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Property Tax Appeal Actual Case Study
ARTICLE
TITLE: California Property Tax Assessment Appeals-An Actual $8.4 million Case Study:
By: Jim Guffey, Partner CAPTA (jim@capta1.com)
June 25, 2006 –Running Springs, CA: In September of 2001 at a time when most property owners were seeing appreciation of their property values, I prepared a case before the Assessment Appeals Board in a large Southern California county. The property was an $8.4 million assessed Assisted-Living Apartment Hotel. I had successfully won reductions of this property’s value in years prior but the appraiser I was dealing with at the County Assessors Office refused to reduce the property’s value any further, citing the rise in commercial property values as his reason. My company had performed property tax reduction work on several of this particular owners properties with great success and he asked us to work with this property as well.
After meeting and talking with the appraiser and finding that he refused to consider a reduction in the assessed value, we were forced to the next level of a formal Assessment Appeals hearing before a three-member Assessment Appeals Board. The county has up to two years following the filing of the appeal to hear the case and we were close to the deadline when we attended the hearing.
The following is the actual case study of an assisted-living apartment complex located in Southern California. The Assessment Appeal covered the year of 1999\2000 for the lien date of January 1999. Wherever possible the actual case is presented. Valuation numbers have been rounded to the nearest $100,000.
Property Location: Southern California
January 1999 Assessed Value $8,400,000
Case Won-New Value $6,500,000
Actual Client Savings (Two Years) $ 43,000
CASE
The subject property is located at XXXX. Known as the XXXX Retirement Hotel it is situated on just under 3 acres and was built in phases starting in 1985 and ending in 1991. Constructed of wood frame with stucco exterior, the six buildings range in height from two to four stories with three buildings featuring elevators. One building has subterranean parking and all the buildings are sprinklered.
The buildings house 187 units (78,201 sq.ft.) as well as the common areas, including dining room, administrative offices, lounges, recreational and activity rooms and hallway bathrooms (43,343 sq.ft.). All six buildings are connected, and all rooms have air conditioning via wall units. Most of the units have no kitchen facilities; 10 of the larger studios do. All units have emergency pull cords in the living area as well as the bathrooms.
INDUSTRY
The housing industry for the elderly can be classified by three major types of buyers: the active seniors, intermediate seniors, and the senior who needs constant care. The first group, active retirees, want recreational amenities with the housing they buy. Intermediate seniors want a congregate-type of lifestyle that allows them independence yet gives them the opportunity to take part in quiet activities with arranged transportation and supervision. And retirees who need constant care are concerned with medical assistance. The subject property is generally targeting the intermediate retiree.
From a real estate and financial perspective housing for the elderly is complex and difficult to analyze as it usually represents a combination of other businesses and very high expenses. The major types of homes for the elderly include:
1) Senior Apartments: Apartment units set aside for active seniors. Typically these are apartments with an age restriction on residents. Stairs to upstairs units, parking spaces for each resident, and very little common area improvements are the norm. No supervisory or support services are offered. These developments have expenses, vacancy and cap rates very similar to any other apartment complex.
2) Congregate Housing: Specially planned, designed and managed multi-unit rental housing with self contained apartments. Supportive services such as meals, housekeeping, transportation, social and recreational services are sometimes provided. In California these are not licensed and have moderately greater expenses due to the increased services. Cap Rates are generally higher than apartments as well.
3) Assisted Living: Group living arrangements that provide staff supervised meals in a dining room, daily maid service, Registered Nurse on site, personal care (assistance with bathing, medication, incontinence, etc.) and private and shared sleeping rooms. Amenities such as Beauty Shops, Guest Accommodations and Emergency Pull Chords are typical. These facilities are licensed and must meet designated operating standards including minimum staff requirements. Vacancy rates vary and expenses are high. Cap rates are high as well because of the risk of running a complicated business with so many different functions (medical, dining, entertainment, nursing, etc).
4) Care Facilities (skilled nursing): Skilled nursing facilities are commonly known as nursing or convalescent homes. Around the clock licensed nurses and aids provide medical care and are generally one step below a full acute care hospital.
The subject is a State Licensed Assisted Living Retirement Hotel (#3 above).
SUBJECT ANALYSIS
Entry is made into the subject by walking through a large lobby to a reception area. The large restaurant style dining room is located off this lobby and one of the numerous libraries is opposite the dining room. Throughout this complex are over 44,000 square feet of common area (1/3 of the total square footage), including dining rooms, TV rooms, family rooms, craft rooms, exercise rooms, laundry rooms and bathrooms. At any time of the day or night guests are free to use the rooms to exercise, read, participate in crafts or group functions, or just rest while walking from the dining area to their rooms. Guests wishing to visit the pool area must be accompanied by one of the many staff members required by law to be on site.
The hallways are similar to a hotel with elevators placed at strategic locations for guests’ convenience. A number of ramps are also located in the building. Inside each room there is a living area, closet space and bathroom. Emergency pull chords summon help from staff in an instant (a full time Registered Nurse is also on site). Several units have been combined to form one larger unit, and 10 have kitchen facilities.
All residents receive maid service daily as well as all meals and snacks served to them by staff in the dining room or at the 24-hour snack center. Exercise, crafts, and other activities are supervised and offered daily and there are numerous trips set up by Arcadia Gardens to various local sites. A full time RN is also available for medication assistance. 24 hour Security is provided. Subterranean parking is provided although few are able to drive (58 spaces for staff and up to 200 residents). Each of these services is included in the base room rate as well as all utilities except phone.
As can be seen by the above subject analysis there is no way to compare an Assisted Living Retirement Hotel with a property type that does not share the same overhead and risks. This business is set to explode as the baby boomers reach retirement age in the years to come (starting around the year 2010). But currently there are many players poised to take advantage of the coming boom and a current saturation in the marketplace. Few properties are changing hands, making it difficult to find comparable property sales.
At this point in the case we presented substantial information as to market rents and expenses as well as presenting and analyzing the subjects income statement’s over the past several years. We concluded with several approaches to value and reconciled the approaches into a request for a value of $6.25 million.
The day of the appeal I arrived at the hearing and informally spoke with the appraiser from the Assessor’s Office. We notified the board that we were both present and ready to present our cases, at which time we went outside and informally discussed the information we were going to present to the board. Upon seeing my case presentation and the information contained therein, the appraiser and I mutually agreed to a value of $6.5 million which he agreed to carry for two years. Upon appearing before the board the appraiser notified them that there had been a stipulation agreed upon in the board formalized it, resulting in a savings to our client of over $43,000.
It is extremely important when considering a property tax reduction company to ensure that the agents representing the property owner actually understand the system, appear at the hearings and argue cases successfully. You should beware of companies who file papers and wait for results. These companies do little work for the money they earn and seldom achieve maximized results. As in the case presented above, the appraiser working for the Assessor’s Office refused to lower the value until he saw the case I prepared and understood that we had done our homework and represented our client in a professional and efficient manner.
You can find out more about California Property Tax Associates by visiting their website at www.capta1.com.
SUMMARY: An actual Property Tax Assessment Appeals Board case study of an $8.4 million Assisted-Living apartment complex in Southern California, the subsequent appeals hearing and the annual tax savings passed on to the client.
BIO: Jim Guffey is a real estate developer who owns commercial and residential properties in Southern California. In 1989-1990 he started one of the first full-time property tax consulting companies in California. At a time very similar to today he built this property tax reduction Company into a successful venture representing property owners in assessment reductions informally and before the Board of Appeals throughout California. Jim is the Vice President Of Strategic Oversight at California Property Tax Associates. (www.capta1.com)
OPEN LETTER TO A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT
Mark,
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jim Guffey and I’m one of the partners in California Property Tax Associates. I’m also Tom’s brother.
In 1989-90 I started a property tax reduction company in San Bernardino County, California. You may or may not recall that property values were doing very well and foreign investors, particularly the Japanese were buying up commercial property at record levels. Properties frequently appreciated during the escrow period 5 or even 6%. You could almost do no wrong. Business was good and Tom and I worked together for over 10 years reducing property values for our clients. Tom has told me that you want letters of reference but I hope this e-mail will suffice.
In the early 90s one of our first clients was a gentleman based in San Diego County who was buying small pieces of property in San Bernardino County from individual landowners. The size of the parcels was two to five acres. When he bought enough small pieces he began the entitlement process and subsequently sold the properties to a large company who would build the homes. He was very successful but the assessors office saw what he was doing and immediately began assessing his property when he first purchased the vacant lot for what a year and a half later he would sell the parcelized property for, per acre. In other words, if he bought the raw land acre for $4000 and sold it a year and a half later, entitled for $40,000 an acre the assessor was immediately assessing all of his raw land purchases for $40,000 an acre. We were successful in appeal in getting all of these transactions reduced to his original purchase price arguing stage of development. This was hundreds of individual parcels.
Another client was Premier Homes, a French company based in Corona. They were in a similar position to your company with large holdings of land in Southern California. We worked on many of their properties but in particular, one parcel in Lancaster had a value of $16 million and was fully entitled, ready to build. We were successful in reducing this property to less than $4 million. It subsequently sold a short time after we achieved the reduction for $8 million.
It is important to understand that fair market value in the marketplace is not the same as fair market value for assessment purposes. Frequently we are successful in reducing property that sells for far greater than what our reduction showed. Again, this is because when we value property in accordance with the Revenue and Taxation Code in the state of California we follow the guidelines set forth in the appraisal manuals and also the guidelines used in each particular county. Unfortunately these differ substantially from county to county. However, frequently these appraisal guidelines work in our favor and our clients, many of whom told us there was no possible way for us to get reductions on a given property, are amazed at our results. Not always but frequently.
Another client was located in the Beaumont area in Riverside County and had purchased a property known as the Three Ring Ranch. It was situated at the split of the 60 and the 10 freeway’s and was purchased by an individual who planned on flipping it to a housing company. But while he was negotiating the market turned and nobody was interested. We began our work for him in 1990 and subsequently he lost the property in foreclosure. We continued our work for the new owner securing large reductions in the back taxes. This property did subsequently sell and was developed in later years and is still known as Three Ring Ranch.
In the same area Highland Springs Resort had just transferred ownership in the late 80s. In addition to the resort which had many varied buildings and improvements, along with a mobile home park there were numerous residential development parcels. Although this property took a considerable amount of time and numerous appeal hearings due to its complexity, we were also successful in reducing it’s assessed value substantially.
We did substantial residential development properties in the high desert area of Victorville as well. Schaffer Real Estate and Investment Company, Inc. had substantial vacant land holdings and we succeeded in reducing scores in his portfolio. Additionally, Thomas Rhubik had a number of large residential development properties that we had great success with.
These are the companies that come to mind. We also worked extensively in the Central Valley as well as the Bay Area. In short, we have experience with all the major counties in California and a number of the smaller counties as well. While the rules are all the same as each county has to live by the Revenue And Taxation Code they each have latitude to accomplish certain tasks their own way. When you hire us you hire someone who has the ability and experience to accomplish the task at hand in the shortest possible time with the greatest possible results.
I hope this helps. The decision you have before you is complex and infinitely important to the bottom line of your company and its investors. The inventory that currently exists on your balance sheet is an expense. The quicker you can reduce the related expenses the easier it will be to wait out this market. But make no mistake: if you don’t file, you don’t see reductions. And if you do file but lack the experience and understanding of the system you will likely lose as well. In the least you will not accomplish the maximum possible result. We will.
One last thing. Over the years our client list has included many attorneys who knew better than to try to understand the workings of the assessors office when they had no experience. One of our early clients was actor Tony Curtis. We never met him, we only worked through his attorney. With great success. His attorney knew better than to venture into this territory.
In case Tom didn’t tell you, I am currently in Guatemala but will be happy to fly out to meet you once we have a relationship. If you’re not comfortable paying us a percentage we do work on an hourly basis. However, as you know our percentage fee is based solely on results. But the sooner we get started the better for you.
Sincerely,
Jim Guffey
Do It Yourself Reduction
by Jim Guffey
If you are a homeowner with a tract home or typical single family residence, here it is: the step by step summary to getting your property taxes reduced. Free. You don’t have to pay an agent or consultant or attorney. You simply must follow these steps. But first a quick Proposition 13 Primer.
Simply stated, Proposition 13 provides that when a homeowner purchases his or her property, under normal conditions, it is presumed that the purchase price shall be the fair market value or the assessed value for property tax purposes. This beginning value is called the “base year value.” Prop 13 goes on to say that each year the Assessor can raise that base year value by no more than 2%. That’s great news for markets like we had in 2004 and 2005 as your property values were limited to 2% increases even if you had a 10% increase in value. So far so good.
But then something strange happened: the real estate market went backwards and home prices fell. For the first time people were stuck with assessed values higher than their home was actually worth. To remedy this problem Proposition 8 was passed which, simply stated, allowed the Assessor to reduce the value in any year that the actual value of the property fell below the value on the assessment roll. This was intended to provide temporary relief for the property owner as the Assessor retained the right to raise the value in any year that the fair market value exceeded the value on the roll up to it’s factored base year value (the value that would have been on the roll had no reduction been given).
Let me restate all that simply. If, on January 1, 2008 your home was worth less than your 2007 tax value plus 2%, you have the right to ask for a reduction. But it will be temporary, and will be put back to normal when values increase. So much for the primer. Let’s get on with the process.
Assuming you have reason to believe your assessed value is higher than your market value, the next step is to go to your local office of the Assessor in your county to get information. There are 58 counties in California and I’m here to tell you they all are run differently. But no matter; just go and ask for the details of the Prop 8 reduction.
At this point in the year there will likely be the need to do one of two things: file an Informal Prop 8 Request for Review or, if they are too busy or just don’t want to help, file a Formal Appeal.
The informal request is simply that. You are requesting they take a look at your property. Some counties have a form and require a few comparable properties. Others simply log your request. Still others won’t give you the time of day and you will have to take the next step.
Whatever happens at this point you must understand one very important thing. In most counties you only have a short window to file your formal appeal. For us it’s July 2 to November 30. Be sure to find out what the deadline is for your property. Once the deadline passes and your application is not postmarked on or before that day, you lose your rights to protest the value and you will overpay your taxes until the next year.
At this time of the year I would suggest you file the formal appeal right now regardless of whether the appraiser at the Office of the Assessor tells you he or she will take a look at your property. You can always withdraw the appeal if you should reach a suitable value. Simply ask for the appeals form while you are at the office or go online as many counties now feature online forms.
Please take note that you must fill out the form carefully. Again, every county is different and they are not user friendly. You should always ask for help from the Office of the Assessor or local Clerk of the Board with anything you do not fully understand. If you fill it out wrong it will be returned to you. Be very careful to return it immediately once you have corrected the problem. Remember, at every turn there are procedures and deadlines. As a do it yourself tax agent you have the responsibility to do it right-or lose.
A word at this point about values. Whatever your assessed value is, put down no more than half for your opinion of value. Again, you can always adjust the value up at the hearing but you can not ask for a lower value than is on your appeal.
Once filed the county has two years from the date of filing to hear your case. You must pay your property taxes during this time based on the full value you are contesting. If you do not pay you possibly will incur penalties and interest. Do not take that chance. If you win your overpayment will be refunded to you along with interest-if you request it!
Now, don’t just sit and wait. Come January 1, 2009 (or the next business day) go directly to your Office of the Assessor and start the process over for the 2009 fiscal year. It’s entirely possible you will have several years of appeals filed and awaiting a hearing date. If you are not successful talking informally or filing an informal Proposition 8 Request for Review you will need to file another formal appeal. That will keep on happening each year for as long as necessary.
Once you are in the queue it is all about waiting. But remember. Two years from the date of your filing if you haven’t signed an extension and your case hasn’t been heard…YOU WIN! Whatever value you wrote on the appeal is the value for the year under appeal. I have won several cases this way. Be aware of the filing date and never sign an extension without first checking the dates.
For a list of California Counties and their websites click here.
For a list of California County Assessor Offices and their phone numbers click here.
That’s all there is to it. Watch for the next article on “Representing Yourself in a Formal Appeals Board Hearing”. If you have questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at (888) 678-9TAX or use the form below.
The Real Estate Bubble Part 1 — The Past
August 2008 Los Angeles – In the early 1990s as the real estate market began changing, many Clients asked my opinion of the market direction. Many of these Clients held multi-million dollar properties ranging from vacant land to high-rise office buildings. Every month that went by seemed to bring worse news and many of these individuals lost everything as they failed to plan for the worst while hoping for the best. A strong word to the wise: Do not hope for the best; plan for the worst.
The following article was written be Jim Guffey, a Partner in the property tax reduction firm California Property Tax Associates located in Southern California. It is offered as a tool to assist in potential future decisions from an experience based perspective. It should be noted that things are changing so rapidly that many of the prognostications therein have already come to pass.
THE PAST
In the mid 1980s wild appreciation in the real estate market occurred. Many people used this opportunity, both in the residential and commercial sector to step up by buying and selling properties. As the market continued to explode many people and companies leveraged their ability to purchase with an expectation of continued appreciation. In effect, they bought today’s property with tomorrow’s equity. And why not? A house bought for $100,000 in a 90 day escrow might be worth $110,000 by the time it closed. The same house a year later might be worth $130,000. And the numbers worked the same way with large commercial properties. An office building bought for $10 million with a six-month escrow might be worth $11 million at the close. And a year later it might be worth $13 million. This attracted many foreign investors including a great deal of money which came from Japan.
In 1989-90 the market peaked and caught most people by surprise. During this time it became increasingly difficult to sell properties. Many experts claimed this to be only a temporary situation. Many denied a problem even existed. Nevertheless, new homes became increasingly difficult to sell and developers and contractors felt the pain. Incentives were offered and prices were reduced. Inventory was high and people began walking away from their recent home purchases because of negative equity situations and an inability to pay their mortgage payments. At this time credit cards were not an accepted way of paying bills or for purchasing consumables such as food and gasoline. Banks foreclosed on these properties and quickly turned them to get them off their books by lowering the prices. It wasn’t long before the market was flooded with foreclosures which began to dictate the market price. In many neighborhoods there were far more sales of foreclosure properties owned by banks and financial institutions than there were properties that were owner-occupied. This further depressed the market.
This trickled into the commercial sector as well since commercial projects took years of planning. Projects that began several years before it was recognized there was a problem, often with hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars invested prior to commencement of the actual project construction moved forward. Larger projects could take years to achieve full occupancy and even smaller projects were leveraged and needed tenants willing to pay 1989 rates to pay the debt. However, existing businesses had begun cutting back and new business startups were in a decline. This resulted in a glut of commercial properties on the market. Many projects sat vacant or had large vacancies and subsequently asking rents began to fall. Huge concessions were given for leases including free tenant improvements and even free rent. This continued the downward progression of rental income thus reducing the value of income producing properties.
In 1991 and even more so in 1992 there was a general recognition that the market was in serious trouble. Those unfortunate enough to be in the midst of projects or holding inventories of speculation properties and specifically, highly leveraged properties lost vast amounts of money. The losers included financial institutions as well as individuals and companies. Obtaining loans became difficult and for many, impossible. Many banks required two appraisals from two different appraisers before committing to a loan, and then required substantial down payments. The market continued to deteriorate through the mid-1990s until it finally bottomed out around 1995.
For the next five plus years the real estate market in general was tranquil with very modest appreciation in most areas. Some areas outperformed others but the value of property was tied to the income it produced on a real-time basis and residential properties had a direct connection to the income of the buyer. Through the year 2000 things were relatively normal.
The aftermath of this devaluation left many, many people and companies bankrupt. Astute investors and developers threw caution to the wind in favor of a certain greed which resulted in decisions that were not viable for the market.
The reason for this? In my opinion, the real estate cycle is basically this. Residential properties are built and, as the income and economic circumstances of the buying public increases, property owners step up to these newer properties. Their existing properties in a lower price range are bought by the entry-level buying public. As this process continues and more new homes are built, there is a need for new commercial properties to support the new neighborhoods, as well as schools and fire stations, etc. As these new commercial properties are developed the asking rents are higher, enticing businesses to leave the older neighborhoods in favor of the higher traffic developments. Rents are higher in the new developments, justifying the cost of the development but at the same time pulling up the rents in the older developments, subject of course to the supply and demand of the market. As long as new houses are built and bought, new commercial developments are built and leased, first time home buyers have the ability to buy the houses left by the new house buyers, and new business startups lease the older properties left by the businesses relocating to the new developments, the cycle continues. But, when the market is not driven by the income and economic circumstances of the buying public, but is driven instead by the artificial gain (equity) generated by emotional desire without the underlying basis of an ability to pay, pay day has to come at some point. Without the stability of an ability to pay, the house of cards has to fall; there has to be a reckoning.
About
CAPTA (California Property Tax Associates) is a California Partnership that specializes in real estate property tax consulting throughout the State of California. One of our partners began performing these services for California Property owners in 1989. Throughout the 1990's the focus was primarily on large commercial projects and land developments as well as upscale residential properties. We saved thousands and thousands of Californians many millions of dollars in over-assessed property taxes. Our results then, like now were based on employing a highly skilled staff, access to extensive industry information, and a clear understanding of the property tax assessment process.
Unlike other companies our fee is entirely contingency based; no savings, no fee. There is never an up-front fee or a reimbursement of costs. Simply put, NO SAVINGS; NO FEE.
OPEN LETTER TO A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT (NOW A CLIENT)
Dear Mark,
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jim Guffey and I'm one of the partners in California Property Tax Associates. I'm also Tom's brother. In 1989-90 I started a property tax reduction company in San Bernardino County, California. You may or may not recall that property values were doing very well and foreign investors, particularly the Japanese were buying up commercial property at record levels. Properties frequently appreciated during the escrow period 5 or even 6%. You could almost do no wrong. Business was good and Tom and I worked together for over 10 years reducing property values for our clients. Tom has told me that you want letters of reference but I hope this e-mail will suffice.
In the early 90s one of our first clients was a gentleman based in San Diego County who was buying small pieces of property in San Bernardino County from individual landowners. The size of the parcels was two to five acres. When he bought enough small pieces he began the entitlement process and subsequently sold the properties to a large company who would build the homes. He was very successful but the assessors office saw what he was doing and immediately began assessing his property when he first purchased the vacant lot for what a year and a half later he would sell the parcelized property for, per acre. In other words, if he bought the raw land acre for $4000 and sold it a year and a half later, entitled for $40,000 an acre the assessor was immediately assessing all of his raw land purchases for $40,000 an acre. We were successful in appeal in getting all of these transactions reduced to his original purchase price arguing stage of development. This was hundreds of individual parcels.
Another client was Premier Homes, a French company based in Corona. They were in a similar position to your company with large holdings of land in Southern California. We worked on many of their properties but in particular, one parcel in Lancaster had a value of $16 million and was fully entitled, ready to build. We were successful in reducing this property to less than $4 million. It subsequently sold a short time after we achieved the reduction for $8 million.
It is important to understand that fair market value in the marketplace is not the same as fair market value for assessment purposes. Frequently we are successful in reducing property that sells for far greater than what our reduction showed. Again, this is because when we value property in accordance with the Revenue and Taxation Code in the State of California we follow the guidelines set forth in the appraisal manuals and also the guidelines used in each particular county. Unfortunately these differ substantially from county to county. However, frequently these appraisal guidelines work in our favor and our clients, many of whom told us there was no possible way for us to get reductions on a given property, are amazed at our results. Not always but frequently.
Another client was located in the Beaumont area in Riverside County and had purchased a property known as the Three Ring Ranch. It was situated at the split of the 60 and the 10 freeway's and was purchased by an individual who planned on flipping it to a housing company. But while he was negotiating the market turned and nobody was interested. We began our work for him in 1990 and subsequently he lost the property in foreclosure. We continued our work for the new owner securing large reductions in the back taxes. This property did subsequently sell and was developed in later years and is still known as Three Ring Ranch.
In the same area Highland Springs Resort had just transferred ownership in the late 80s. In addition to the resort which had many varied buildings and improvements, along with a mobile home park there were numerous residential development parcels. Although this property took a considerable amount of time and numerous appeal hearings due to its complexity, we were also successful in reducing it's assessed value substantially.
We did substantial residential development properties in the high desert area of Victorville as well. Schaffer Real Estate and Investment Company, Inc. had substantial vacant land holdings and we succeeded in reducing scores in his portfolio. Additionally, Thomas Rhubik had a number of large residential development properties that we had great success with. These are the companies that come to mind.
We also worked extensively in the Central Valley as well as the Bay Area. In short, we have experience with all the major counties in California and a number of the smaller counties as well. While the rules are all the same as each county has to live by the Revenue And Taxation Code they each have latitude to accomplish certain tasks their own way. When you hire us you hire someone who has the ability and experience to accomplish the task at hand in the shortest possible time with the greatest possible results.
I hope this helps. The decision you have before you is complex and infinitely important to the bottom line of your company and it's investors. The inventory that currently exists on your balance sheet has associated expenses. The quicker you can reduce those related expenses the easier it will be to wait out and even thrive in this market. Property Taxes are one of the largest expenses. But make no mistake: if you don't file, you won't realize maximum reductions. And if you do file but lack the experience and understanding of the system you will likely lose as well. In the least you will not accomplish the maximum possible result. CAPTA will.
One last thing. Over the years our client list has included many attorneys who knew better than to try to understand the workings of the assessors office when they had no experience. One of our early clients was actor Tony Curtis. We never met him, we only worked through his attorney, with great success. His attorney knew better than to venture into this territory.
In case Tom didn't tell you, I am currently in Guatemala but will be happy to fly out to meet you once we have a relationship. If you're not comfortable paying us a percentage we do work on an hourly basis. However, as you know our percentage fee is based solely on results. But the sooner we get started the better for you.
Sincerely, Jim Guffey
Comments or questions are welcome.
