Optimistic County Assessments = Higher Property Taxes

A couple of weeks ago we received updated assessed values for our Snohomish County properties, and many of you King County properties are already seeing your new assessed values too, and noticing values are significantly higher than in 2021.

Amazing Increases In Values

Our assessed values from Snohomish County increased by 15%, 29% and 30% on our three properties. We know the market has gone up quite substantially in nationally with median home values rising to 23% between January 2021 to 2022. However, we also know in Snohomish county price increases have been closer  to 15 to 17 percent over the past year, which certainly makes the county assessor seem optimistic… which we appreciate immensely if it didn’t also mean higher property taxes

Assessment Background

Property tax is based on the assessed value of the real estate. The local tax assessor will generally calculate a property’s market value every few years using a combination of the income, cost, and sales evaluation appraisal methods. Today, this process is largely automated using software and algorithms which means we’ll see more dynamic and frequent assessment adjustments.

Just like when professionals updated assessed values, the automated assessments are not perfect, and they are appealable through the Board of Equalization if you disagree and have evidence they are incorrect.

Sometime between May and August each year, property owners get to get a letter from their county assessor informing them of their new assessed value which becomes the basis for their property tax bill. . This letter will provide a specific deadline for you to dispute the assessment and guidance on how to start an appeal if desired.

What to do?

If you feel your new assessed value is too high, you may want to do some research and start an appeal. Here are three steps you can take to get started: 

1.  Three Levels of Independent Valuation

a.  Automated – We can give you a solution for an independent automated valuation of your property.

b.  Virtual visit – When you think the County is too high, we can do a virtual visit through a phone call and provide you a much closer and more reliable data.

c.   Site visit – We can schedule a site visit to get you a report that can rely upon and use as evidence in an appeal.

2.  You can then work through that report on the appeal process and application.

Automated Valuation

Go to our website https://www.connectingyouhome.com/homevalue and make it super easy to find our home valuation, just provide your address and contact information and we will send you an automated valuation using multiple sources to give you a much better idea of what your property is worth.

Virtual Visit Valuation

The automated valuation is the publicly available information on different websites that don’t include details on your home improvements. This will get us into the neighborhood of your value where we can do a virtual visit by just simply clicking the “get expert valuation” on our website and it will prompt us to schedule a call with you, and ask you some questions about the condition and updates of your home which will then allow us to create a much better market report. If we find through that more specific report that it does look like you have a good case for an appeal that is when we will schedule a 20-to-30-minute visit where we walk through the property, take pictures and then give you a specific report that you can use for evidence for your appeal with the Board of Equalization.

Appeal Process

Once you have the report, just fill out the application then it will get reviewed to determine whether you are qualified for a meeting with the Board of Equalization. In that meeting with the board, you’ll go in and present your information, they will ask you questions maybe request for more information and through that process, they will then decide whether they approve, can either go to the value that suggests somewhere in between or they might deny your appeal. In the vast majority of cases, the applications that are submitted are never even approved for a meeting with the board because they are incomplete or they are not based upon evidence of comparable sales or market data. That is where we can help you in getting through that initial process of having all the evidence that you need.

Snohomish County  -  https://snohomishcountywa.gov/134/Board-of-Equalization

King County  - https://kingcounty.gov/independent/board-of-appeals.aspx

Questions?

We are always happy to help you, your friend, and whoever is going through this process. Just connect with us at (206) 452-0125 or through https://connectingyouhome.com/realestateagent/search. We’ll do our best to help you keep the cost of owning a home as affordable as possible and increase your returns.