Has anyone protested for a reduction on your property taxes?

[Winkleweizen]

has anyone been successful?  If so, did you hire someone to do it for you?

[MichaelB]

I did it a few years ago on my own and was successful. I'm getting ready to do it again this year on my own, but this time I did have a friend who is in real estate put together a CMA on our house to give me some data.

You can definitely hire someone, but they will usually charge a flat fee plus percentage of savings which can be a large chunk of the savings.

In our county it's pretty easy to appeal on your own, but I'm sure it varies a lot by location.

[ENT Doc]

Definitely have done this and recommend doing it on a fairly regular basis.  I've found errors in their assessment - they viewed my rental condo as an end unit (which somehow means more taxes) even though it clearly isn't an end unit.  Got comps that were lower in value than their assessment and presented my case.  Got the taxes reduced.  Of course, taxes go one way so you have to fight the fight on a regular basis.  It's worth spending an hour getting comps and bringing it into the local office for what could be hundreds of tax savings.

[TheGipper]

Yup. I'm one for three. It helps if there is an actual error in the property card in sqft, #rooms, etc....Tough to win with CMA alone. Probably not worth hiring anyone. Just take an afternoon and DIY.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

I have not, but our president has done so successfully many times.

[ENT Doc]

PhysicianOnFIRE wrote:

I have not, but our president has done so successfully many times.

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Gotta love CNN.