increased 10% per year. This has caused quite a variance between the assessed value and the real market value.

In most cases, the assessed value is less than the home’s actual value. In some cases, however, there comes a time when your tax man comes around and evaluates a whole section or whole area of properties at once, and the whole value may jump substantially. At that point, you’ll realize that your property taxes are going to rise significantly.

You’ll not only save money for that year but also every year thereafter.

What can you do about that? Well, you can do nothing and continue to pay the taxes, or you can appeal your tax statement. To do this, you must go to the county tax department in November and December and let them know that you wish to appeal. They’ll have you fill out a form which costs around $265 to file.

Then, between January and February, you must provide evidence to a board of volunteers which is usually comprised of normal people who aren’t tax experts. After you plead your case to them, they’ll make some type of ruling about whether they’re going to lower your taxes or keep them at the current assessed value.

It’s really not difficult to appeal. If you’re upset about a significant rise in your taxes, I certainly encourage you to appeal to lower them because you’ll not only save money for that year, but also every year thereafter. 

If you have any questions about this or other topics, I’d be glad to assist you however I can. Just give us a call or send an email. Until next time, happy holidays!

6 Tips for Homebuyers in 2018

Are you thinking of buying a home next year? Here is a list of things you need to do first.

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Many of you are considering either purchasing your first home or a larger home in 2018. Before you get started, here are a few things you should consider:

1. Check your credit scores. These range from 300 to 850. The higher the score, the better mortgage rate you'll get. A good score could get you an interest rate as low as 1% or 2%. That’s thousands of dollars saved every year throughout the life of your mortgage. Your credit score is very important.
   
2. Don’t max out your credit cards. Keep around 30% debt on your card and no more. If you can achieve that, your scores will rise considerably.

3. Don’t overspend or open new credit cards. This is one of the worst traps you can fall victim to as a homebuyer.
   

The higher your credit score, the better.

4. Interview at least three agents and pick the one who is best for you. You want someone who is personable, knowledgeable, and has a good work ethic and communication skills.
   
5. Keep tabs on interest rates. They are in the paper every day. If you have the ability, I'd also research a mortgage broker at this time. They can help research rates for you.
   
6. Get pre-approved before you start looking for homes.

If you get all these things in line before 2018, you'll be way ahead of the game
If you have any questions for me, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.

The Pros and Cons of Buying a New Home

Which type of home purchase is best, new or resale? It depends on what you’re looking for, but here are the pros and cons of each.

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If you’re thinking about buying a home, you may be having a tough time deciding between buying an existing home or buying/building a new one. Of course, your budget is always the big player in this, but for the sake of the argument, let’s say you have the ability to do either.

Some of the pros of buying an existing home include the fact that you already know what the home looks like, what the neighborhood looks like, as well as what you can and can’t change about the home. If you want to know exactly what you're getting going in, this is a good option.

However, there are some disadvantages to buying a home on the resale market. These include higher utility costs because of less efficient appliances. There will be additional maintenance costs from time to time as well that you probably wouldn’t see in a brand new home.

Give me a call or send me an email to get your pie reserved.

As far as brand new homes are concerned, the advantages are numerous. You are able to customize the home to your liking. You can make it more spacious, add certain features, and benefit from brand new energy-efficient appliances as well. However, all those upgrades can send the price through the roof. Another thing to know is that in Eugene, all of the prime building sites were taken years ago. If you build a new home around here, it will have to be on the outskirts of the city. Also, with the recent devastation in California, Texas, and Florida, it’s inevitable that building costs are going to rise—just another thing to keep in mind.

I wanted to quickly mention one more thing. If you’re a client of mine, don’t forget that our annual pie day is coming up on November 20th. Give me a call or send me an email to get your pie reserved.

If you have any other questions in the meantime about buying a home or anything else about real estate, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.