Most if not all owners of Property in Pima County received their Residential Notice of Value for 2011 in  this week’s mail. This shows the Full Cash Value ascribed to your land by the Assessor’s office on which your property taxes will be based. THIS BEGINS A 60 DAY PERIOD WHICH IS THE ONLY TIME YOU CAN APPEAL YOUR TAXES THIS YEAR. I’ve talked to so many land owners this past year who have complained bitterly (and in many cases rightly so) about the unfairly high value that the Assessor has placed on their land. NOW IS THE ONLY TIME YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT..

The first thing to do is look at your “Total FCV” for 2011 on the form. The change in value from 2010 should certainly be lower as I’m not aware of any land or lot in any part of Metropolitan Tucson that has increased in value this past year.  Secondly, look at the actual Full Cash Value amount. The Assessor sets this amount at approx. 70-80% of Fair  Market Value. For our purposes, lets use 75% as an average. For example, if your Total FCV in 2011 is  listed as 100,000, divide that by .75 to see that the Assessor is saying your property has a Fair Market Value of $133,333.  If you agree with that amount and believe that to be a fair price that you could sell your property you may not want to appeal.  If you know that comparable property has recently sold between $75,000 and $100,000, or perhaps less because of all the recent foreclosures and short sales, I strongly suggest you file an appeal. If you aren’t sure of the current Market Value of your land find out quickly so you can make an intelligent decision. You can do this in several ways. Go to the TAR/MLS site and search sold listings in your area; check values in your subdivision or part of town through the Assessor’s site and Recorder’s site or call a knowledgable Realtor to help. I  believe, however, that EVERY LAND OWNER should take the time, do the research and file an appeal if justified. You very well may have an inflated idea of what your property is worth versus actual sales.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 7:14 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.