2008 tax valuations have been showing up in King County mailboxes. I haven’t received mine for our new townhome in High Point yet, but it is new construction so I suspect it will be right at the sales price.

But in 2003 I fought the county assessor over the value of our former property, a 1/4 acre lot that was the last remnant of what had been a ten acre chicken farm, with a 1929 farm house on it located about a mile east of where I just moved to. The house had last been remodeled in 1967, and aside from some painting in the bedrooms and new windows on the top floor in 2002, we didn’t do a damn thing to it (another reason why we finally moved…but that was a previous post and you’ll have to dig for the true story).

Seems to me when the sale of property occurs, the county goes hey wha? we better get on out there and see what’s what. They did raise the value quite a bit from the former owner’s value. I couldn’t really argue since the recorded sale couldn’t be disputed as current market value. But the 2nd year following our purchase, they jacked the BUILDING value way up. They increased the land value, too, which I am less inclined to argue with. As land becomes more scarce of course it’s value will go up. But they were not going to tell me my old farm house, that was a year older and a year closer to needing a total rehab, had gone up in value over $30k. Nosirreebob.

I felt I was lucky the place didn’t go up in smoke, since the wiring on the main floor was old (knob and tube). The wiring in the basement had been upgraded for laundry purposes. And for six years I tripped over and vacuumed under a pair of 100 foot extension cords coming up from the basement into my home office. We didn’t trust the wiring in case of a surge – but the basement panel was a little more trustworthy. So extension cords. I got a lot of ribbing over that. AND every time we refinanced, we coiled them up and tucked them behind the water heater so the independent appraiser hired by the mortgage company would be none the wiser. (I hope I don’t go to a bad place for my little deception.)

So I took on the tax assessor. As a real estate professional, property value is something I know about. And they were overvaluing my house!

Filing a value appeal is a very long process. The form is very detailed (and you have to write really small). I think it took a total of 6 months for the decision to come back – finally in my favor. It’s funny that in order to be successful at a tax appeal you need to either be a real estate agent or be really good friends with one since the most user-friendly and reliable sales comparable information (in my opinion) comes from the NWMLS (Northwest Multiple Listing Service). Maybe I am just biased. But you better have a balanced argument and know what you are talking about. Name calling is not going to work (hehe).

I may have taken advantage of my home’s appearance in making sure the valuations stayed well below what the place MIGHT have sold for. But you never know how much a place is worth until you actually sell it. We bought the place in 2001 for $215k. We sold it in 2007 for $395. Now – this is highly unusual for an old farm house with a big yard. But here’s what we had working in our favor – the property was large enough to be subdivided one last time. And I made sure I told it to a local, environmentally-sensitive developer. That’s 183% on my zero investment (we had 100% financing). One of these days my dad will actually admit we did the right thing when we bought that place – not the idiots he thought when we first purchased the place when we were 31 years old. And we never would have been able to leverage our way into our current home without it.

As for the county’s tax valuation, I never once argued with the county’s assessment of the LAND value. Just the BUILDING. And I think that is why we won. Twice.

Last year, as I moved from a marketing position at a mortgage company to the real estate brokerage I am with today, I had the occasion to talk with Harley Hoppe on the phone in response to an ad he had for a researcher. He wanted to hire me just based on tax appeal win experience. Unfortunately for Mr. Hoppe, he hired someone else for less money first – then came back to me three month’s later wanting to know if I was still available. Too bad for him. And probably good for me since I wouldn’t have been able to focus on green living and real estate as much as I can today if I was trapped fighting the bad ol’ government on behalf of the “little people” who can afford to hire a tax attorney.

Mr. Hoppe is quoted in an article today in the Seattle PI. Read Proving your home is not worth that much – Owners fight county’s assessment of property value — and sometimes win.

And that’s how this story got started…