Saturday, December 20, 2008

Home Base Business Opportunity - Property Tax Consulting

By Brian Furstenhimmer

Property taxes are going through the roof. On the other hand, comparing quality of assessments results in loopholes that allow for huge property tax reductions. This results in thousands of dollars of potential savings to homeowners. And, it's a easy proposition to sell making this one of the best home based business opportunities hardly anyone knows of.

A home base business that hones in homeowner property tax reduction is one of the few businesses that will proper in good times and even better in bad times. And when assessments are out of whack, you appeal that property tax!

When you win a property tax appeal you get paid a contingency fee from the client. If you save your client $1,800 you get paid those savings in contingency fees. Generally you spread your fee over 2 or 3 years so the homeowner sees some of the money you saved for them. For everyone, it's a win, win situation.

Nationwide, local and state government statistics show increased hiring's and spending. Government spending is on a tear with little in the way of brakes while private firms are focused on reducing overhead expenses and operating more efficiently to survive. How is government excess paid for? Property tax increases.

State and local governments are in a budget crisis. You would know it when you looked at the payrolls. 338,000 new jobs have been created in the past 12 months. That's far more than the 195,000 jobs in the 12 prior months. Result: many disgruntled taxpaying homeowners.

With real estate prices falling, it is easy to find homes that sold for less than your potential clients assessed value. The real estate "sold" listings show an abundance of low-priced comparable homes.

The National Taxpayers Union writes that as many as 60% of all homeowners are over-assessed and not in line with their home value. ("How To Fight Property Taxes" 2004 p.1

What you need to do in this business is finding the value of residential real estate by comparing your client's property with similar sold properties. You'll look for comparable sales or properties in similar neighborhoods that sold for less than your clients assessment breakdown.

No matter what the tax assessor says, it's a good idea to cooperate with the tax assessor. It makes no difference what the tax assessor discovers. What tests out is the market value you uncover by comparing recently sold homes.

With recent decreases and abundance in lower-priced comparable home, the business of real estate property tax consulting is a very lucrative home base business proposition indeed! The entry costs are low, the profit opportunity great. - 16069

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