A proven technique that agents can use to simplify their annual reviews.
As a real estate professional, you know the importance of conducting an annual real estate review for your clients. This review can come in the form of a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), a property walk, or any other technique that works for you. But there is another way to improve or even simplify this process, and that is by using the property assessor’s website.
There are two essential things you should look for when using the property assessor’s website. The first is tax cap status. During our recent calls to our past clients and sphere, we discovered that many people were primary residential occupiers, but their tax cap status was set as an investment home or second home. This makes a significant difference in the state of Nevada, specifically in Washoe County, where a low cap qualified primary residence means that property taxes cannot increase by more than 3% per year. If it is an investment property or a second home, property taxes can increase by more than 3% per year. Thus, for some homeowners who have lived in their homes for a few years, their property taxes could have increased more than they should have.
“Use the property assessor’s website to simplify your review process.”
The simple way to check tax cap status is to go to the property assessor’s website and search for the property. If the tax cap status does not say low cap qualified primary residence, you can inform your client and share a link explaining the procedure to file their tax cap claim online. This will help them get a refund for any excess taxes they have paid. If they are low cap and primary residence, you can call and tell them you checked, and everything looks good.
You should also look at the total taxable value relative to your estimated market value. Suppose the total taxable value is higher than your estimated market value. In that case, this is against Nevada law, and your client can appeal their property tax value to get their property taxes lowered.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us; we are always happy to help.
