Services and Fees:
Our goal is to lower your property tax bill. We do this by reducing the assessed value imposed on your property. We begin by analyzing your current assessment status. We also look at the history of your assessment status. We compare uniformity of assessments and taxes in your area. We compare and contrast your property to similar properties in your locale by researching past and current sales data from various sources. Those sources include other data outside of what appears on the assessor's comparable property and sales search sites. We also examine those properties currently for sale in your area. For purposes of negotiating with the assessor's office, we examine current year data, as well as data from years past. We then gather that data which we feel will most strongly support our opinion of what the assessed value of your property should be. We methodically distinguish your property vis a vis other properties based on the unique aspects of your property. The process begins with a free preliminary analysis of your property to determine the merits of an appeal. Upon your written direction to retain us we will then coordinate an actual written ad valorem appraisal of your property, (or a comparable report), which includes the appraiser's formal opinion of value based on recent sales trends, as well as based on neighborhood uniformity, to further substantiate and support our initial findings. If an appraisal or a comparable report is required to proceed, that is a separate fee paid separately by you. We then present our compilation of data to the assessor's office in their preferred format and in a light most favorable to achieving a decrease in assessed valuation beyond that which the assessor has posted for your property. If success cannot be achieved at the assessor's office level, we then prepare for a hearing with the County Board of Review. The art of reducing taxes via lowered assessed valuation is a process. Each step in the process should be addressed carefully and completely. There is no cheap short cut to achieving success in this work. Success comes from years of experience in multiple areas of real estate expertise, arduous preparation and skillful presentation.
Unlike other tax appeal companies, we do not charge any up front fees for our services. Our fee is contingent. Meaning that if we do not achieve any reduction for you we are not paid any fee. Our standard fee is 1/3 of the first year's tax savings we obtain for you by lowering the assessed value of your home/property beyond the printed assessed valuation first appearing on the paperwork initially mailed to you by the assessor's office. (Plus any comparable report fee). The 1/3 fee payable to us is calculated by taking the amount of the extra reduction we achieve for you off of your printed assessed valuation, multiplied by the current State Equalization Factor in effect at the time your assessment is mailed to you, multiplied by the current tax rate in effect at the time your assessment is mailed to you, divided by 3. Additionally, (in Cook County), if we combine your assessed valuation appeal with a request for a certificate of error for any of the three prior years, and are successful in achieving a refund for you on any of the previous three years, we will receive 1/3 of any refunds generated in that regard as well. Furthermore, (in Cook County), If we obtain exemptions for you that have not been filed, or have been forgotten about, we receive 1/3 of monies generated from this refund to you as well. If the appeal is taken to the Property Tax Appeal Board level you then agree to pay 1/3 of whatever tax refunds or reductions are issued to you on whatever years tax bills are reduced through our appeal to that review body, by direct appeal or by rollover from a previous year that has been appealed.
Again, there is no up front fee due us. We are paid only after we achieve the further reduction in your 2022 assessment. On Certificates of Error we are paid only after the refund is issued. On Property Tax Appeal Board cases we are paid only when the appeal board makes a favorable determination in your case.
Unlike other tax appeal companies, we do not charge any up front fees for our services. Our fee is contingent. Meaning that if we do not achieve any reduction for you we are not paid any fee. Our standard fee is 1/3 of the first year's tax savings we obtain for you by lowering the assessed value of your home/property beyond the printed assessed valuation first appearing on the paperwork initially mailed to you by the assessor's office. (Plus any comparable report fee). The 1/3 fee payable to us is calculated by taking the amount of the extra reduction we achieve for you off of your printed assessed valuation, multiplied by the current State Equalization Factor in effect at the time your assessment is mailed to you, multiplied by the current tax rate in effect at the time your assessment is mailed to you, divided by 3. Additionally, (in Cook County), if we combine your assessed valuation appeal with a request for a certificate of error for any of the three prior years, and are successful in achieving a refund for you on any of the previous three years, we will receive 1/3 of any refunds generated in that regard as well. Furthermore, (in Cook County), If we obtain exemptions for you that have not been filed, or have been forgotten about, we receive 1/3 of monies generated from this refund to you as well. If the appeal is taken to the Property Tax Appeal Board level you then agree to pay 1/3 of whatever tax refunds or reductions are issued to you on whatever years tax bills are reduced through our appeal to that review body, by direct appeal or by rollover from a previous year that has been appealed.
Again, there is no up front fee due us. We are paid only after we achieve the further reduction in your 2022 assessment. On Certificates of Error we are paid only after the refund is issued. On Property Tax Appeal Board cases we are paid only when the appeal board makes a favorable determination in your case.