Once the Financial Independence target has been established, the detailed plan of execution is loaded with actionable items for making more money or reducing expenses.
The to-do list will eventually loaded with saving strategies – because it is much easier to save than make money for 90 percents of the population.
Recently I hired a Property Tax Consultant to keep an eye on my home property tax. For years now, I have always keep vigilance on the appraisal number of my home just to make sure the increase is reasonably in line with other homes in the neighborhood.
Prior to the execution of the decision, I received the 2019 notice of increase from the county tax appraiser from $325k to $350k.
From my own analysis of the homes in the neighborhood, the appraisal was about $10K less than the comparable homes. The investigative work took some of my time – a precious commodity become more precious as I am getting older.
I figured if Property Tax Consultant can do this work and it works out to my satisfaction, it is a win-win for both of us.
Last week I received a bill from the Property Tax Consultant for $585 – the 50% fee for my saving of $1170 in 2019 property taxes for the reduction of $30k of the appraisal.
Hooray!!!
I have successfully found another optimization of the financial responsibility with my family and gained a little more of the precious commodity into my bucket – time.
Hmmm…this is just too easy!
Have you ever had some good thing happened to you and it was so good it did not make sense?
This is the exactly the feeling I have with the service from the Property Tax Consultant!
In looking at the detail, I realized that the Property Tax Consultant did reduce our property tax.
However, the protest triggered the next level of auditing from the county tax appraiser – the notice of tax increase at the beginning of the year of $350k is now $390k.
The Property Tax Consultant magically got it down to $360k, but it is $10k higher than the original audit.
WTF, yes WTF is exactly my initial reaction!
Quickly, I assessed the mistake, the damage and the appropriate response.
The mistake – I should not have registered my home with the Property Tax Consultant (note that I used the word “registered” and not “hired”, I will clarify the word usage later).
The mistake – as an average homeowner, I should not have hired the Property Tax Consultant. These services and the likes are in most cases highlight your property and made it more visible to the county tax appraisers.
None of us like to pay taxes, however in the day to day living; we are relying on the county services more than we are consciously aware – and these services cost money.
As an average homeowner, when you have an increase in tax, you are not alone footing the bill for these services. The citizens in the entire county and more precisely the local neighborhood in proximity of your home are experiencing the tax increase – fair or not this is how tax is implemented.
Unless you have a special case of property ownership, the services from any the Property Tax Consultants is useless for an average homeowner.
The damage – I have to pay the Property Tax Consultant the fee of $585 for service that increased my 2019 tax appraisal value from $350k to $360k.
Worst of all, starting with 2019 and going forward my yearly property tax will be permanently increased $585 resulted from the $10K in the adjusted appraisal for as long as I own the home.
The response – I filed an application at the county requested for the removal of the Property Tax Consultant as the tax representative of my home on my behalf.
Never use any property tax consulting service unless I have a one off property that is different than others and that the county tax appraiser has to appraised it other than the genetic appraisal process.
In general, be very cautious when using service that is outside of your knowledge and or beyond your pay-scale – on the average, services that are beyond your pay-scale laid outside of your expertise.
Earlier, I used the word “registered” as suppose to the word “hired” because the property tax consulting business is a tad bit above my pay scale.
There are complications with regard to benefits when it the rendered services belong to the financial tier that is higher than the individuals who receive the services.
For example, when a lawn care person comes to offer the service to me as a home owner, the benefit to me as the service receiver is first and the financial gain to the service renderer is second – the order of benefits clearly demonstrated the person who is in charge of the “hired” service.
This example can be extended to all services in any society where the pay scales of renderers of the services are below that of the receivers of the services.
When the services from the source whose pay scales are above the receivers of the services, the benefits are in reverse – the renderers of the services are the first to benefit from the relationship.
At best, it is a symbiotic relationship. This is why in most progressive societies; there are laws to govern the Fiduciary Duty – especially in the finance sector.
Healthcare, education, law, technology, transportation, energy and finance are the specialized niches in any societies – typically heavily invested by the wealthier segment of the population.
The services render from these sectors are designed with the guarantee of benefit to the investors and not the purchaser of the service – especially in instances where the services is bought without due diligence.
In many instances, the services become the lifelong requirements because of many of us lead the lifestyles that fell into the services’ boundaries.
Divorces are financially devastated for most of us, in addition to the psychological pain. Yet, we invested very little of our time into our mates – in relative to our professional career and time wasting activities.
Illnesses, physical and mental, are real challenges the everyday living. Yet, most of us do not have a well designed lifestyle that meet the demand of our mental and physical needs – eventually, many will fall into the healthcare lifelong requirement.
Divorces and illnesses are the typical results from un-checked consumerism lifestyle in majority of cases among the general population anytime, anywhere around the world.
Be mindful of the services above your pay scale! Otherwise, you may mistakenly living someone else life – but yours!
Let’s play the game of life!
