Understanding Property Taxes in Columbus

[Gurjot Grewal]

Hello BP,

I am trying to understand how property taxes work in Columbus to better analyze property. From the government website, " Ohio law requires counties to revalue all real property every six years with an update at the three-year midpoint as ordered by the Tax Commissioner of the State of Ohio." Some general numbers I found online are 2.18% on 1-3 units and 2.78% on 4+ units (although I assume this varies on the neighborhood). Also that the tax will be on the appraised value. 

A few concerns I have: 

- This user describes having to pay the taxes of the past 2 years on his new purchase even though he didn't own the property those years. Is this common? https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

-  Pull permits in Columbus and do a major renovation you can lock in the current taxes for 15 years

- read posts where users' tax rates skyrocket after a reassessment 

Questions: 

What can I do to analyze property information more accurately taking into account the possible tax hike? 

Is there any way for me to figure out how much the tax might be raised? 

Will doing a major reno allow me to lock in tax rates for 15 years? 

Would I have to pay property taxes on the years prior to me owning the property? 

Thanks Everyone 

[Kristina Anderson]

We invest in Columbus. There are two ways we estimate taxes. First is to simply look up current taxes owed (go to Franklin County auditor website), divide by the last sale price, which gives you a %. Now apply that percent to your purchase price. It's not 100% accurate but gives you a good indication. The other way is to use the tax estimator on the auditors site: https://apps.franklincountyaud... We also sometimes just look at how much the purchase price differs from last sale price. If the seller bought the property for 100k, and you are going into contract at 200k, you can assume taxes will double. 

I hope this helps! Taxes in Columbus are pretty high in most areas and really cut into cash flow.

Tina