Expert Tips On Lowering Your Property Taxes

Paying property taxes is probably one of the least favorite activities for anyone who owns a home.  While it has been established that paying taxes is unavoidable there are some things you can do to reduce the sting a bit.  To kick things off, tips on lowering your property taxeswe’ll describe what property taxes are and why they’re levied in the first place.

Property tax is a tax which is levied against your home and other real estate that you own.  A variety of factors affect how much you will pay in taxes each year, but some of the biggest ones are the true value of your home, your county’s millage rate, the rates applied by any special tax districts that you live in (such as a city or a school board) and your exemptions (such as a homestead exemption).   In Florida, around 50% of public education funding and 30% of your local government’s revenues come from property tax.  This tells us that your tax money is being put to work and that you’re not getting any of it back without a fight.

In order to lower your taxes, you have to prove that you are being taxed at an unreasonably higher rate than owners of other similar properties.  You can do this in a variety of ways.  One of the simpler methods is to establish that the assessor made a mistake when he or she evaluated your house.  This covers cut and dry mistakes where he got your square footage wrong or said that you have a pool when you don’t.  These are usually open and shut cases. If you just bought your house for less than the value it’s being assessed at, you’ve got another solid argument.  You can lose appeals like this, but at least it means that you got a great deal on your house.

If neither of these two situations describes you, then you have to prove that the assessor made faulty comparisons when valuing your home.  This argument is a lot less clear cut but you can still win.  In this case you need to look at ‘comparable’ homes, which are similar to yours in design and reasonably close to yours  geographically (i.e. in the same city/county).  In order to make a well-founded case, you should visit your property appraiser’s website and learn which factors they consider (square footage, number of bathrooms, etc.) when valuing your home.  Many appraiser websites also have a web portal where you can look up information about your home.  Once you know where you stand, look at other homes with similar taxable attributes.  If their tax rate is lower than yours you might have a case; typically the difference has to be around 10%, but this can vary.

Once you’ve determined that you’re being taxed too highly, you can file a complaint with your local value adjustment board.  Each county in Florida has a 5-member board which rules on challenges to a home’s assessment.  Value adjustment boards are not able to change the millage rates adopted by local governments, but they are independent of your property appraiser which helps ensure unbiased results when challenges are made.

We hope this post has helped you understand a bit more about how property taxes work and given you an idea of what to do if you think you’re being unfairly taxed.  If you’d like to check out interesting community features nearby your home, have a look at the MoversAtlas MoveMap, it makes getting to know your neighborhood easier than ever!

Expert Tips To Help You Find A Great Real Estate Agent

Most people only speak with one real estate agent, even though a lot of experts say you should interview at least a few. So, how do you pick a good one, and how do you select prospective agents to interview in the first place?tips on finding a great real estate agent

Let’s start with the selection process, after all there are about 9,500 real estate agents in Orlando to choose from. Here are three ways to narrow the field.

First, personal referrals are a tried and true method of selecting a prospective real estate agent. Most of us probably know someone that has purchased or sold real estate in the last six months or so. Ask your friends, family or co-workers who they used and what they thought of them. Second, if you are new to the area or cannot get a good personal referral try review sites like Yelp or Angie’s List. Third, try Googling your neighborhood or town for real estate such as “Orlando real estate” to see who pops up. Odds are, an agent that shows up in these results is tech savvy and it likely means more experienced.

Now that you have a few agents to interview what should you look for in a good agent? Ask them questions about their qualifications:

“How long have you been in real estate?”
“How many homes do you sell each year?”

What is a good answer to these questions is hard to say. Let’s face it someone who has only been in real estate for a year may be a much better fit for you than someone who has been around for ages. If a more direct connection with your agent is what you are looking for, you may not want a big team that sells 50 or 100 properties a year. If you like the team approach, then you may not want to speak with an agent that works alone. I do think if an agent is selling fewer than six properties a year they may not be very “in touch” with the market. Here in Orlando, a huge percentage of the real estate agents sold fewer than two properties last year. Ask about the market, and see what they can tell you about what is going on in your area.

If you are selling ask them to put together a comparative market analysis (CMA) and check out the properties they are comparing to your home. Try not to list with an agent just because they gave you the highest value for your property. Buying or selling, you want an agent that asks you questions too. If they don’t know what your situation is, how can they know how to best help you? Keep this in mind too. Once you select a real estate agent, you may be working closely with them for several weeks or even several months. Ask yourself if this is someone you want to spend that much time working with.

The 5 Fastest Growing Cities in Florida

Whether you like living in a highly populated city or not, it is no secret that larger cities often times have a lot more to offer. In regards to economic growth of a particular area there is a direct correlation between the growth rate of a city and floridas fastest growing citiessuch things as higher employment rates and better housing markets among many other positive benefits. The nice thing about population growth in a particular area is the hidden driving factors like a new industry or large business moving in or it may be just a desirable cost effective area to live.  Whatever the reason is, just remember that if you want to benefit from a booming city than the earlier you jump on board the better.  Florida has many great cities but here is a list of 5 of Florida’s fastest growing cities.

1. Orlando

First and foremost and probably the largest city in the state, Orlando, known by the locals as “The city beautiful” with a population growth rate of 1.82% and a fantastic unemployment rate of 5.76% which is several points below the national average.

2. Cape Coral

Second is a smaller town of Cape Coral which is direct neighbors to the more well-known town Fort Myers.  The population growth rate of Cape Coral is currently around 2.41% and yet still a low unemployment rate of 6.22%.  Surprisingly this city was one of the hardest hit during the economic housing fall, good to see its coming back.

3. Palm Bay

Next we are brought to Palm Bay, Florida, while on the east coast this is a great beach city having a population increase of around 1.53% and an unemployment rate at 6.6%.  The average income in this town is right above $60,000 which could be greatly supported by such companies like NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and soon to be Northrop Grumman.

4. North Port

Coming in at number four would be North Port, Florida a location that piggy backs the more well-known metropolitan area Sarasota.  North Port is in a wonderful area on the west coast with white sand beaches, turquoise colored water and beautiful sunsets.  This town has boasted a 1.42% population growth rate along with a 6% unemployment rate.

5. Windermere

Back to the intercostal geographic area, this small town in Orange County Florida known for its rather large houses and the Arnold Palmer golf tournament Windermere makes the ranking at number five.  With about a 29% population growth since the year 2000 this has been a substantial increase even according the national level.  More known for its original basketball super star Shaquille O’Neal and golf legend Tiger Woods there is no question this is a very desirable city to live in.

Sure, getting on board with a city that is up and coming has its benefits but it wouldn’t be your first priority unless you were looking for purely investment purposes.  On the other hand you may be in a community that is growing with excellent supporting industry and opportunity.  If you are looking for more information on these communities I suggest using the tools offered on www.MoversAtlas.com.