What exactly does a property tax consultant do for clients?
Property tax consultants offer customers an extensive knowledge base generally unavailable to the public, drawn from professional and personal experience, industry contacts, commercial databases, and other resources. This helps these advisors provide a wide variety of unique services. Property tax consultants help determine if land tracts are assessed fairly, contact assessors for their clients, identify and help obtain needed documentation, file paperwork for appeals, and represent clients in negotiations or at hearings, arguing their case before regulators or decision makers. These consultants may also provide their own appraisers to help verify if a property has been assessed fairly, and have access to tax attorneys for any necessary legal proceedings.
Why are property tax consultants needed?
Many local, district, or state governments re-evaluate their property tax rates and values on a regular basis. Most others were forced to consider or implement such changes as their tax revenues declined over the last decade. Shifting market trends since the 2008 recession also raised questions about the accuracy of existing property values and their assessments, spurring appraisal updates that usually heightened tax levels.
While land owners may pursue tax protests on their own, most are not prepared for the lengthy processes and workloads required to win such battles, and they have little or no understanding of how these systems work. The methods used for assessing properties often vary not just from county to county, but city to city, further complicating the challenge facing investors with small or large portfolios.
An Oklahoma property tax consultant provides the professional knowledge base needed to handle all these problems, earned from years of practice. They bring to the table an understanding of local real estate taxes and regulations, extensive hands-on experience with different government operating procedures, and connections with city, school district, and county officials. They know how to direct their activities, maximize their resources, and cut through the red tape to reach people with the right answers.
Since their fees are usually contingency based, property tax consultants only make money if their client tax protests succeed. They therefore have a vested interest in making sure their customers save money.
Many customers also discover that a property tax consultant can deliver more personal and individual service than that provided by an attorney or real estate broker, who may receive compensation from other means or serve clients for a variety of purposes outside property taxes. Due to their industry focus, property tax consultants often have a deeper knowledge base concerning assessment issues than brokers or attorneys, and their governmental connections and resources may be more specialized and extensive.
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