Does it pay, (Appeal or Abatement of Home Taxes)

 Serious question for all of us baby boomers. In this market, (meaning the housing market), does it pay for any of us to try to appeal or abate any of the home taxes if we've had an upgrade or if we've done some minor work to our homes?

I asked this question because, I'm in that situation where I had to make a decision to buy a new house, (upgrade), or fix up my existing home, (which is also an upgrade). In my situation, it was just easier to fix up my existing home, especially since I could take advantage of still having a low interest rate on my existing mortgage. If I were to buy a new home, it would have required me to make that decision prior to the interest rates jumping up. The other situation that was going on was, if I sold my house, in this market, (even though I know I would have got a good price for it), I don't believe I would have been able to achieve buying the new house without running into a couple of months of disarray.

Basically what it boiled down to was, if you didn't have cash, you were essentially missing out on taking advantage of the market. That all being said, in my situation it was just easier and less expensive to do the home upgrade. In addition, for me, the advantages of staying where I'm at and fixing up the house was, I was able to keep my mortgage at the rate I got back in the pandemic era.

This process, (in my situation), due to the pandemic and needing a bulk variance in order to get the work done, took approximately 2 years. In this two-year period, not only has the house and market continue to boom but, (as we all know), obviously the interest rates have doubled since the pandemic. With that in mind, even if I did nothing as far as upgrading my house the price or the assessment that's on the property would have gone up because of the market.

Under normal circumstances, the taxes would have gone up just in general. Now that I have done an upgrade to my home, this gives the county a reason to reassess my house and actually reassess it at today's market value. I am in no way not denying that I should have a reassessment, due to the upgrade, but I am a little upset because if the market was not so hot, the reassessment would not be as high as it is.

In my opinion, this is almost as if we're giving a blank check to the county or the township, for them to raise our taxes based on market value, when prior to the pandemic, the assessment and or prices of the homes would never have been this high. To those that say, "well, just appeal the taxes", keep in mind the other assessments are based on comparable sales of current real estate properties not comparable assessments of existing properties.

To explain this better this is the current situation. If three houses in the area sell for $500,000 but your house is assessed at $300,000 your taxes most likely will stay the same, Even though your house may be worth $500,000. Now, do a simple upgrade, (like I did), and my house which was assessed at $300,000 prior to the pandemic, is now worth $350,000 because of the addition. It would make sense that I would be paying taxes on a $350,000 home instead of a $300,000 home. But no, (in the voice of John Belushi), the county and the township look at the houses that have sold for $500,000 and say oh, your house must be well over 350,000 so we're going to tax you more. ☹️☹️☹️

Because of this, it really has me thinking whether or not, by upgrading our homes, is really worth it for us baby boomers? The reassessment is just enough to make me say, should I try to appeal this or should I just let it go? By the way the assessment valuation starts at $150,000. My upgrade was way less than that, (seriously less than $80,000 including the cost over runs). That all being said, just about every home that has sold in my area went easily for $50,000 to $100,000 over the asking price. It just seems as if I did a appeal and asked for a reassessment, I really would get whacked with the taxes, which would then make me have to rethink about my living situation,☹️☹️☹️.

New Equipment (Bowling Bags) 2023

Updated 1981 Sunrisers

Shorten (by 30 seconds) 1981-Sunrisers

Annoying Gap In CRV Exhaust System

 

 

2023 "Annoying Gap In the Honda CRV Exhaust System (2012 CRV), causes the exhaust to be awfully loud & squeaky, (the car sounds like a hot rod). For a "Quick Repair" I was able to use metal paper clamps & aluminum tape until I can get this to the local mechanic.

1st Rant of the New Year "2023"

    Hi all, (not that I have a lot of followers, or readers). Yes, it's been awhile, (since May2022) but not as long as when the pandemic started, (man that was about a 2 year hiatus). Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to start being a little more consistent on my own page.  Most of my rants or questions have been,  or were "Autodesk related" so that's why I'm re-posting this in a few different spots, or locations & yes I've said this before. Let's see how the year goes, (WARNING THIS WILL BE A LONG POST).

    Well, for starters I would like to revisit one of my older post:                                                               "Is Technology Ruining, Relationships?"
I've asked this question before, (twice) on my blog post, from April2022, & July2015, in regards to moving from Windows 7 up to Windows 8, which we ALL have to agree was really bad☹️. Back then I was still in my LTR (God Bless her) and I wound up moving one of our computers back to Windows 7. Thank God, I had a back-up & was able to do a "Restore" otherwise I may have lost my relationship back then. It's 6 years now since my better half has passed, (again, God Bless her), and I have since then, moved most of my computers to the latest operating systems.

    So, now the question(s). In regards to upgrading computers/laptop or using  tablets, or phones, "What is the best" or to say "What is the best thing to do"? For the devices, what are the best? Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, & Acer come to mind but I'm sure there are others, and I'm sure the real "Techy's" out there still just build their own. Obviously the "Apple users" are comfortable with their product (mac devices) and I believe the advantage (which has always been the case) is that it is tougher to catch a virus.

    With what's loaded (software/operating systems) I guess it's down to what you are comfortable with & what works for the software you are using. I use a lot of drawing/drafting/graphics programs so having a computer that's able to handle those types of programs has always been important to me. In the past I was told Apple machines worked best with drawing/drafting/graphics products but for about a 10 year period, Autodesk didn't support Apple devices so needless to say, I simply did not use Apple devices until I went back to college and was forced to use a Mac.
That all being said, I still prefer a regular Windows machine. I will say this, I've seen $300 "Store Bought" computers out perform a "Super Computers" (the one's that are just short of being a "Gaming computer") simply because of "other software" bogging the machines down. The best example was my old Windows 7 machine (my personal computer), that I picked up in Staples, still out performed my work computer (HP "Z-Book") and I ran AutoCAD2018 on that machine until the license ran out.

    Where am I going with this? Well, I now know the newer versions of AutoCAD require Windows10 or Windows11. It also looks as if I may be in a position to finally request or show that the engineering group needs something better than the "one size fits all" computer package. that most companies push out". Will (by requesting a better computer) this cause an additional strain between the IT group/CAD Manager? I already have run into push-back from finance in regards to software, (them not realizing we need an Autodesk product vs Microstation or Microsoft) because there is an industry standard that we all need to follow.

    Just a little background here. I prefer the Windows operation system over Apple, or Linux obviously just because it's easier to work with. Same with phones, (Android over the Iphone) & again for basic functions we all know they work the same. It's the apps that seem to be different, and the permissions to use those functions that are different.
Feel free to comment but please stay on topic, and no real judgement here. In other words no bashing or hate speech/text. Just give us pro's and or con's for using each systems.
Just saying and Just asking....Take care & "Happy New Year's again.

Drafter1981

Here my spin regarding "FOMO"

Here is a spin regarding FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out):
I guess you can say, I’m following up my last post regarding “Has Technology Ruined Relationships” with the question of “What if I don’t see everything?” - meaning “FOMO”.  FOMO, the “Fear of Missing Out” I guess is something that could occur with being involved in social media or technology. I’m sure this happens to everyone at some point in this day and age.

Obviously, with social media, things can really get out of hand, trying to follow every little blurb, blog, text, or video. With one swipe on the phone whether intentional, or accidental, your whole world can be turned upside down. Just the innocent comment here or there, or a quick text can wreak havoc and or ruin lives. With recent events, look at the Will Smith & Chris Rock thing. This misunderstanding has taken on a whole new meaning in this day and age and that’s just one example.

How about the leaks from the Supreme Court? Again, another example of something getting out again, whether intentional or accidental, that will have an impact on how things get handled with social media. Is this something we all should be following? In my opinion yes. The Will Smith & Chris Rock thing, I don’t know, maybe. My priorities would be more on something that will impact our quality of life so I will be watching or paying attention more to the Supreme Court issues vs Will Smith & Chris Rock issue.

FOMO can hit some people pretty hard. Will we see everything, or know everything? Probably not. Just my humble opinion. I’m sure this is a struggle for a lot of social on lookers. Think about it. If you’re in the know, can you pay attention to several things all at once? Maybe a news organization, (since it’s their jobs) can keep up with this kind of stuff and try to keep the facts from opinions straight. For me, it’s a no brainer, “I’m just not going to do this”, meaning I’m just going to let things go. Unfortunately, this also applies to real technology items.

Just like with social media the same thing would apply to technology items too. Again, unless you are a “Super Tech. Person”, how could you, meaning the average person, possibly keep up with everything? PC’s vs Laptops, I-phones vs Androids, Apple devices vs Google, etc., etc.,… The list, just like the social media sites & items can go on and on. For now, I accept the fact that I can’t know everything regarding the social media items & technology. Please Lord God, 😊 just help me to stay in the loop.

Just my rant for today and just something to think about.