Appeal Property Assessment Value in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana

[Shawn W.]

Hi BP community, 

New investor here recently purchased my first investment property (duplex) in Fort Wayne! Has anyone had experience for assessed property value appeal and/or has general advice on lowering property tax you could share? 

The property's assessed valued jumped a lot in 2024, and I'm currently filing an appeal form. 

-How's the process like? As a remote investor, do I need to physically be there to meet the county assessors? 

-What kind of evidence / document is need for the back up? How do you approach the appeal? - for now I'm stating that the property condition has not be improved since the year before, and pointed out there are many the delayed maintenance. Anything else you would include? comps? 

Any kind of advice is welcomed, thank you!

Shawn

[Bryan F.]

You'll need to get those in ASAP as I believe the deadline for getting your appeals in for Allen county is tomorrow. If your bank ordered appraisal (if you had one from your purchase) is less than the assessed value, that's a good starting point to submit as supporting evidence. The GIS site can also help you pull comparable sales if you want to submit comps yourself. Additionally, Allen county allows you to use the lesser of assessed values based on either the comparable sales, or the income approach. You'll need to provide leases for the property that are no more than 18 months old. We had a lot of luck getting some our multi-family's down substantially this year switching some to them income method. Good luck! I'd recommend making a habit of doing this annually, and getting started the moment you get your packet in the mail.

[Shawn W.]

Quote from @Bryan F.:

You'll need to get those in ASAP as I believe the deadline for getting your appeals in for Allen county is tomorrow. If your bank ordered appraisal (if you had one from your purchase) is less than the assessed value, that's a good starting point to submit as supporting evidence. The GIS site can also help you pull comparable sales if you want to submit comps yourself. Additionally, Allen county allows you to use the lesser of assessed values based on either the comparable sales, or the income approach. You'll need to provide leases for the property that are no more than 18 months old. We had a lot of luck getting some our multi-family's down substantially this year switching some to them income method. Good luck! I'd recommend making a habit of doing this annually, and getting started the moment you get your packet in the mail.

 Hi @Bryan F. , Thank you! I sent in the appeal form on Friday but did not attached supporting docs. I think I've probably passed the deadline by now but I thought I saw somewhere on the website mentioned that I can submit the document after the initial appeal has been submitted? Do you know if there's still chance for me to follow up or submit evidence upon request? Would you mind talk me through the process a bit after the appeal is initiated? Do they need me to go into any virtual/in-person meetings? (i'm a remote investor) 

Unfortunately the appraisal came in very high so I'll need to pull comparable sales! This property is already recorded as 'income approach' for 2024, I believe the previous landlord had set it up that way. The house is currently vacant as I'm doing some repairs and posting ads to get tenant in. I assume I don't need to ask the previous LL for a lease (if that helps at all) in order to do this appeal? 

Sorry for all the questions! My closing date was so close to this appeal deadline and I'm scrambling to get through this process.