too bad I have a boat barn instead of mountains for a view..
With a train track instead of a babbling brook.. But - you take what you can get, or what you can afford, and this is the view southeast from my property line.
Well, technically, my property line is about 3 feet past the top of the far side of the concrete-lined ditch in the foreground. So, this is my ditch, and I'm standing under my power lines - none of which seem to have any effect on my property values. At least, that's what the Appraisal District told me when I protested the increase in my property valuation last year.
The odd thing is, I am 1000% sure a real estate appraiser would have a very different opinion. Ooo.. Open ditch.. Drainage right of way.. RIGHT next to a very busy railroad track.. Power utility right of way.. Tsk, tsk, tsk....
But the County Tax Appraisal Board used comps that had none of these issues to put a valuation on mine. When I asked if they didn't think they had any bearing, they simply asked "Was it there when you bought the house?" (30 years ago..). I sadly wasn't quick enough to retort "It was - and that's PRECISELY why I was able to afford to buy *MY* house, and not the one a mile away that you're comparing it to now.
Needless to say, I got no relief and no satisfaction whatsoever from my protest. But now that I have a better idea what to expect in the way they manipulate people, perhaps I can be better prepared next time.
It seems to me that having the drainage easement 100% inside my property lines and making that land utterly useless to me should at least change the square footage that I'm taxed on - and that's a lot, since the ditch is on the long side of my pie-shaped property. That side is about 300 feet long, and the easement is something like 25 feet wide. That's 7,500 square feet that's not only an eyesore, but also unbuildable, unusable, and actually dangerous. I should make 'em put up a fence, right?
too bad I have a boat barn instead of mountains for a view..
With a train track instead of a babbling brook.. But - you take what you can get, or what you can afford, and this is the view southeast from my property line.
Well, technically, my property line is about 3 feet past the top of the far side of the concrete-lined ditch in the foreground. So, this is my ditch, and I'm standing under my power lines - none of which seem to have any effect on my property values. At least, that's what the Appraisal District told me when I protested the increase in my property valuation last year.
The odd thing is, I am 1000% sure a real estate appraiser would have a very different opinion. Ooo.. Open ditch.. Drainage right of way.. RIGHT next to a very busy railroad track.. Power utility right of way.. Tsk, tsk, tsk....
But the County Tax Appraisal Board used comps that had none of these issues to put a valuation on mine. When I asked if they didn't think they had any bearing, they simply asked "Was it there when you bought the house?" (30 years ago..). I sadly wasn't quick enough to retort "It was - and that's PRECISELY why I was able to afford to buy *MY* house, and not the one a mile away that you're comparing it to now.
Needless to say, I got no relief and no satisfaction whatsoever from my protest. But now that I have a better idea what to expect in the way they manipulate people, perhaps I can be better prepared next time.
It seems to me that having the drainage easement 100% inside my property lines and making that land utterly useless to me should at least change the square footage that I'm taxed on - and that's a lot, since the ditch is on the long side of my pie-shaped property. That side is about 300 feet long, and the easement is something like 25 feet wide. That's 7,500 square feet that's not only an eyesore, but also unbuildable, unusable, and actually dangerous. I should make 'em put up a fence, right?