Durham Tax Revaluation

With the 2008 Tax Revaluation in Durham County, our office has had quite a few large portfolio of properties come in for representation on the appeal. We have literally done hundreds of properties already. Many people do not realize that they can appeal their taxes if the market value is lower than the assessed value. A good barometer for yourself - is "Would you sell/market the property at the assessed value and expect a reasonably informed buyer to purchase it at that price?" If the answer is yes, it is possible that you won't have a supportable appeal. In any case, an appraiser is well equipped to provide you with a supportable opinion of value using market data. The appraiser will also have no bias or attachment to the property. Keep in mind that when it comes to selling - owners believe that their property is gold but all of a sudden on a tax appeal they have found every reason of why it is worthless. Tax assessors know owners have attachments to their property and without substantial documentation many of the owner represented tax appeals fail. Typically, an appraiser can provide you with an appraisal that would show the market value of the property as of the date of re-assessment which then you can take in to the tax office during your appeal. Alternatively, in our office we represent the client in the appeal and do the appraisal and the appeal itself. One advantage of having the appraiser represent you is that particularly in our office - we have significant experience with doing tax appeals and also relationships with the tax assessors. We all have to pay our share of fair taxes in this case - the burden of proof is on the owner to show what is fair.

Regards,

Sunny Yu

NC State Certified General Appraiser - Broker

Pickett-Sprouse Real Estate