It’s been a long hot week for temperature extremes, a federal interest rate cut, Shark Week and political debates. How about a property tax rate cut?

Although the dollar is stronger, when it comes to the home front, budget shortfalls seem to always evolve higher. Property taxes never seem to go down.

With the reality of over-the-top property tax assessments most homeowners and businesses need to be on the alert.

The Morning Call in newspaper in Pennsylvania headline read: “Nearly half of Lehigh Valley homeowners are overpaying in property taxes. Here’s how to appeal.”

Being glued to property tax news feeds, I never see property tax assessors going out of their way to fix mistakes on their books. As the saying goes: “The squeaky wheel gets greased.”

Unless one appeals, nothing happens. 

To insure fairness to everyone’s primary asset, their home, property tax assessors as well as the county tax commissioner absolutely should be licensed real estate appraisers so they have expert understanding. In reality, rarely are they aboard as licensed real estate appraisers.

When presenting a property tax appeal, one has to be patient educating these administrators.  One needs to present factual studies and evidence.

Think of those in charge of administrating oversight on property tax values this way. You’re presenting your case to minimum wage retail store worker and need to be thankful they are listening. Then step-by-step, paint the picture.

Existing nationwide 40%+ real estate property tax assessment over-charge errors need attention. Who’s going to do it?

Here’s trying to make sense out of it with current valuation benchmarks on deck: http://propertytaxconsult.com