My understanding is that I don’t have to let the tax assessor in my rental properties. They can just assess it from the outside. It’s a NOO SFH.
Any thoughts???
That would be my attitude but consider this. The county property appraiser will typically do a drive by or walk around and then use neighborhood comps and his magic eight ball to come up with a value. If your rental(s) need a lot of work you may wish to let him into the property to substantiate appropriate downward adjustments to his assessment. In the end this will save you tax dollars. Just a thought.
Back in the late 70’s in San Antonio TX, the tax assessor wanted to see inside my garage. It was a fairly common practice in the area to convert garages to an extra bedroom, den, family room, etc. I was guessing that his tax appraisal was somewhat dependent upon the square footage of living space, and a garage conversion would raise the square footage and consequently my property tax bill.
I gladly admitted the tax assessor to prove that my garage was still a garage.
My experience in SoCal properties is that they never look outside or inside. My experience in Central Texas properties is that they come to the property but only appraise from the exterior. I have, on occasion, let them inside when I wanted them to see the problems (hence lower appraised value). If the property is in good condition, I don’t offer to let them inside. In both SoCal and TX properties, I have been successful in getting reductions in appraised values by appealing to the tax board.