Making the Most of Property Assessors Offices - Indiana

Determining the accuracy of your Indiana property assessment to save on taxes

An Indiana assessors office, among many other tasks, is responsible for assessing the fair market value of a property and thus determining how much you pay in property taxes each year. The school district, city and county associated with the location of a property determine the tax rates, which are established percentages of a property’s assessed value.

As a real estate investor, the accuracy of your property assessments is essential to saving money on the taxes you pay. While often rare, there are occasions when the assessed value of a property is considerably inaccurate, resulting in under payment or over payment of property taxes. If you feel that there may be a discrepancy in the numbers, then you are making the most of property assessors offices - Indiana by doing the following:

1. Check the value determined by your Indiana property assessor for other properties in your area.

2. Consult with a professional appraiser and compare his or her conclusion to that from the Indiana property assessors’ office.

3. File an appeal of your Indiana property values if you still find an error.

Compare your Indiana property tax records to others in the area

If you feel that the value of your property determined by your assessors office in Indiana is way off, compare it to the values of other properties in the area. Talk to neighbors with similar properties, obtain a breakdown of neighborhood assessments, or ask a real estate agent about the sales prices of resembling properties.

Hire an Indiana property appraiser to obtain a comparative value

Indiana assessors do mass appraisals for the entire county, resulting in high, low and average assessments. If you paid $100,000 for a property and the assessed value is $98,000 - a difference of a few thousand - then the inaccuracy is not enough to worry about. However, if there is a significant difference, hire a professional appraiser to provide you with an assessed value of the home, broken down and explained in writing, to document the significant inaccuracy.

Dispute Indiana property assessments by filing an appeal

If, after confirming the assessed value of your property, you find that your Indiana assessor office was, in fact, incorrect in its assessment, then you can file an appeal. You must first appeal to your local office, because the state won't review the matter until that occurs. Start by writing a letter to your local township office requesting an informal conference about the appraisal. Denied changes will go to the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals.

• The information available through property assessors in Indiana can also help you to make smarter real estate investment decisions, by comparing values and sales prices of similar properties.

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