88% Tax Assessment Reduction

88% Tax Assessment Reduction
>
> A developer got preliminary plat approval for a couple hundred acres on the
> far edge of the northwest suburbs. The bank's appraisal appeared to be
> professionally done by an appraiser with nearly 50 years experience. Unless
> you really read the appraisal, and understood both land development and the
> particular market. Then you could see the appraisal was a work of fiction -
> and it didn't even have entertainment value.
>
> The land was annexed into the city. The developer never filed the plat and
> the bank foreclosed on the land. The bank engaged me to assist with their
> property tax appeal.
>
> The assessor treated the 200 acres as if the preliminary plat was still
> viable and valued it as a subdivision. I treated it like it is: 7
> independent parcels. Only one 4 acre parcel had water and sewer service to
> the property. And that one I concurred with the assessed value and dropped
> it from the petition. The other six parcels cannot be developed because
> there are no utilities so they needed to be analyzed on the characteristics
> of the individual parcels.
>
> The 88% reduction is a landlocked parcel that is mostly flood plain.
>
> The 80 acre parcel that had the most usable land a got a 54% reduction in
> assessed value. However, I also successfully challenged the residential
> classification and had that changed to agriculture. When factoring in the
> classification change the property tax refund will be 62%.
>