Property taxes after you purchase

[Roger R.]

Do property taxes automatically get re-assessed after you buy a property based on the purchase price you pay? If it does, how do you really evaluate a property properly?

[Peter M.]

As everyone has already said it depends but you should always be prepared to protest. There are plenty of companies who will do it for you but you can always do it yourself. If they go up the year after you buy for more than you paid you can easily protest yourself, show them the closing docs as well as any pictures of the property (the worse the better) and they will usually lower it to the price you paid since that is the true market value. Not that it always works but most of the time it should. It is free since you do it yourself. 

 When I am doing my estimating I always use the purchase price for year 2 as a way of conservatively estimating. If they don't go up, great, more cash flow. If you turn it over to a company they will automatically protest each year and you pay a percentage of the amount they save you. Just like a lawyer on contingency. Since they represent many clients, the county review boards work with them and are more likely to agree with their valuations.