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September is a big month in property tax circles in New York, and courts throughout the state are receiving “tax certiorari” cases filed in considerable volume.
That term is quite a mouthful (thankfully, my spellcheck recognizes the word), and it’s related to the assessed value of properties for tax purposes. It’s no secret that property taxes in Westchester and the surrounding counties are among the highest in the country. Why that is so is a whole other article, but suffice to say that if a homeowner feel that their assessed value is too high, there is a procedure for getting it corrected.
The simplest way to appeal one’s assessed value is to simply pay a visit to the assessor in your municipality and show them either your record of recent sale or an appraisal. If the assessor agrees, then the assessed value is lowered for the next tax year. It doesn’t always work that simply.
All taxing authorities (towns, villages, cities) have an appeal process, and for most places in Westchester County the deadline to appeal is the third Tuesday of June. Submitting an appraisal is crucial to this process. There is a form for this process, RP-524 if you are keeping score, and it is to be submitted to the town “BAR” or Board of Assessment Review. If the BAR agrees, the assessed value is lowered for the following tax year.
They don’t always agree.
When the administrative route that I’ve described thus far doesn’t get you joy, then the legal route is next, an that is where tax certiorari comes in. The New York State website has an excellent overview of the entire process. Essentially, the homeowner files for judicial review, or, if you want to simplify it, they hire an attorney to file a specialized lawsuit to appeal the BAR decision. There are attorneys who specialize in this type of work, and one of the values of a good real estate agent is to know which lawyers do this.
In my experience, the best place to start costs nothing: just call your real estate agent and have them do an updated market analysis to see if the market agrees with the assessed value. I’ve never charged for this personally, and as a matter of fact I encourage my clients to contact me for an updated market valuation annually so they can be better informed. If the market activity indicates that the home may be over assessed, then grieving the taxes makes sense.
Another excellent resource to contact once you’ve had your agent out is my friends at retiredassessor.com. They grieve taxes for a living on behalf of homeowners, and their track record is incredible.
But the administrative grievance process is not 100% bullet proof, and retaining an attorney for the certiorari filing is the next step.
Everyone should pay their fair share of property taxes to keep our society functional and funded. If you feel your taxes are more than your fair share, the first call I’d recommend is your agent to see if you have grounds. Once that is done, they can guide you to the next appeal steps as described.
One ironic request, however, is when the seller does not want a yard sign. Their rationale is understandable in many cases, as the perception of privacy from nosy neighbors is often mentioned. Moreover, consumers aren’t primarily driving around looking for signs, they are looking online. That’s true- to a degree. I’ve had clients opine that the signs are more for the agent than the home seller, as if it is more of a self promotional vehicle than one to sell the listing. Selling a home successfully is a win/win proposition for client and agent, so I take issue with that more than the others.
Ah, north Westchester! The land of horse country, idyllic lake communities, winding roads, and spotty cellular coverage. When you find a home with lake rights that has good mobile phone signal like this one, you know you’ve got something special. Snark about cellular data aside, this 1500 square foot colonial set on nearly a quarter acre does offer quite a package. My clients will now enjoy lake rights on the pristine Lake Kitchawan, enjoy their deck overlooking their level rear yard, and have already begun the remodeling process on their new home.
For many years, there has been an awkward moment when consumers attending an open house are asked to sign in. It is understandable to not want to become someone’s prospect or lead, and it doesn’t seem necessary to many folks. We see this pushback everywhere: a cashier asks a customer at checkout for their email or phone number, and is told they just want to buy the thing and be on their way. It seems like everywhere we go, we are asked for our information. You can’t even log onto some websites without a popup window offering you a discount if you enter your email handle, and you haven’t even decided if you want anything they sell.
This was the house that came back; I interviewed with the prior owner who sold it to my clients but we didn’t get the listing. This time we did! It just closed on July 31st for $800,000. Somers is known for its bucolic setting and this property didn’t disappoint, as the nearly 1.5 acre lot backs up to the a forever green preserve, the Somers Land Trust. The nearly 3500 square foot home has three bedrooms, 4 baths, a finished walkout basement, and a master suite to die for. The road is a no-through traffic street as well.
If you feel priced out of Westchester, fear not. Dutchess County, sometimes humorously referred to as “Nextchester,” often has what you need if you are open to living a little farther north. A great example is this renovated raised ranch on a 1.2 acre lot on a cul-de-sac street that we closed on today at 6 Briar Lane in Wappingers Falls. The MLS description paints a great picture:
Contractual deadlines and “by when” dates are baked into industry practices. Listings have expiration dates. Buyer agreements do also. Purchase and sale contracts have mortgage contingency dates, closing dates, and other structures of fulfillment that are terms for principals to abide by. Deadlines are not exclusive to contracts. There is a reasonable amount of time to expect a response to an offer. The seller might set a date and time for all parties to submit their highest and best bids.
13 years ago I wrote a post entitled “
Why Listings that Appear Available Online Actually Aren’t
In other cases the frustrated buyer has contacted the listing agent directly, only to be told that the agent will happily show them the property.
It’s frustrating for buyer agents also.
Part of the problem is that the contract process in Westchester and surrounding counties is not super compatible with MLS practices. Our local market is quite unique compared to the rest of the country and indeed the rest of New York State.
Here’s what I mean. In virtually every other market, the agents themselves fill out the contract paperwork. Even in upstate New York, the agents execute the contracts and it is contingent on attorney approval and inspection. But both parties sign the c0ntract almost immediately. In those cases, the MLS status is changed to reflect that the home is officially under contract, and the active listing disappears from consumer online searches. The contract is contingent on a home inspection in most cases, but the property is under contract.
But in Westchester, the Hudson Valley, all 5 boroughs of New York City, and Long Island, the contract process is completely different. First, the attorneys, not the agents, promulgate the contracts. Agents do a non-binding memorandum. Before the lawyers will send out the contract, they want the inspections completed. Now, if a buyer and seller have a meeting of the minds on a Monday, the inspection may not be completed for another few days. Often, wrapping up scheduling the inspection and resolving the findings can take 3-4 days even if everyone is on their game. That puts us to Thursday or Friday. Then, the seller’s attorney send the contract to the buyer’s attorney.
It is safe to say the-at the buyer’s attorney seldom agrees with 100% of the verbiage on the proposed contract. There may be some back and forth on wording. But again, let’s suppose that both attorneys agree to the contract verbiage within 48 business hours. This put us to the following Tuesday, or 8 days since the original meeting of the minds. Then, the buyers have to schedule a time to meet with their attorney and go over the contract for signing and to make their deposit. That often takes another day or two, so even in a fast scenario, we are at Thursday. The signed contract and deposit arrive back to the seller’s attorney the following day if we are moving fast, and then another day or two for the seller’s to meet up with their lawyer to sign and have a fully executed contract.
We are now two weeks into the “deal,” and all this time the property has remained in Active Status in the MLS and appears available the entire time. In that time, the buyer could change their mind, or another offer could come in that the seller likes better, and the could switch horses also. Anyone watching the property online would reasonably presume that the home is available.
In some cases, the seller can end showings and by rule their agent should change the status of the listing to TOM or “Temporarily off Market,” but my colleagues aren’t always that proactive. Moreover, contracts could be out and signing could be imminent, but until they are signed, the listing agent could still show the property to anyone who inquires to at least have a backup if the current offer doesn’t perform. It’s not very nice of them to say one thing to a buyer agent and another to a direct consumer inquiry, but it does happen.
But as you can see, the timeframe of local practices in Westchester and the surrounding area are far longer than the rest of the country , and the 2 weeks I outlined is more or less average. I’ve seen instances where it is drawn out for a month or more before contracts are fully executed and the listing status is finally changed.
Do I prefer how we do it locally? I do not. But I don’t have the magic wand to change it either, so all I can do is advise clients about how to expedite matters for their best interests and to prepare them for the timeframe and its foibles.
It does take longer around here, and my job for clients is to move things forward as expeditiously as possible to ensure that their meeting of the minds becomes memorialized contractually.