About 6 weeks ago I posted on the detailed process for appealing your Cook County property taxes. In that post I mentioned that I appealed my own property taxes (technically the assessed value) instead of engaging an attorney because I thought I would put more effort into my own situation than an attorney would and I was cheap. I patted myself on the back when I succeeded in getting the estimated market value knocked down by $49,400, which saved me about $890 per year.
Then I was solicited by a property tax attorney in August and just for the heck of it I authorized them to appeal my property taxes yet again. Frankly, I didn’t think they would be able to squeeze out any more savings. As of the time of my last post on this subject I had not heard back from them so I assumed they had decided there was no opportunity or they had failed in their attempts to appeal my taxes. Well, much to my surprise I just found out yesterday that that was a really bad assumption. They notified me that they had succeeded in getting my estimated market value knocked down by another $41,730, which is worth about another $749 in annual savings. However, I do have to pay the property tax appeal firm half of the first year savings or $374.50. But I still pocket $374.50 in the first year and $749 next year for barely lifting a finger. All I had to do was authorize this firm to champion my cause. Pretty good deal, right?
And, as if that’s not enough, in a follow up email they informed me that they are also appealing to the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board, which could result in further savings. The only thing is that that process, as I have mentioned before, could take quite a while – 12 – 18 months.
So who are these guys that got my property taxes lowered? Their name is ProTaxAppeal and they are out of Hawthorn Woods, which really doesn’t matter because you do everything by phone and email anyway. I’m sure that individual results may vary but I was blown away by their results.
If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market, get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry, or you just think I’m the next Kurt Vonnegut you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.