Property Tax Adjustment by December 1 for Californians

It suddenly occurred to me that we were paying more for our property taxes than our home is worth - DOH! After some careful inquiry, this is what I found out:

Under Prop 8, California property taxes must not be imposed on more than the fair market value of a residence as of January 1st, each year. You may use the closing sales price of homes similar to your own to prove this (i.e. Comparable Sales). Ideally, these homes will be in close proximity and have similar characteristics to your home (e.g. square feet, lot size, view, bedrooms etc.).

If you can demonstrate that Comparable Sales of homes like yours, sold for less than your home’s Assessed value, then your property tax assessed value should be reduced along with the related property tax costs. You may only use Comparables Sales dating March 31st, and prior to support your appeal. If there are material differences between your home and the Comparable Sales, you can make reasonable adjustments to the sales price of each Comparable Sale. For example, if a similar home to yours was sold with a pool, a downward adjustment to the Comparable Sale would be an appropriate adjustment if your home does not have a pool.
Deadline

Homeowners in California only have until either September 15th or November 30th, 2008 to request a formal property tax appeal and dates vary by County when informal property tax appeals are due. The confusion about appeal dates stems from the differences between the formal and informal process for a property tax reduction. The informal appeal is handled through each County’s Assessor’s office. This is the most expeditious means of appealing your property’s assessed value. Generally, Counties have an informal property tax appeal form used to prepare a temporary reduction in value request. Generally, you supplement this form with Comparable Sales from your neighborhood that will be evaluated by the Assessor. If a reduction is granted, then you’ll get a refund or a smaller property tax bill.

Since the process is informal, the published dates are not locked in stone and vary considerably by County. While informal appeals should be your first step, you should also file a formal property tax appeal if the Assessor’s response will not be known before the formal appeal deadline. Unless you file a formal appeal, then you’ll have to accept the Assessor’s opinion. With a formal appeal Request for Changed Assessment”, you’ll have the advantage of an independent review by either a Hearing Officer or the Assessment Appeals Board. Generally, it makes sense to request a Hearing Officer and not go through the formalities of the Assessment Appeals Board for a residential property appeal.

The disadvantage of a formal appeal is that it will take longer, estimated to be at least 6 to 9 months. However, you don’t have to go on to the formal appeal if you can reach agreement with the Assessor before the hearing. If you reach agreement with the Assessor or if you go to the Hearing and a lower value is granted, you will get a refund with interest. Since all formal appeals must be filed by September 15th or November 30th, 2008, you should consider filing both appeals at the same time.

Property Tax Valuation Workbook
Although a Property Tax Valuation Workbook is not necessary to file a Property Tax Appeal, using the industry standard method for supporting an appeal will put you in a much stronger position with the Property Tax Assessor in an Informal property tax appeal or with a Hearing Officer in a Formal property tax appeal.

The goal of a Property Tax Valuation Workbook is to automate the collection, computation and presentation of your property tax appeal in an industry standard format. Although the Property Tax Assessor enjoys an advantage in valuation expertise, no one knows your home and your neighborhood better than you do. Automating the workbook presentation format and computations, helps neutralize the Assessor’s valuation advantage, while allowing you to focus on your strength, hands on local knowledge! Using Comparable Sales, photos of your property and providing narrative explanations puts you in position to make a compelling case for a property tax reduction.

Market Value Methodology
The basic steps in developing your property tax appeal include:

1. Comparable Sales from the correct time frame—Gather Comparable Sales to your property from for the correct time frame.
2. Select your (3) three best comps--Review your Comparable Sales and rank them in the most appropriate and beneficial order 1, 2, 3.
3. Organize Comparables into Three Columns--Organize the Comparable Sales in the format traditionally used to support a Comparable Sales Market Value calculation. The three 3. Comparable Sales should be presented in three columns with specific information summarized about each property (e.g. square feet).
4. Calculate the Average Comparable Sales Price--Averaging the closing sales price of these three Comparable Sales provides a good indication of what your home’s Market Value is for property tax purposes.
5. Lowering the Average Comparable Sales Price--You can lower the average value of the three comparable sales by identifying features each of these homes have that your home does not have. For example, if a Comparable Sale home has a special view and your home does not, you should enter a downward adjustment to the Comparable Sale price of that property to appropriately adjust the value of the Comparable Sale.
6. Since Prop 8 requires the Tax Assessor to reduce your property taxes to Market Value, you can reduce your property taxes by obtaining and adjusting Comparable Sales in your neighborhood for the right time frame. Present this material in the industry standard format supplemented with information about your property and the Comparable Sales along with photo’s and you’ll have a compelling case for property tax reduction.

Leader of the Pack

No, this is not some radiant reference to the Renegade, but rather a peek into my home life. WARNING: Make sure you can stand the peek - it might enlarge all on its own and then - well, suffice it to say, you've been warned.

We have three dogs. Elder statesman Zeke, our furborn, then Pepper and now THE PUPPY, aka The Speckled Menace, Maddie. Holy crap, people, she shoulda come with a whole sload of warnings.

She didn't.

What she hasn't chewed up, peed on or otherwise destroyed - well, let's just say there ain't much left. This is a Great Dane puppy, people, and they stay in puppyhood until two - AT LEAST. I hope we make it. I hope SHE makes it. Just four more months...

We got Zeke first and thought he needed a playmate so we got Pepper, a Lab/Pit mix. Well the deal is with Pepps is that she don't play. She is the most obedient dog I have ever laid eyes on, and would never hurt anyone...two legged. She kept Zeke in line for years, and well, then there's Maddie, The Speckled Menace (she's blue merle - and gorgeous, but holy cow!). Recently, it has come to our attention that Maddie is, um, alpha. Ok, so it's come to our attention that Maddie is ALPHA.

And it's so interesting - she and Pepper did have some issues to work out at first, but they clearly heart one another now. The shift in power has been subtle, but it has occurred. The most interesting aspect of this is that, now that the stupid humans have figured out the dog hierarchy, the CHANGE or shall we say the "new order" of things and have started behaving accordingly, many of Maddie's behavior problems are resolving - almost immediately.

'course, I ain't leaving any shoes out to celebrate.

The Eternal Question - well, one of them, anyway

Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

All I want to know is who has to wash the damned glass.

"Depressed Girls are Easy Girls"

The above comment was made by Denny Crane (William Shatner) of the show Boston Legal. This is their last season, and I have to say after the above, I'm not sorry. The above comment was made when Denny was explaining why he was voting Republican - that the Republicans think women should stay in the kitchen and therefore, if the Repubs win, more women will be depressed and...depressed girls are easy girls. What a fucking outrage. (Disclaimer: I am an Independent - I don't like either of the two "canonized" parties.) I'm not trying to be political here, I am just OUTRAGED that a comment like this would be made, particularly on a show that attempts to show how cool it is by having an attorney with Asperger's syndrome as part of the cast. Why is it that this kind of humor is okay while other applications to protected classes are not? Why are fat jokes funny? WHY? Why are crazy jokes funny? (Ok, the really out there ones ARE kinda funny, but you know what I mean.) This show, Boston Legal, which used to be one of my favorites has become downright preachy about various topics. I don't need Hollywood to tell me how to live my life; I don't need Hollywood to tell me how to vote. I guess I am just pissed at all these idiotic actors who think because they have a mic in front of them that they have some special kind of insight into the world that the rest of us ticketholders don't. Grrrrrrrrrrrr................... And yes, it even makes me mad IF I agree with them.

It took me awhile to understand what was at the heart of my being pissed: "Depressed Girls are Easy Girls" translates into "Depressed people (girls, specifically) are easy to exploit and victimize." I can' t see how that is okay with anybody. It pisses me off because, in the larger picture, it underscores that the stronger are given permission, encouraged even, to exploit the less strong. That's bullshit any way you slice it and I don't give a shit who said it. IT'S WRONG.

(And now that I have said all that, this week's episode of Boston Legal dealt with abortion and bullying - and I think they did a superb job, so Denny, don't come after me with your guns - even if they are only loaded with paintballs now.)

Bail Out: Bail Me Out

As one of the many Americans faced with losing their homes, I'd like to invite the Feds, the State of California, or the banks/lending guys, to bail ME out. After all, I'm the one who has paid you all these years, never missed a payment, never late (TBTG), but now that my husband and I are unemployed at the same time, we may not be able to keep up our payments.

This bites for several reasons, the most obvious is the failure of a longtime investment. My husband was self-employed (until his greedy landlords raised his rent more than 55% in ONE MONTH and he went under - perhaps more on that later), so we looked at the house as our safety net, since he didn't have a 401k, and mine are anemic beyond words. We aren't lazy people. We don't live extravagantly. What do we do? Who are we? We're simple people who rescue dogs. THEY are our great extravagance, and may, also, be homeless in a few months.

We are people who worked every day, rarely took sick days, showed up to work and did a good job in our respective employments. My husband took a crappy CSR job after losing his business, and I was laid off from the CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL from which I graduated as part of a political coup.

But I digress.

Why not give the people the money (uh, wasn't it theirs to start with?) to bail themselves out? I mean, for Pete's sake, to my knowledge, I didn't sign on to bail out corporations who set out to screw me. I thought I was paying taxes to the government to take care of me.

And then it hit me. I was a sucker. I'd been sold a bill of goods and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I never saw it coming: I had been seduced, deluded, brainwashed into thinking that I was paying the government for services where I was concerned. What a DOPE! I knew clearly that for someone of my age that the Social Security taxes I have been paying for the last 30+ years were gonzo, but I had trusted that the government was minding the store, so I didn't have to. WHAT A MAROON!!! We need to 1) make sure we take care of ourselves and 2) wake up and begin demanding that the government live up to THEIR part of the bargain: they need to show up and be accountable.

How do we make that happen? WE, too, have been asleep at the wheel and need to begin to take this country back.

Wake up, my people, wake up!!!!

Karma. Coming. After. You.

I guess we don't really get it, the whole karma thing.

When some dipwad gets what's coming to him, we say, ah, that's karma (or my undying favorite, Karma's a MoFo). But we don't really get it.

It's not about an event that bitchslaps someone to attention, it's the CULMINATION of action or inaction in a fairly predictable outcome. The ultimate bitchslap, as it were.

The financial collapse in this country is due to nothing else but greed. Yeah, the corporations, but yours and mine as well. It's choosing to shop at Wal-Mart because that give us more money to spend elsewhere rather than spending money at local mom-and-pop shops that cost more but don't (always) short their help. It's about keeping money IN this country instead of sending it overseas to make someone else's standard of living better at the cost of our own.

We have lost the notion of sacrifice in this country - at the very least the delaying of gratification. In short, we have become whiny pigs. I was feeling sorry for myself because I had to give up pedicures - I thought that was SUCH a huge sacrifice, but going without health benefits (which I do now) is a much worse one. We have got to figure out something that will keep us from hemorrhaging money from our country.

The rants are back; long live the rant.



Coming Attractions: The Bailout - who's bailing US out???

So Much BS, So Little Time

There is an abundance of baloney that is happening right now, and if I have time to write, I don't have the energy and vice versa.

The baloney is both personal and communal - and perhaps it is what we have been witnessing with disbelief at a macro level that is beginning to truly hit home in a micro way.

More later - don't give up on this blog. We're just getting started...

Cluster WHAT?

It appears that 100 or so countries are going to stop using cluster bombs because of the detrimental effect of them on civilians, i.e. people. I'm not entirely sure what that means, even though the article at CNN went into detail.

What perplexes me is this: why is it okay to shoot someone (I haven't heard about not using bullets, etc.) and kill them but to simply maim is inhumane. There is a huge flaw in this logic. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see cluster bombs used, either. My main concern is that, in being humanitarian and, oh, so politically correct, we ban the cluster bomb while the merchants of death devise some other way of killing and maiming those whose property they admire or whose way of life offends them.

Years ago, when I heard of the neutron bomb that ostensibly would destroy sentient life without destroying buildings, etc., I felt that humankind had truly lost its humanity. I am not being convinced otherwise, despite protestations to the contrary.

Killing is killing, maiming is maiming - does it really matter how it's done?

Life Rules

I have rules. I call them my life rules, though I do not impose them on anyone else. They are few and simple, and help me keep my direction in life. I propose to introduce you to one today.

Life Rule: I do not work harder at fixing someone else's life than they do.

I have had the experience when, in earlier days of messiahdom, I have worked very hard to help fix someone's situation, only to realize they are sitting on their butts throwing down a cold one while I make myself crazy trying to help them. It was very helpful for me to realize that this is more often the case than the exception, for out of it came my rule about helping others. I will go the extra mile (hell, an extra TWO miles) for someone who is really making an attempt to help themselves better their situation, but if it's too much bother for them, it's too much bother for me. There are better uses for my resources.

So, with this Life Rule in mind, I turn to the foreign policy of the US. Now I am not going to cite all kinds of statistics and all that because my mind generally doesn't work that way, but I am going to say that if the US were to adopt my rule with regard to foreign policy, we might have avoided some of the messes in which we currently find ourselves, such as Iraq.

We simply HAD to save those people from tyranny, right? Did we? Really? Um, did they ask us?

Please don't misunderstand. I was very upset to find out what living under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship meant to so many; however, I am not sure we really ARE the watchdogs of the world - at least not anymore. We need to fix our own ship before we go forth to mess up someone else's.

This leads me to my point (yes, darlings, there IS one!): Are the Iraqis working as hard to fix their own lives as we (the US in the form of the military) are? Really?

Puppies

If you become a frequent reader of this blog, you will hear of the puppies, so I'd might as well get it out of the way. We have three giant dogs, all of whom are rescues.

Zeke (Ezekiel) is a Great Dane/Mastiff (and rumored Rottie) mix. He is brindle and weighs in at a handsome 160 lbs. His feet are bigger than mine are. He has a great disposition and is a totally devoted mama's boy. He's almost 8, which is getting up there for the giant breeds. He is my heart and when he leaves me for his next assignment. He does this really cute thing with me where he krinkles up his nose and sneezes when he's particularly delighted at my antics or trying to look cute. I say he's laughing.

Pepper is a Lab/Pit Bull mix. She's chocolate brown with a blaze of white on her chest - she looks like an eclair. We also call her "the chocolate pig" because she has, uh, weight issues. She's about 120 lbs. Way too heavy for her. We're working on it.

Madeline (Maddie-moo) is our youngest. We adopted her in December 2007. She's a purebred Great Dane, also a rescue. For some reason, when her first family adopted her as a puppy, they did not have her vaccinated for Parvo, which she contracted. They then surrendered her to the local shelter and she was scooped up by a wonderful rescue group in Woodland, CA. Please visit their site and give them all the support you possibly can. This is a grass roots group, and is staffed by a handful of caring and committed volunteers. Maddie is 15 months old, gangly and a terror - we adore her. She prances when she walks, but can do the most absurdly clumsy things, so we say she's 1/2 ballerina and 1/2 Gomer Pyle. My husband calls her Madeline Monroe because she's so pretty. But, Lord, what a dork.

Emotion: OUTRAGE!!!

Borrowed from the folks at MySpace, I've chosen to list my inaugural blog post emotion as outrage. Yes, outrage. Why? Because of the state of our world, the state of our nation, the state of our state. Because of these, I am announcing for all: No more Sister Nice Guy.

The sources of the outrage are myriad; today's particular burr under my saddle is what the foreclosure debacle is doing to families. No, not the foreclosures coming directly to property owners (as if that wasn't enough), but those coming to families who are renting properties that are being foreclosed upon. (I reference CNN's "Man pays $30k in rent, faces eviction" story found here.)

When will this country get their bellies full of this crap brought on by the corporate pigfest going on? When will there be a movement of the people who say ENOUGH, already? Why have we abdicated our rights AND responsibilities? And when are we going to wake up from this desensitized moral vacation we've been on?

I really want to know.