Massive Ohio Property Tax Hike

[Michael Shvarts]

We bought our first property near Cincinnati, OH a little over a year ago, a duplex for 140k. I did what I felt was thorough due diligence on it, and observed that despite selling for 100k in 2000, 115k in 2005 and 125k in 2017 the county auditor has regularly been valuing the property between 70-80k for over 20 years. We received a notice yesterday that taxes were being hiked literally 78% as the county has decided to increase the assessment from 78k to about 140k. We just dropped 15k in improvements and had major issues with cash flow due to covid causing one of our contractors to have trouble finishing the renovations on one unit for 6 months and thus causing it to be not ready to lease. An 80% tax hike at this time coupled with our covid losses is going to be really rough, was hoping someone might have some guidance on how to reduce the burden here.

[Reece Iovine]

Challenge the assessment like @Conn G. said. This is why when you run your numbers it's sooooo important to run them at worst case scenario highest tax assessment. That way you are not caught off guard. While it might be the case that they are kept low like you said for 20 years, you should not purchase with the assumption that they will stay low. Goodluck on the appeal and now you know for the next purchase :) It's all about learning and getting better 1 property at a time!