How To Appeal Your Cook County Property Taxes

Cook County Property Tax Appeal DIY When payments of your Cook County property are due, there'southward naught you tin can do to lower them. Even so, at that place is a fashion to lower them next twelvemonth by hundreds or even thousands of dollars for next year's payments: highly-seasoned this twelvemonth.

We recommend appealing your assessment every yr to be sure that y'all are not paying more than your fair share of property taxes, but do you hire an expert or practise it yourself?

Read on to acquire more about the pros and cons of hiring an practiced vs. DIY, and tips for doing information technology right if you lot do it yourself.

Belongings Revenue enhancement Appeal Expert vs. DIY

Because we've successfully helped appeal property taxes for over 24,000 Cook County homeowners, we recommend using an practiced to be sure you lot go the biggest reduction you lot can. Your assessment is the ground for determining how much money yous're going to have to pay to a long list of taxing agencies, and so every reduction creates holding taxation savings.

However, we know how hard it tin be for some exercise-it-yourselfers to pay someone else to do it, even if that ways risking a loss or a smaller win.

We get information technology so, if you're committed to tackling the DIY property tax appeal, we have a few tips to share to boost your chances of success.

Do Your Ain Tax Entreatment in 400 Easy Steps

But kidding. At that place are really only about vi steps – not counting missteps – for filing an appeal with Cook County:

1. Determine whether your property may be over-assessed. The simplest way to find out if you're paying too much is to consult a Kensington Research and Recovery expert for complimentary. Nosotros offer a free, no-obligation assessment of your property tax situation.

ii. Identify which of Cook County's 38 townships your home is in.

3. Proceed track of the deadlines for appeals from your township, both for the Cook Canton Assessor and Board of Review.

4. Determine which appeal is best for your property. At that place are iii chief arguments you can utilise: comparable sales, lack of uniformity or economical value. The economic value statement applies only to income producing properties and requires three years' of income and expense information.

To brand an argument based on comparable sales, wait up recently sold homes in your expanse using sites like Zillow or Redfin. Your comparable homes should share key characteristics with yours including similar square footage, lot size, location, construction type and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. If the assessor has valued your home higher than the recent sales prices of comparable homes, yous can make an statement for reducing your cess.

If you determine that your abode has been assessed at a higher assessed value than similar homes in your neighborhood, you can argue a lack of uniformity in assessed values.

5. File your entreatment online with the Cook Canton Assessor'south Function, including your analysis of comparable properties. Expect a few months to learn the results.

6. For best results, enquiry boosted property value information after your assessor appeal and appeal to the Board of Review. If similar homes well-nigh you appealed at the Assessor and won, they may at present be a good or better comparable holding for y'all to employ in appealing to the Board of Review. Even if y'all received a reduction in your start appeal, you may receive boosted reductions at the Board of Review.

Remember What We Said Well-nigh Missteps?

Here are a few of the mistakes that can doom your entreatment or issue in you leaving coin on the tabular array:

Choosing the wrong argument for your property
Assembling the incorrect evidence or submitting insufficient testify
Failing to take the time to sympathize the factors that bear on your property taxes, similar assessed value vs. market value, the equalization cistron, taxation rate, exemptions, property apply, grade lawmaking and renovations

Your Motion

It'southward non easy. Simply nosotros'll be hither if you alter your mind – we can also assist you appeal at the Lath of Review if your appeal win at the Assessor falls short of the reduction we estimated. If we don't win, you pay nothing. The ball'due south in your courtroom, so let us know if we tin aid.

Become Your Free Property Tax Reduction Judge