Good evening all. My real estate journey started two years ago when my parents passed and left me what was to be their unrealized retirement property. It's ten acres on a hillside surrounded by vineyards with a pocket view of Keuka Lake. At the time of my inheritance I was renting a place in Maryland which was my home state. I fought like hell to keep the property as my brother and the lawyers wanted to sell it and put the money in the pot. I convinced them to let me buy my brothers half instead. However, as a millennial with only 80k in income actually moving into the property and claiming NY residence would have been financial suicide. At the time the property was appraised at 260k. it needed 80k in repairs and the yearly taxes were only 3500 in my fathers name. When it transferred to me the taxes jumped to 6500. I spent 40k in the first year bringing it to habitable and then I jumped though all the ******* crazy hoops the town made me jump through to get one of the only 6 STR permits they issued that year. My taxes jumped to 7500 because of the repairs. After one summer of STRs I came back in the winter took a first lean mortgage on the property to replace the roof (and build my RV which I plan on living in while renting in the summer). The new appraisal from the bank came in at 380k last October which matched the towns tax assessment. I have lived here all winter and replaced the roof. I'm getting ready to leave at the end of the month and my mail forwarding service gets a letter from the town which I have a feeling is important so I overnight ship it to myself. Thank god I did because I received it on the last day I could go to the assessor and talk to her in person before I the may 28th appeals date

the letter reads that my new assessment is 590k and that my new taxable rate was 91% of that 590k. the house still needs foundation repairs as well as new windows, new ac and a handful of other items. There is no way it’s worth that. I’m fighting it.

This house is not my primary residence and I am under 65 so I do not qualify for any of the tax breaks. Taxes at 380k are $600/m. There’s a kicker. Because I played ball and did everything by the book and got all the permits etc., they have re-zoned my property as residential/commercial use which evidently was their solution for people not getting the permits but puts me into an entirely different tax structure.

This house is the only thing I have left of my parents. I have no intentions in selling it. Ever. I want to give this house to my grand kids. However I can’t afford the impending $1000/month in tax. I don’t have that cash flow.

I need help identifying my real options as at this point I only see two:

1) fight it and settle for 5-10 percent increase which is my goal. I have two consecutive years of appraisals from state licensed professionals that show 100k increase in property values after the 40k in contractor receipts during that year which cross out only half the list given from the state licensed inspector

2) accept the 590k evaluation. Give up on my dream for keeping this as my retirement property and use the new equity to go to war. I.E. do exactly what they are trying to prevent. Remove 80% of my equity and re-invest it into a the property. Adding a 500k house to the property would put it into the 2m price class (was my retirement plan) at that point I’d sell it with around a 1.5-1.8 gain on my actual cash invested and the only people who would be able to afford it would be the Wall Street bankers that wouldn’t put their kids in the school and wouldn’t stimulate the local economy. (I’m furious over this)

I don’t want to sell it. It would be stupid to sell it as is but if the town forces my hand I’ll get the most from it I possibly can.

What do I need to bring to the appeal? Is there a third option I’m not yet seeing if I don’t win the appeal?

thank you for your time and consideration

~Ace

Upstate New York, New York

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