Friday, June 16, 2006
Real Estate Taxes
I highly recommend contesting your real estate taxes at least once every few years. It is like fighting a parking ticket, you may not win but what do you have to lose. Most apartment buildings are taxed at a higher rate then residential properties. Here are the things to consider before contesting your taxes. First try to see what similar buildings in the area are paying for their real estate taxes. You can find this information on the cook county assessor's web-site or if you know a real estate agent like me you can contact me with the addresses and I can look them up on the MLS. If your taxes are the same or less than your neighbors there may not be much of an advantage to contesting them, unless you have been doing extensive remodeling or for some reason had a high and long vacancy period. The other thing to check on the assessor's web-site is if your building is describe properly. How many units and baths and square footage etc. I have owned three properties in Chicago and all of the descriptions have been wrong. One time the mistake was in my favor, so I say, let sleeping dogs lie. The other times I let the county know the mistakes they had made.
If you are going to contest you taxes you still have a few choices. You can hire an attorney to do the work for you. They usually tax 50% of what they save you in the first one to two years. You don't have to do any work and the lawyer only gets paid if they reduce your real estate taxes. I have done it myself as well. Mostly it takes time. Going to the county offices downtown and filling out the paper work. Usually you have to come back for a hearing with all of your proof, like the tax bills of similar properties and pictures of your own property. Then you just have to sit back and hope for the best.
The other important things to remember is if you live in the property you can file for the home-owners exemption. You can get this retroactively if you have never applied before and it will reduce your real estate taxes. You have to have lived in the property for the full calendar year to qualify for the exemption. There is also a senior exemption. All this information is at the county building or on the assessors or treasures web-sties.
Good luck and fight those real estate taxes.
If you are going to contest you taxes you still have a few choices. You can hire an attorney to do the work for you. They usually tax 50% of what they save you in the first one to two years. You don't have to do any work and the lawyer only gets paid if they reduce your real estate taxes. I have done it myself as well. Mostly it takes time. Going to the county offices downtown and filling out the paper work. Usually you have to come back for a hearing with all of your proof, like the tax bills of similar properties and pictures of your own property. Then you just have to sit back and hope for the best.
The other important things to remember is if you live in the property you can file for the home-owners exemption. You can get this retroactively if you have never applied before and it will reduce your real estate taxes. You have to have lived in the property for the full calendar year to qualify for the exemption. There is also a senior exemption. All this information is at the county building or on the assessors or treasures web-sties.
Good luck and fight those real estate taxes.
