Tax Abatement Strategy in Massachusetts--The window of opportunity is open for a short time; the possibilities for a marketing initiative still resonate

Like most good sales ideas that have happened to me, this marketing opportunity arose quite by accident. I am a Massachusetts real estate attorney with more than 40 years of experience in my profession. One of the things I have lately started to do for out-of-sate clients is manage their investment Unit condominiums for them. For a small monthly fee, i collect the rents, pay the common area fee, and four times a year, pay the real estate taxes.

Mssachusetts taxes work on a quarterly payment basis, with a June 30 fiscal year. Accordingly, the taxes which are payable on the first day of August and November of each year are only "estimates" to be applied to the final tax bill, which comes out in late December, or early January, of each year. I received the FY June 30, 2011 tax bill for one of my clients on December 30, 2010. He is the owner of a luxury Unit in the Waterfront section of Boston. When I examined the bill, I realized that the assessed value of his Unit was more than $300,000 more than the price that he paid for same in 2008.

Even though Boston has not been hit as hard as other locales in terms of price erosion, there has been some erosion, even in the luxury market. It seemed to me that my client's assessment was "out of line", and I called an attorney I work with, who does only tax abatements, and asked him to do some research on the matter. He told me that his data indicated that the assessment was high, and he and my client worked out a contingent fee arrangement whereby he will pursue a Tax Abatement for my client, and get a fee only if he is successul.

This is a rather large condominium, and I showed my wife, who is just starting out as a Realtor in Boston, how to reference purchase prices at the Suffolk Registry of Deed (Boston's registry), and how to reference Real Estate tax bills at the City of Boston Assessor's office. She did her homework and discovered that there were two othe Unit owners in the Condominium who appeared to be paying too much for their Boston real estate taxes.

She developed letters to each of these owners, indicating that they might want to consider filing for a real estate Tax Abatement, and, if they did, she could direct them to an attorney who is doing at least one such Abatement application in the condominium in question. My wife asked nothing from the Unit owners in return. She indicated that she was providing this service as a way to introduce herself.

In my mind, this kind of marketing may well have "legs". Even if the people in question do nothing, will they not have some appreciation for that "thoughtful Joanne Topkins" who provided this useful information? When they go to sell their Unit, or a neighbor goes to sell a Unit, isn't there a chance that they would give a referral to her?

But the best part of the exercise is that my wife now has pertinent data about this Condominium that will help her in becoming the "resident expert" on this Condominium. That kind of knowledge cannot but help as she is building her body of information to advance her career.

By the by, for you Bay Staters, Abatement Applications need to be filed in Massacusetts by the later of January 31 of each year, or 30 days after the final tax bill is issued. There is no "waivering" on this date, so if you know of a property that is "over-assessed", you need to get your Application in by those dates.