Things you did over your summer vacation: added a deck, built a fence, maybe even put in a swimming pool.
Terrific. What you may also have done, however, is set yourself up for a future hike in your property tax assessment that you might not agree with.
There are not many issues more contentious for homeowners than the assessment of property taxes. Traditionally, however, to fight back you would have to mine old newspapers or hunt through township office files to get details on assessments of similar local properties. It can seem easier to just pay what’s assessed.
Now, however, more and more homeowners across the country are getting access to detailed assessment information for their community via the Internet. According to Cook County Assessor James Houlihan, homeowners utilizing these sites are starting to break down “the traditional adversarial relationship” between homeowner and assessor.
Less than a year ago, Houlihan established his office’s home page at www.assessor.co.cook.il.us to help homeowners decide if they should appeal their assessment. Visitors to the site can get the assessed value of any specific residential property, as well as that of 10 comparable properties, by entering an address or 14-digit identification number.
Currently, only information on Rogers Park, Lake and Hyde Park townships is available, because they are the only ones assessed so far this year. The remaining city townships will be done by the end of 1997. Outlying northern areas will go on in April 1998, and the southern sections the next year, following the county’s assessment schedule.
“Our goal is to help people understand that assessments are not an adversarial or `gotcha’ situation. The more information people have, the more they can help us more accurately set values,” Houlihan said.
Houlihan adds that he is not looking to face fewer appeals, just more educated ones.
“We don’t look at the number of challenges as a measure of our mistakes,” he said. “We are able to take a first pass in a community, but welcome the opportunity to go back and make a more accurate evaluation. An appeal shouldn’t be seen as a challenge of our ability. It should be seen as a partnership.”
Of course, the key to judging the fairness of your assessment is the ability to find suitably similar properties for comparison. It’s for that reason that the Cook County site bases comps not on proximity, but on property category set by lot, home size, amenities, etc. While such a system is more accurate than looking next door, Houlihan says it is still not as detailed as he would like.
“We are working to get more information on the different types of characteristics of a property on-line. But we also know we need to balance that desire with the need to protect the privacy of individual property owners,” he said.
The Cook County Assessor’s site is only one of many nationally that have been established by county, city or state governments to offer easier and faster access to assessment data. From Milwaukee to Phoenix, sites offering searchable lists of property assessments abound.
Perhaps one of the most interesting permutations, however, has sprung to life in Michigan. The Michigan Tax Tribunal, the state’s top property tax court, now offers Internet access to details of recent assessment decisions, comprehensive lists of that state’s rules and regulations, and a how-to guide on appealing an assessment. Their site is found at www.commerce.state.mi.us/tax/. Norman Shinkle, chairman of the Michigan Tax Tribunal, says the ability to learn from past cases helps property owners understand what they need to do to win an appeal.
“We really want to improve the efficiency and quality of the process. Every kind of case has a different threshold of evidence required, and the more people know about similar past cases the better they can prepare,” Shinkle said.
“Really, our goal is to have our phone ring a lot less,” he added.
-Bits and bytes: Mortgage Mag (www.mortgagemag.com) is an interesting Internet clearinghouse of mortgage and real estate information, including directories of lenders, brokers and other usual suspects. Unlike a lot of advertiser-supported sites of this ilk, Mortgage Mag is nicely done and impressive in its detail.
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Don Hunt and Brian Edwards write about technology related to buying, selling and fixing homes. They can be reached at hitekhome@aol.com or by writing The High-Tech Home, Chicago Tribune, Your Place section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th floor, Chicago, Ill. 60611.
