Hi I am Adam Wiener an award winning design-build contractor and a residential appraiser in the Greater Boston area. Having completed over 8,000 home appraisals worth more than $5 billion dollars, I now use what I learned from decades of remodeling and appraising to help homeowners make informed decisions about their homes.
The Problem with Property Taxes
Does it feel like your taxes are too high? You may be right. We know for a fact that many homes are not assessed or taxed accurately. This means a large number of homeowners like you are paying more than their fair share of taxes. Image 1 shows a Marlborough home assessed at $635,700 that sold 8/1/22 for $880,000 under assessed $244,300
Image 2 shows a Boston condo assessed at $1,419,000 sold 09/26/22 for $1,170,000 over assessed $249,000
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Our Promise to You
Aladdin Appraisal excels at helping homeowners lower their property taxes by assisting in the abatement appeal process.
Let Us Be Your Guide
I wrote this to provide information and proven strategies to help guide you as you navigate through the process of filing a property tax abatement to lower your annual tax bill hopefully for years to come. There is an abatement application deadline but right now in December 2022 the abatement application window is still open statewide. Property tax appeal for denied abatements is covered below.
5 Things You Should Know
- Assessed Value vs Appraised Market Value Your property taxes each year are calculated based on your home’s current assessed value; however, assessors complete a mass appraisal which is not the same fair market value by licensed appraisers completed when buying or refinancing. In fact, when the assessed home value matches the actual fair market value, it is a coincidence. Even though most city and town assessor website FAQs state that they are the same. they are not the same as evident in the two example images above. If the assessed values were accurate would we need realtors or appraisers?
- Effective Date of Value The Jan 1st 2023 assessed value is used to calculate your tax bill, but assessment lags by one year meaning they used a value “as-of” Jan 1st 2022. This is important because if you show up attempting to dispute for a lower value of your home citing recent sales, you will lose. You must use sales data for a Jan 1st 2022 valuation date.
- Reassessments’ 5 Year Cycle Once your assessor completes a mass appraisal valuation, for the next 4 years all assessed values are adjusted +/- based on market appreciation or depreciation reports. The problem is one of compounding inaccuracies, theoretically “set right” on the next year 5 actual assessment. If the median market value appreciated 12% this does not mean that all home values increased by 12% in value. This is a bit of good news because you will have lower taxes saving money for the next 5 years when you win your tax abatement or tax appeal.
- Assessments rely on bad data. Assessment records include inaccurate data about house characteristics. This contributes to the underlying accuracy problems in assessor databases. We know this from having compared property data in the property assessment records of over 8,000 homes to our appraisers’ field inspection and measurements. Garbage in garbage out, bad data means unfair taxes. Homes often measure significantly smaller or larger than public records. Other errors include incorrect condition or quality ratings, some even have the wrong sketch “footprint” and/or inaccurate sketch dimensions. We have appraised homes being taxed for bathrooms, finished basements, garage bays and other amenities they don’t actually have. A large part of a residential assessed value is the underlying land, and we’ve seen similar sized lots across the street from each other with the same assessed value; however, they are not equivalent. The two lots have dissimilar utility due to varying shape, topography, ledge and other factors. Their values should not be the same despite similar location and size.
- You may have to go to court. A rejected abatement application is not the end of the road. We have a second option, property tax appeal. The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board (“ATB”) exists to hear your case if the assessor denies your tax abatement request.
Three Solutions (in order of cost)
- Do it yourself. File the abatement and any subsequent appeal.
- Hire a professional real estate agent and/or appraiser.
- Hire an attorney
How Tax Abatement Works
- You either show your taxes are inequitable compared to similar properties or prove your home’s assessed value is higher than the fair market value. Or both.
- File the abatement on time. Do not miss the deadline!
- With 351 cities & towns in MA be sure to carefully read and follow your assessor’s abatement process.
- If approved, enjoy lowered taxes for up to 5 years.
- If denied, file an appeal with the Appellate Tax Board.
- Win your case and enjoy lowered taxes for up to 5 years.
Proven Strategies
- Doing it yourself? Carefully read the latest information on your assessor’s website, including any reference materials. Complete and submit the given abatement application paperwork on time including any attachments and supporting documentation.
- You will need to research the assessors database to find comparable homes, and compare their assessed value (and taxes) to yours to prove unfair taxation. When providing a list of like-properties with lower taxes, make sure they are really “comparable” to your home. Provide homes with the most similar location, lot size, style, quality, condition, utility (bed/bath count) and amenities.
- If you are providing sales you need to hire a realtor, appraiser or attorney with access to the MLS database . Remember that recent sales data is not relevant to the Jan 1 2022 value used for your assessment. Provide arm’s length sales for a Jan 1st 2022 effective date and be sure they have similar location, lot size, style, quality, condition, utility (bed/bath count) and amenities.
- It may make sense to correct any factual inaccuracies about your home in the property tax record. Be warned that the assessor may elect to re-inspect your home to verify the accuracy of their records regarding property size, quality and condition. Any unpermitted improvements which were not included in the current assessment will now be assessed which can trigger an valuation increase.
- Hiring an Appraiser? Find one who has local geographic competency and specializes in full retrospective home appraisals. Order an appraisal with an effective date of Jan 1 2022 and be sure to list any issues that existed at that time and any significant maintenance or improvements you have completed since that date..
- Strategic use of a Realtor or Appraiser Besides finding comps for your home we have had great success with this last strategy in the past.
- We run reports in MLS and export them to a spreadsheet. The report compares actual sales prices vs assessed values for the Jan 1st 2022 effective date.
- This will demonstrates beyond a doubt that the assessor’s database is filled with inaccurate values
- This strategy works when
- The assessor’s FAQs state that the assessed value is the fair market value and,.
- There were a lot of assessment errors in your city or town.
- Including this written report proving the assessor database is inaccurate has a strategic purpose which is to dissuade the assessor from denying your abatement. This document will be an exhibit in your appeal court which they will have to answer to in court..
How can Aladdin Appraisal help you?
We can provide you with a tax abatement and appeal appraisal of your home in 3 easy steps.
1. Proposal: Send us your address and contact info to receive a fixed quote
2. Schedule: Our appraiser inspects and measures your home
3. Appraisal: Receive a written appraisal of your home’s fair market appraisal signed by a certified appraiser
We can assist with the abatement research (assessor or MLS database) and abatement paperwork at a fixed hourly rate.
We can assist in the appellate court tax appeal at a fixed hourly rate.
Final note to our readers
We have helped people like you who want to save money by lowering their property taxes in eastern MA. Whether you hire us or not we wish you the best of luck and hope the information and strategies have been helpful as you navigate through this process.