I’ve owned real estate for well over 20 years. Unfortunately, no one taught me how to control my property tax expense or what property tax appeals were. I didn’t even know what a homestead exemption was for many years. I became desperate in 2010 during the Great Recession years to control my mortgage payment expenses with our investment properties.
In order to do this, I delved into learning how to reduce property taxes and property insurance expenses. After all, I knew mortgage payments consisted of P.I.T.I. which is short for Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance. To reduce mortgage payments, I had to go after the individual pieces which make up a mortgage payment.
With property taxes, I learned I had to file a property tax appeal with the local tax assessors office. Unfortunately, there were little or no instructions I could find. Even today, there isn’t much instruction and education I can find. I was forced to call the tax assessors office and muddle my way through the tax appeal process step by step. What I realized early on was that tax assessor offices had overwhelming advantages over me. I was also nervous and felt intimidated.
Out of sheer desperation, I pushed past through my fears, uncertainty, and doubts. I did my best with the little knowledge I had at that time. Well over 200 tax appeals later across six counties and well over a decade later, I am more confident and knowledge today.
I am glad I pushed through to get my early tax appeals but every time I filed a tax appeal, I always felt the tax assessors had unfair advantages against me as a small property owner. I also felt some employees took unfair advantage of my naivete and ignorance. I remember these incidents and carry them with me to this day.
In the video below, I describe how tax assessors take unfair advantage of property owners and what you can do about it.
I wrote a book “TAX FREEZE: How to File & Win Property Taxes in Georgia” (available on Amazon) which will help you through your GA property tax appeals.
I launched a new YouTube channel called TAX FREEZE Command. You should subscribe to it to get my latest insights and information on GA property tax appeals and other tax matters.
I also have a playlist of YouTube videos for property owners to educate themselves about the GA property tax appeal process.