Any Hope for South Suburban Cook County Tax Appeal

[Demetrius Davis]

I have wavered a lot over the past year as I've considered investment property for both flip and buy and hold in Chicago suburbs such as Park Forest, Dolton, and Calumet City. Mainly, I've been gun shy because of the high property taxes. In some cases the annual taxes are 25% of the sale price on REO's.

In these areas almost all the comps are REO's. Therefore, I believe one could be successful appealing the tax assessment, but I'm shy about taking the risk.

Has anyone been successful appealing taxes in any of these south suburban cook county towns?  Especially Park Forest.

[Ed Matteson]

Dolton and Calumet City are have strong rental demand. Calumet city has particularly high taxes and you'll find it most evident on properties that have never been appealed. I personally have investments in this area. I find the problems in Park Forest numerous: shallower rental pool, tons of and I mean tons of zombie stock that's either going to devalue or become competition and finally there's a lot of competition for renters.