A Victory + A Failure...

I believe in transparency.

I've been told I wear my heart on my sleeve.  I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

What you see is what you get with me, ya know?  I've never been good at telling lies anyways.  Just ask my Dad.  ;)

And OUR HUGE VICTORY this week is that we FINALLY finished our 2013 property assessment appeal!!  Yes, that's 2 years ago (doesn't sound right, does it?)

So, I feel this urge to be completely transparent with you and share the nitty gritty.  I mean, truly, you could look it up on zillow today if you wanted to.  Or, you can look it up on our county's website -- I do think its rather neat to look at the details of your own house...

-- CROSSTOWN BUS --

Allegheny county used to have a search function on their website where you could look up anyone's property using their last names.  Everyone was looking up names like 'Roethlisberger' and 'Lemieux'.  Surprise!  So, they changed it so now you have to enter the property street address instead (but you can still see who owns the house).

-- Back to my story... --

So --- I'm sharing this info because you can easily look it up for my house.  And yes, I can also look up what you paid for your house.  I can also see what your annual property taxes are.  (I can find it all, so don't shy away whenever it may happen to come up in conversation!!  Doesn't much, but I find it funny when people do shy away...)

-- 2013 Allegheny County Assessment --

I learned from our lawyer that Allegheny county is the SECOND highest taxed county in the United States (his fault if that's wrong).  And in 2013 they re-assessed all the properties in the county.  Here is what happened in our assessment:

• 2012 Assessed Value:  $150,000
• 2013 Assessed Value:  $322,800

Our house MORE THAN DOUBLED in value.  That means our taxes ALSO DOUBLED.  Makes my head spin!  So, as soon as we bought this house, I looked at all the info on that county website and found that our house was listed as 13 rooms, 8 bedroom, 7 bath or something ridiculous.  I filed the paperwork to appeal the value, but I also called the county to tell them of the discrepancies.  They came out to the house shortly after we bought it and inspected it and changed it so 7 rooms, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath.  Thank goodness.  They also lowered the square footage by 60 sf.  Then our assessed value went like this:

• 2012 Assessed Value:  $150,000
• 2013 Assessed Value:  $227,500

Now, we bought our house for $127,000.  That means the house is STILL valued at $100,000 MORE than what we bought it for.  Normally, when you buy a house, you buy it for higher than the assessed value and they immediately change the value to whatever you paid for it.  Because... that is the true value of the house, right?  So, then why don't they just lower ours when we buy it and its lower than the assessed value?  Wish it was that easy.

So, since they lowered the value they cancelled my original hearing.  I filed another appeal (Aug/Sept of 2013) - and the hearing was scheduled for Nov. 25, 2013.  I showed up.  Mountains of paperwork.  Three copies of everything - 1 for the administrator, 1 for the school board's attorney, and 1 for me.  Here are some examples:

Yes, I created all of those in excel (I know, I'm a nerd).  Yes, I spent a bunch of time on it but they look damn good, right?  All those issues and repairs needed - I also had quotes stapled to that.  (this was in 2013.  In the past 2 weeks, we've also received quotes upwards of $25k for wet basement, plumbing in basement and exterior masonry!).  ALSO - did you see the pictures of the homes it has us compared to?!?!  Well, our house may look close to that now, but it definitely did not in 2013- here's my first blog post!

So, I took that and more to the hearing.  They didn't change SQUAT.  I appealed again, this time it cost me $118 to do that.

And I decided to hire a lawyer.  Trautman was who I went with after a few phone calls.

-- 1.5 YEARS LATER --

Court hearing was scheduled, Feb. 18, 2015.  I called the lawyer's office and said I'd like to meet him in person, as I feel this case was unique and we were having a difficult time catching each other on the phone.

We met.  He seems like a good guy.  Schmoozer type, but geniune (I hope).  At any rate, he definitely seems to know everyone in 'the game'.  So I think that is good.  He called the county's solicitor and after a couple of back and forth's, this is what we agreed on:

• 2012 Assessed Value:  $150,000
• 2013 Assessed Value:  $150,000
• 2014 Assessed Value:  $165,000
• 2015 Assessed Value:  $180,000

The lawyer said that was pretty damn good and I should take it, so I did.  My realtor, Carol Dishart, said that she was amazed they went below 200.  I'm pretty happy.  That's like a $5k paycheck for me in refunds - but minus the lawyer fee we still make out decently!  Plus, our taxes from here on out won't change until another reassessment!  Whew.

And about an hour after we settled on those numbers - a pipe froze and burst in our house.  YIKES!

Well, that was exciting.  Hopefully no one is planning on coming to stay with us, as we haven't fixed it yet we just shut off the water to it! :)

Persistence pays off!

And here's to hoping that no one from the county ever sees this blog!  (oh boy I am sooo screwed if someone does!)

Heather