building to keep property taxes low

[mvk]

Hi
I wanted to ask this for awhile and after Drews post about farming thought now is as good a time as any.

So any secrets to try to keep your property taxes lower by building in any special way. The only thing I new about was not putting in a fireplace but have wood stoves but I'm not sure that even matters any more. My land value went from 36K to118K in one year!!!! Asked the town want to buy it? But if there are any considerations I would like to at least think about them before starting. I know size would be one. How about see through walls on the hopper
Mike

[n74tg]

If I was a tax assessor on property, what would make something look less valuable to me.  The house would have to look like a junker, about ready to fall down.  It would have to make me think this place is worth only what the land is worth. 

To me it would be easy to find a way to build to look like that, but would you still want to live in it.  Worse yet, would you ever be able to sell it.

Now, as for finding a way to make the LAND look less valuable, so they won't raise the land value from 36k to 118k, good luck, let us all know how you accomplish that trick.

[desdawg]

I started out with a small mobile home and added on to both sides with a roof over the entire building. I get taxed for a mobile home with additions. Looking at it from the exterior no one would know. Of course that will ultimately effect resale value. Pay now or pay later I suppose. At the time I built it I did what I could afford.

[mvk]

To clarify a little ,I'm planning a regular type house kind of like Christine Whites but what I'm asking is are there things that would make one house be assessed at a lower rate then another. Is there asser guide lines or such. I don't want to junk it up particularly though I do come home from the dump with more then I go with on occasion if I'm lucky.
Mike

[glenn kangiser]

One thing to keep in mind -- whether of use to you or not , is that no matter what they may imply, a tax assessor is never -- ever -- allowed on your property without your permission.  Whether that is of use to you or not is for you to decide.  Most of them seem to assess you from their chair behind their desk anyway.

I forgot to ask for permits one time and it was 20 years of not taxing before they ever came out to check on a refinance value assessment.  Even then the taxes did not go up as they credited me for vineyard they charged me for but I did not have.  Sometimes early onset dementia can make you forget.

[MountainDon]

Other than being forgetful and delaying the re-evaluation, I believe there's little you can do to make the assessment come out any significant amount less than it really is. It is what it is.  Don't forget that assessments can be challenged within the legally provided time frame. Around here the records indicate that more often than not a challenged assessment amount is lowered.

Yes, it's true the assessors don't have the legal right to enter the property without your permission, and you don't need to grant permission. But then you will be assessed from afar and that would MTL be a high ball assessment than a low ball assessment, IMO. For sure you'd be challenging that and then you'd have to allow them to have a closer look anyways. Then they may take more time and find "problems" they may notify other departments about   Just guessing.

[Daddymem]

Bedroom and full bathroom count has a good impact on assessed value around here along with total square footage so small with fewer bedrooms and one full bath would be cheaper.

[PEG688]

Bring in lots of old cars , put them up on cider blocks , no paint , trash bags on the porch , etc . If that doesn't work maybe a meth lab in the laundry room , that generally brings the values way down , not good for building friendly neighbor relatioships though. 


G/L PEG       

[mvk]

Thanks Peg
I have a house now that I can't sell, guy must have come to you for advice Huh? Every time we need a new tenant he drags a few more cars up on his lawn. Maybe I'll take some pictures sometime. Maybe he will die. Time to stick a few more pins in the voodoo doll.

Actually he's not a bad guy just believes in property rights, sounds a lot like Glen  . maybe like me! Anyway it would be funny if it was not my neighbor but yours. What to do?  Slippery slope once you start letting people tell you what you can and can't do on your own place, where do you end up? Yeah I could live with out the cars, the irrigation pipe on 55 gal drums to mark the property line, and the worlds first snowmobile, his big rock that he painted red and piled a blue one and then a white one on, his personal monument to our troops in Iraq, that's his story anyway, but I live in another place where my neighbor across the street must have a Lazar that sets off an alarm when his grass gets a millimeter above a certain height and another alarm as soon as a leaf falls on his lawn. If I had sun I would put a big vegetable garden in my front yard not to PO anyone but just what I value. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter I guess.

Thanks to every one else to for the advice.

Mike

[glenn kangiser]

Property Rights.  hmm What a concept.

[Okie_Bob]

Peg, you forgot about the old washers and dryers on the porch with a pack of mangy huntin dogs layin around it too.
How did you know that was my place?
Okie Bob
(they don't call me Okie Bob fer nutin)

[mvk]

Bob
The guy up the street has the washer's, dryer's, water heater's, as well as a old carnival ride, at least he did, try not to go by there very much. Dogs!!! There was a guy going around looking to haul away old cars for scrape some years ago, when ever the price was high last. He would knock on doors and if no one was home he might just haul one away. Well he got 2 off this guy, maybe before he even noticed, when they caught him he said that some one down the street told them that he probable wouldn't mind.   Anyway after that he had got about 5 or 6 dogs and tied them to cars, trucks, trailers, campers, whatever. There was about 1000 acres or so behind his house and I used to walk up that way with my dog to get into the woods. Well I guess you can guess what happened any time someone walked past his house with all those tied up dogs, He used to come out and scream at me for riling up his dogs. You got the whole @#$%^&* world to walk in why come by my house? Well maybe because that's the way I'm going?  He also used to have some oxen (pulling is a big thing around here) well he started to tie them in my other neighbors field (first story guy),with out permission and let them eat. That was a pretty big stink. Was hopping they would start shooting each other but that was after the cops tried to take all his guns away after a domestic violence beef. Well we had a local politician who is a big gun owner property rights kind of guy (Glen got any kin out this way) and I think they worked out some kind of deal whereas that fellow took the guns for awhile so I'm sure that prevented the blood shed.

There was another fellow who owned about 20 or so acres behind his house now this guy spent about 20 years trying to get the town to clean him up and couldn't so his land wasn't worth much. It was back land and the only access was right along his property it was between his house and a old 1 room school house that had been converted into a house way before I got there. Well he would have it on the market for awhile, take it off, put it back. I wanted to by it but my wife said no way it wasn't the greatest property (north slope) and would need a lot of site work to get back and get into the sun. Well after not being able to sell it my other neighbor (first story guy) bought it dirt cheap clear cut it probably got his money back. So the school house belonged to a older woman she died, her sister lived there, died, another sister moved in, died, so that went on the market and my neighbor(first story guy) proceeded to park cars all along the property, They couldn't sell it so after a couple of years he bought it again dirt cheap.

Kinda miss the neighbor hood Want to move back, sell our current house and live there till we build, wife says no way.

Who needs Montel!!!!

You have to understand that I only lived there 25 years and am still a tourist.

Yeah should get some pictures, but where are all those guns???

Mike 

[Drew]

Yeah, Mike.  I'd like to see the pictures.  It would sure put whatever I've got going into perspective!

I like your topic, but I have no answers.  Our plan is to go with a light footprint as far as buildings are concerned.  That means my 120 sf. accessory shed (aka Casa Guacamole), the 18'x24' straw bale lodge were building now, and the 20'x30' residential we'll do after that.  There will be a barn, but only after revenue justifies it.

I speculate that portable buildings like railroad containers and hoop houses would not increase the assessment value, but that is only a guess.  Anyone know?

My neighbor has a dead drill truck and a bunch of construction material right up against the fence.  That's where the 40' railroad container is going.  We're going to attach lathe and grow climbing plants lie grapes and bougainvillea (Thank God for spell checkers) on it.  That will be on our side.  The neighbor gets to see the side that says, "Pick up your toys, Dave!" 

[Rover]

My folks had a large place (not a McMansion) and it was T shaped in plan.  When the assessor did his walk about, he must have gotten confused and missed one of the bathrooms.  This did figure into his calculations and my parents were assessed for only 2 bathrooms for the length of time they owned it (25 years).

So perhaps for the fun of it, design your place with a hidden bathroom.  I would be difficult to hid the square footage of a bedroom though.  Of course, you would not hide it when advertising to sell.

[ScottA]

Hide half your house underground. Put in a trap door over the stairs and cover it with a rug when the assessor comes.

[Sassy]

Good idea, Scott.   I must confess - we have lots of "collectables" all over our properties...  but we're pretty much away from people - with the cabin, we can say "it's under construction"  and the other place - the back acres butt up to grape vineyards & almond orchards where most of the stuff is.  There is a "boneyard out front on the other side of the shop but that abuts a canal & on the other side is a grape processor, so it really doesn't matter - it does look rather tacky from the road - a big semi with trailer that we've never used, several man lifts plus a myriad of steel pieces etc that Glenn & his son collected over the years.  I was able to clean up the big driveway in front of the shop  (it used to be covered with ummm, junk, except the big stuff which was moved with a man lift).  So, I try to keep the areas I see cleaned up    We've had offers to clean up the place for scrap metal - that offer is highly offensive to Glenn - after all, those are collectables & potential parts to things he might make or fix in the future... and it is amazing, he pretty much knows what he has lying about - may take awhile to find but he usually finds whatever he needs to make the part or fix something or even invent something...   

[mvk]

Drew
I will try to get some pic's might be awhile went by there today and the Carney ride and lot of stuff was gone but there is still a few Collectibles!

Scott
Have you seen anything about the fellow on Nantucket who had a hidden underground house. He was caught by a hunter who found his stove pipe when he saw some smoke. 10 or so years ago. Someone offered to let him rebuild on there land but that got shot down by the Gov-ment pretty quick. Said he had a couple of other places around the country, Colorado comes to mind. Bet one of you net heads could find it quick and I think everyone would get a kick out of it.

Meanwhile I got thrown out of 2 recycle centers last week for..............RECYLCLING? Looking for wood scraps to build a model of a hoop house. This is my inspiration

http://gouk.about.com/od/ukoffshoreislandstravel/ss/italianchapel.htm

Mike

[ScottA]

It never fails to amaze me what people will come up with in making something out of nothing. Glen is a prime example

[NM_Shooter]

How big is your property?  Get a couple of goats to breed, and ask for a agricultural exemption.

-f-

[PEG688]

It never fails to amaze me what people will come up with in making something out of nothing. Glen is a prime example

Ya Sassy's really had to tweak him to get somethin outta nuttin!    

  Great job Sas 


 

  God I crack me up

 

[Sassy]

  gosh, thanks, PEG!

[PEG688]

gosh, thanks, PEG!

Any time Sassy    Just tryin ta be helpful.  Glenn ill MTL ban me for this one , or LHAO! 

I think it was good  creative play on words    I'm still chuckling about it 

Maybe I should duck , 

[Sassy]

    you're good PEG!

[glenn kangiser]

  PEG, I'm a self made man, in spite of what you guys say.

A rolling stone gathers no moss.    (Obviously whoever wrote that hasn't seen the PNW).

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

Thomas Alva Edison