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How to Lower Your Property Taxes - YouTube
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how to lower your property taxes that's
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today's episode let's get into it
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hey everyone I'm Natali Morris and I'm
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Clayton Morris thank you so much for
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joining us today we want to talk about
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taxes these are actually my favorite
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episodes because this is where I get to
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get wonky we want to talk about how to
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contest your property tax value with
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your municipality so that you don't have
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to pay a ton in property taxes every
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year now who wouldn't want that right
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and this is something you could actually
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do so you might be saying there's no way
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I can lower my property taxes I get that
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bill I have to pay it
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hogwash in fact one of our investing
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markets where we've done a lot of
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investing in Indianapolis a number of
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years ago the city decided to raise
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property taxes and guess what
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people came out and protested and they
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went to City Hall and they said no uh-uh
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and they actually lowered property taxes
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now that was a more broad protest but
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you individually can go to the county
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and actually contest your property taxes
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so we are going to tell you why you want
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to do it how it works
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we're gonna give you some steps to do it
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and then we're gonna do a little story
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time and tell you about a property tax
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assessment win I like to Matt last week
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I am still sort of riding high on this
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win in my life I can't wait to tell you
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all about it know this is super exciting
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in fact when we got the letter back from
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this win we've been like both holding on
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to it and in my wallet because I needed
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this win in my life so badly now let's
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talk a little bit about how this works
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and why you want to do it now as a
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homeowner or an investor right you have
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to pay taxes to the state the city the
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county right they sort of divvy it up
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because you own that asset and you're
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taxed on the value of the asset now
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wherever you the house is is how they
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set the rate so let's say a house is
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worth a hundred dollars you're gonna be
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taxed a percentage of that value right
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and so some states some cities some
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counties have higher tax rates than
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others so obviously you want the city to
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think that your property is worth
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the least amount possible because you
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are taxed on a fixed percentage right
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now you don't want actually your house
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to be worth a low amount you just want
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the city to think that right so where
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you start in all of this number one you
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have to go to the county and you
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typically will get this and every
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municipality is different but usually
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it's the townie tax assessor's all the
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town heed I call it the county tax the
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townie tax the county's tax assessor's
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office and it's very simple to do you
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just call up your local municipality and
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find out where that is who what website
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usually it's online and it will take you
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about five minutes to find your property
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so this is something that our team does
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on a regular basis because we do a lot
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of real estate deals and so our team is
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constantly having to pull the property
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tax records for a property so you pull
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that card up and it's just the parcel
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card for your property it's gonna show a
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long winded tax ID or a tax number
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associated with your parcel or your
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parcel number and it's gonna have your
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bedroom bathroom count and it's gonna
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have the tax assessed value listed there
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right on that parcel card in fact just
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before we sat down to record this I was
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looking at the property value of one
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property that we want to change the deed
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on and so what I just googled was let's
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say so-and-so county tax what did I like
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you just Google the name of the county
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tax and then it showed me which school
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district tax it is which percentage and
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then if they were sort of column so this
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school district gets point zero zero
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zero eight or something like that and
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then the county gets this percentage the
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state takes this percentage you add
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those together and that's the percent we
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tax you on this particular property so
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you can look that up pretty easily now
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remember once you have an agreed upon
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tax value that number is the number that
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all future increases will happen upon so
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when you become the homeowner if you get
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a value that's high that value is just
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gonna increase so that's why when you
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first see it you want to say no no I
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don't think
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so let's dance right right so you're
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looking at I mean that they're giving
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you a value of the property and they're
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saying look based on the sales price of
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this property we think it's worth this
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so there sometimes can be pretty lazy
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and they're just looking at the sales
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price of the property well guess what
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that sales price which we'll get to in
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our story in a little bit here may may
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be wildly off-base meaning the sale of
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that property may have included all
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sorts of repairs that are not currently
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done in the property so the county may
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look and say okay that's $300,000
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because that's the sales price and then
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you look at the property and it's a
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burned-out mess well they don't know
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that that would include construction
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costs and other things so they're just
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looking at that sales price they might
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not even come out even look at the
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property because they can be kind of
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lazy about it we fought this and had to
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deal with this in the state of New
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Jersey remember in where we used to live
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we had to do this with the with the
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local municipality as well for our tax
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assessed value because they were trying
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to claim a higher amount and we had to
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show them that no no no no just because
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of these fixes just because of this and
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we are actually able to get it lowered
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because of that right so you want to
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most of the time they'll send you in the
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mail a notice saying we intend to tax
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you at this value and we estimate your
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taxes will be this and that's sort of
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the shot across your bow saying do you
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agree to it because the bill is coming
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after this notice right if you don't
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agree to it this is when you're going to
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take action now you can request
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information if it's not already on that
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notice on how they're coming to that
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value a lot of times it will include
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square footage of the property bedroom
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count things like that
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sometimes they have it wrong right maybe
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they are taxing you on too many bedrooms
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then that's easy you go back around and
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say no no this is actually not the case
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or sometimes they've given you too much
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square footage right you can sort of
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contest those factual things pretty
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easily but if they're just taxing you
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based on their sort of assessed sales
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price that's a different story right and
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you can again fight this and it's funny
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how quickly New Jersey was ready to
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pounce on us when we were doing an
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addition on our house
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remember the tax assessor like showed up
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at our house right he knew that we had
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pulled permits he knew that we were
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under construction he shows up and he's
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like oh is this done yet is this done
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we're ready to taxi and ready to tax you
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at a higher rate because we know you're
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adding on this amount of square footage
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to your property really it's not done
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yet please can you give us a breather
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here until you decided taxes literally
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the moment the city permitted the
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completion of it they slapped extra
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taxes on it so they were on top of that
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it's funny that you know it doesn't work
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the other way around like if I were to
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deed you my property as a gift for $1
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they would not allow you to be taxed on
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$1 they would you know so they are
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working to get their money out of you
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now it's pretty easy these days to pull
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comps around people's right to pull
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comparable sales around your property to
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prove that your property is actually not
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worth what they say it is nowadays you
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can use Zillow you can use realtor comm
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you can use all manner of websites to
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prove that properties around this area
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are selling for less than they are
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assessing right right you can absolutely
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look these up and you can find
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comparables that might be foreclosures
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might be other other properties of equal
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value and you can show those and present
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those comparables it's different of
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course when you get into commercial
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property so commercial property values
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are not based on what was sold down the
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street commercial value properties are
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valued on the income that that property
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produces so it's a little bit different
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so if you're dealing with something
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that's even more than a for unit which
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would be classified as a commercial
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property then you end up having to find
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comparables based on income in the
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neighborhood right and so then you
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present your case you there you are
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given the opportunity to appeal and in
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most states you can appeal all the way
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to the Supreme Court if you don't like
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the final answer
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it just is a matter of how organized are
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you how good is your research and how
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much time you're willing to put into it
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sometimes if it's like okay I think the
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tax value is like five thousand dollars
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higher may not be worth your time but if
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it's hundreds
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thousands of dollars higher it
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absolutely is worth your time and that's
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where we're gonna get to our story time
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it's story time because so a few weeks
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ago Natalie gets a Facebook message
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right of all things from the one
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particular County and we'll show you
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some video here of this property and
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where this is in Ohio where we own this
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property with one particular County one
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of the Tax Assessors reached out to you
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via Facebook right actually it gets even
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weirder than that
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so I was selling some old spin shoes
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because they don't fit into my peloton
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it uses a different like clip so I had
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old spin shoes that I was selling on a
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swap group in my neighborhood and I got
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a direct message on this sale item and
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it says I'm looking for the owner of
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this property is that you and like you
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don't want my spin shoes and they said
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no but do you own this property and I
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said yes and they said okay can you
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please call this tax office so I called
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it I'm like this is some kind of weird
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trap what's going on right and the woman
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says yes you know we are with the tax
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office from this county did you know
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that the school board is trying to
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contest your tax amount and they want to
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tax you based on $200 sales price
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instead of what it was before I used to
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be taxed on fifty six thousand right so
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this is the difference of about a
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hundred and fifty thousand that they
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want to increase my basis on and I said
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I did know that I didn't know that there
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was anything I could do about it because
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I got the notice in the mail I want to
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say around the spring and I didn't
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really do much about it and she goes no
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there absolutely is we can set up a
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hearing for you if you want to contest
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this against the school board and I said
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but I don't live in the area
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she said that's okay you can do it over
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conference call right so it was amazing
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about this is because Natalie you know
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you think about the government you think
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oh you know you're never gonna get
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anywhere you're gonna deal with the IRS
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or whatever red tape and everything but
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you know here's an opportunity for us to
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thank some of our government officials
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because they reached out to Natalie on
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my spin shoe post yeah on our spin shoe
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post and Natalie said I got a
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kyoool you're from the tax office why
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are you trying to help me like don't you
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like higher taxes that's exactly what I
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said because I was just like is this
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some kind of a trap and the the guy is a
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guy actually I got on the phone he was
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the main tax assessor and he goes yes
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but we're citizens first and we know
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that if taxes are hiked in our area will
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get less investment will get less
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incoming citizens and residents and we
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don't think it's fair so we decided to
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help you now what happened in this
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instance is that the property is worth
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about fifty six thousand dollars but we
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paid when we bought it from the rehab
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Murray was a wholesaler in that area he
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charged us for the rehab inside the
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sales price right so we bundled in the
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construction of it which is gonna make
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it look really nice inside the sales
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price now we were comfortable with doing
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that right because we had a scope of
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work we had an agreement with the
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contractor and we liked what we think
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the finished product will be turns out
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this job went about almost a year over
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budget for timing right it's a big
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project so the city is on top of this
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one it's in a historic district they had
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to pull permits that took them longer
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it's gonna be a great investment but
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again we paid for the rehab inside of
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the sale well that triggered the school
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board to say oh we can tax them more
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because obviously the school board wants
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more money for the kids who go to school
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in that area right and so I had to then
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do all my homework pull comparable
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listings around that area and prove
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nothing there is selling for two hundred
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thousand it will be worth that but it's
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not now so what I presented to them was
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all of the comparable sales in that area
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that showed the value closer to 50 not
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200 some of them were 40 right
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I showed also pictures of the current
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state it's boarded up you cannot even
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walk in it yeah take a look at this as
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you walk through here right it's not
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beautiful yet you can see where it's
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going
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obviously the contractors they are doing
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an amazing job but I couldn't sell it
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for 200 no way no how right
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get this I mean look at the framing
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that's happening there's electric and
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stuff done but the outside is still a
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mess it's boarded up there's no drywall
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there's no mechanicals in the property
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the roof just got done so we did just
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put a new roof on it but look there's a
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ton of work that needs to be done in
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this property and then I also sent them
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the scope of work that we are expecting
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the contractor to do so I gathered all
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of that I submitted all that information
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in advance the county was super helpful
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because I was like how do I present this
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if I'm not going to be there how do I
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present this evidence they said email it
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here and we'll have it at the time of
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the trial trial comes along and I'm
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super nervous well it's not a trial it's
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a cure it's a hearing right and I'm
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thinking okay I'm gonna play a lawyer
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here and present my case is this even a
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real thing are they really gonna call me
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they do they call me at the appointed
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time and they say okay we're here for
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this trial who is here with us and I say
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I'm Natali Morris I own the property on
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the other side I'm so-and-so lady
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I represent the County School District
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and so we're just saying they bought the
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property last year for this much we want
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to tax them on that so then I speak and
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I say it's clearly not worth that if you
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look at the comparable values if you
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look at how it looks right now these
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pictures were taken last week and if you
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look at the scope of work so they said
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okay we'll you know not to here you know
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we'll consider all of this and a week
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later we got a certified letter in the
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mail saying we approve the fact that
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you're taxed value will remain 56,000
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dollars
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mm-hm which is so exciting right so
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don't ever think that you can't take
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action and you know and lower your taxes
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or you know look this these agencies
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don't have to be scary if you talk to
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the right people and you develop
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relationships yeah at construction
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permit offices with the city the water
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office we're on the phone with the water
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department in Michigan turning on
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electric right you know in water and all
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that kind of stuff so often they say to
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me oh well you got to bring this thing
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down then and I'm like I don't live
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there and I just try and be nice and
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usually I can come up with some kind of
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solution
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it's not you know you have to get past
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the first no they're trained to tell you
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no and then you just got to keep going
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but in this instance they sought me out
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and said lady I don't think it's fair
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that you're being taxed on this high
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value why don't you let me help you do
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something about it
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so yesterday I actually went back to
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that spin shoe email and I said I just
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wanted to thank you for this because you
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didn't have to find me this way you
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didn't have to do this but you acted
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like a little guardian angel for me
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because now I can pay reasonable taxes
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on this from here on in all right and
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look I think there's a moral in this too
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just beyond you know protecting yourself
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and going after and taking action on
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this
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it's just let well spin Shiism myself in
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shoes online because you don't know what
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you're gonna find
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now the other moral of this is look
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taxes matter to businesses and I mean
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maybe California could take a lesson
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from this right maybe these high tax
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areas could take a real lesson from what
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these citizens are trying to do in some
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of these states they want investment one
[979]
growth you know in the state of Ohio or
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Michigan or other areas where look
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they're trying to keep costs down prices
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down property taxes down because guess
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what investors like us go into those
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areas and are totally revitalizing a
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historic building yes a client shop just
[995]
opened up nearby there's gonna be
[997]
multiple tenants who are gonna be living
[998]
in this great new property that we're
[1000]
revitalizing and it's helping the
[1002]
community so you know there's a lesson
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in that on the tax side yeah don't don't
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talk bad about California no I I will
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there you go so that's how to lower your
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property taxes we hope you found this
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useful please subscribe and also got a
[1018]
check out brand new is the financial
[1020]
freedom Academy visit financial freedom
[1022]
academy.com so you can check that out
[1025]
we'll link that up right here on the on
[1027]
the site as well for all of your family
[1030]
needs how would you describe the
[1032]
financial freeze um it's a workshop for
[1034]
families who want to build wealth and
[1036]
take their wealth building seriously the
[1038]
same way they do their careers so we
[1041]
intended for families to take it
[1044]
together hopefully and learn how to take
[1048]
control of your finances
[1049]
instead of your finances controlling you
[1051]
right the links will be below so thanks
[1054]
so much we'll see you next time here on
[1055]
the investing in real estate show
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