Having an appraisal that shows your home’s value is less than its assessed tax value is one of the most powerful pieces of support you can bring to the tax appeal process; unfortunately, appraisals costs money and there is no guarantee your appraisal will be lower than your property’s assessed value.
Our practice charges $600 for most residential property appraisals, so deciding on whether to purchase an appraisal requires some subjective cost benefit analysis.
The higher the potential assessment discrepancy the smaller the relative cost of ordering an appraisal.
An appraiser cannot advocate on behalf of a client and purposefully steer the opinion of value towards a predetermined price, which would be both unethical and illegal. Sometimes the appraisal will come in higher than the property's tax accessed value and sometimes it will come in lower. If it comes in lower then a client can use the appraisal at their property tax appeal hearing in support of lowering their property taxes.
If you are a homeowner in Washington, DC and would like to order a residential home appraisal for property tax appeal purposes click
here.
