Absolutely, and if you don’t hire us we would certainly recommend you carefully review your assessment to determine if an appeal is warranted. The fact of the matter is, dealing with the government is difficult, time consuming and confusing. We know exactly how they operate, how they valued your property, and what it takes to get your assessment lowered.
If you are considering appealing yourself, you should plan on spending several hours of your time researching comparable sales to determine a fair value for your home, possibly having your home appraised ($350), and at least half a day waiting and arguing at the Board of Equalization hearings. It’s like going to the DMV on the last day of the month.
Your mortgage company may pay your property taxes directly to the county out of the funds in your escrow account. You actually fund this account every month as part of your house payment. If your taxes are less than the mortgage company has estimated you can request that they either lower your monthly house payment, or issue you a refund from your escrow account. Your mortgage company will not pay our fee.
Once the tax rates are set each fall, we will calculate the tax savings based on the reduction in assessed value achieved.
For example if the assessor appraised your home at $100,000 that would equate to a beginning assessed value of $19,000. If based on our appeal, your appraised value is reduced to $70,000 that would bring the assessed value down to $13,300 ($70,000 x .19). The result is a difference of $5,700 ($19,000-$13,300). This reduction in assessed value will result in your tax bill being $399 less.
Once the estimate of market value has been determined, the assessor calculates a percentage of that value to arrive at assessed value. The percentage is based on the classification, determined by the type of property or how it is used. The percentages are:
Real Estate
Residential 19%
Agriculture 12%
Commercial & all other 32%
As an example, a residence with a market value of $100,000 would be assessed at 19%, which would place its assessed value at $19,000.
- Assessors use mass appraisal techniques and market averages to estimate your market value.
- They often make simple factual, clerical, and methodology errors.
- Assessors usually use outdated sales comparables. Our analysis indicates the average residential sale comparables utilized in St. Louis County are nearly 2 years old.
- They don’t know the specifics of your property.
- Your property may have deferred maintenance such as roof, HVAC, plumbing, etc., that may lower the taxable market value of your property.
Market value, true value in money and appraised value have the same meaning under Missouri law. A simple definition of market value is the price the property would bring when offered for sale by a person who is willing but not obligated to sell it, and is bought by a person who is willing to purchase it but who is not forced to do so.
The value placed on your home by the assessor, or as the result of our appeal, carries forward for 2024. However, if new construction and improvements have taken place, the property is reassessed in the even-numbered year — but only to pick up the value that has been added. That value is based upon market conditions as of January first of the preceding year.
The county assessor is responsible for reassessing real property within the county every odd numbered year. The assessor’s work is subject to review by the county Board of Equalization and the State Tax Commission. The State Tax Commission is the state agency charged with general supervision of assessors and with enforcing property tax laws.
PAR Residential operates on a contingent fee basis which means you don’t pay until we are successful in achieving a reduction on your assessment.
- No upfront costs
- No attorney fees
- No court costs
- No appraisal costs
- No expenses
If PAR Residential is successful in lowering your taxes, we receive a percentage of the savings.
We review and appeal property taxes on single family homes, residential condominiums, villas, and small apartment properties, up to four units. If you own or manage commercial or business properties our parent company Property Assessment Review is the largest most successful commercial property tax consulting firm in the area. Please visit their website at www.partaxteam.com.
We find that we will usually appeal 60-70% of the properties we review. Of the properties we appeal we are successful in reducing the assessment about 80% of the time.
Yes! We can accept major credit cards over the phone.
To figure out how much your taxes are, multiply your Market Value by 0.19. This gives you the Assessed Value. Multiply your Assessed Value by the most recent Tax Rate. Tax Rates are stated by the county as a dollar amount per $100 of assessed value. This will give you the taxes due.
For Example:The Assessor has valued a home at $237,500. The assessment ratio is 19%. The hypothetical Tax Rate is 9.5120%.
| To calculate the Assessed Value | = | Appraised Value x Assessment Ratio $237,500 x 0.19 = $45,130 (rounded to nearest $10) |
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| To find the Tax Amount Due | = | Assessed Value x Tax Rate $45,130 x Tax Rate of 0.095120 = $4,292.29 |
Our invoices are based on how much your taxes would have been had we never appealed your property – the Taxes Before Appeal amount on your invoice shows you the taxes that would have been due, based on the Assessor’s original value of your home, if PAR had not appealed, based on the current tax rates.
Please note: there may be other fees in addition to this that PAR Residential does not take into account on our invoices (fees such as Sewer Lateral Fees or Grass Cutting Fees).
The official tax rates have been released, and we have received them from the Collector’s Office. In addition to this, your assessed value is already known. You may verify your tax rate online on the county’s website, or call the Collector’s office at (314) 615-5500. Your assessed value is 19% of your market value.
Differences in your tax bill are due to changes in the Tax Rate itself – this is controlled by the municipality and school districts, and changes (usually increases) every year. PAR Residential can only help lower your appraised value, which will lower your taxes owed. Even if we lower your appraised value, it is possible that your real estate tax bill may stay the same or even increase due to a change in the tax rate. This is beyond our control, but if we had not appealed, your tax bill would have increased by the amount shown on your invoice due to the increase in the tax rate!
Residential Tax Rates vary across the county from a low of 7.3511% to a high of 13.4295% based on location (school district and sub-districts within those school districts).
If you need a copy of your contract, we would be happy to supply one to you. In general, we work on a two-year contingent fee agreement. If you signed up with us in an ODD YEAR (for example, in 2023), any reduction we achieved for you in that year will also carry over into 2024. For instance, say we saved you $500 in 2023. Your tax bill will be lowered by $500 in 2023, and we will invoice you for $250 in 2023. Depending on any differences in the tax rate, your tax bill will again be lowered by approximately $500 in 2024, and we will invoice you again for approximately $250 (depending on the tax rates) in late 2024.
If you signed up with us in an EVEN YEAR (for example, in 2024), any reduction we achieved for you in that year will only impact one year – 2024. In this case only, will there be a one year fee.
If you don’t know your current assessment or most recent tax amount please feel free to call us at 314-454-0505, email us at info@parresidential.com, or visit one of the links below to see that information, as well as other publicly available information about your property.
We are currently working in St. Louis County and St. Louis City in Missouri.