Most people cannot believe that even though their property values have gone down over the last couple of years, their property taxes have stayed the same or gone up. In fact, property taxes have risen more than twice the rate of inflation this decade. What can you do? Appeal your taxes. Fewer than one in fifty homeowners do, even though 60% of properties are overvalued right now according to the National Taxpayers Association. Depending on how far you are forced to make an appeal, expect to spend from 5 to 20 hours on it.If you are going to appeal your property taxes, here is what to do:

1. Learn the system. Different taxing authorities use different methods to calculate your home’s value. Some look at recent sales of similar homes. Some look at costs to rebuild. Others use a combination of methods. Call your assessor’s office and ask how it pegs value.

2. Get your assessor’s evidence. Ask for the evidence the assessor used to value your home. Get the home’s property card, which lists basic details like the number of bedrooms, lot size, and square footage. Are these even correct? When the assessor revalues property every few years, they usually hire an outside consultant who looks at thousands of homes in a very short period of time. The assessor’s file should contain a worksheet that the consultant filled out during the inspection with addresses of homes he compared with yours. Are those properties a good match??

3. Build your case. Since you only have 60 days or less from the time your annual assessment was mailed (usually in late spring or summer) to file an appeal, you will have to start gathering evidence to help your case in advance. You’ll need recent comparable sales or assessments (get some from the multiple listing services, check public title records, and have a real estate agent help you) that shows that your house has been valued too high. Look up your neighbor’s home valuation at the assessor’s office too. Your ideal comparable should be of the same square footage and age of your home and have the same lot size. You should have at least 5 comparables, although 10 is better. Once you have the comparables, put together a spreadsheet with the following information: address of the comparable property, sales prices and dates of sale, price per square foot, description of what makes the comparable similar or different from your home, photograph of the exteriors, photos of your home, and a map of all properties.

4. File the appeal and meet with the assessor (if possible). Ask to set up an appointment with the assessor. Sometimes this is possible and other times it is not. At a minimum, hand deliver all your evidence and get a receipt or send it by certified mail. You should hear back within two weeks to a month. If you don’t, follow up with the assessor’s office.

5. You win / you lose. If you win your appeal, your tax bill will be adjusted. If your appeal is denied, you can appeal again. If your appeal is denied again, you may need the services of a lawyer and an appraiser and you should plan to go to court. If the lawyer takes the case on a contingency fee (they get part of the savings as their fee) and you can get the appraisal for around $400, it may be worth the effort because often the appeal, which goes from the assessor’s office to a state board, will simply be settled as the state board wants to close as many cases as possible. So try it. It can save you money.? Used with permission from Carol Rodoni, Real Estate Unleashed.

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California consumers can get a free copy of their credit reports once a year from the three nationwide companies that compile these financial profiles, Equifax, Experian and Trans Union.One way to make the most of this opportunity is to order a report from just one of the three credit bureaus, then wait four months to order a report from another and, four months later, order a report from the third credit bureau.? By repeating this process annually, you can monitor your credit report regularly, at no cost.?

Some key steps to cleaning up and repairing your credit include the following. Begin by taking action. Deliberate action over time can help repair your credit there is no quick fix.? Check your credit history by law you are entitled to a free credit report once every 12 months. Yoiu have the right to disput the incorrect information and have the file corrected. If an investigation does not resolve your dispute, you can ask the credit reporting agency to include a written statement about the disputed information in your file and have your notice included any time information from your file is furnished. Check out all the information at the Office of the Attorney General website!

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The Board of Supervisors approved nearly $1 million in engineering contracts. This is part of the effort to draft the report on the environmental impact that the construction of a sewer would have on several sites in the coastal community of Los Osos. The town of Los Osos relies almost entirely on septic systems to dispose of waste.

In October 2007 property owners overwhelmingly approved? a 127 million assessment to pay for a sewer. The total 4 million loan could start being repaid when the county starts selling bonds by September and property tax assessments will appear on the 2090-10 property tax bill.

Part of the $4 million loan will go toward conducting a survey and establish a plan to help disadvantaged property owners pay for the waste treatment plant. That plan is part of the county’s effort to secure a $10 million grant from the Department of Water Resources and State Water Quality Control Board to help offset the cost of the sewer for low-in-come property owners.

Have you heard of SLO Greenbuild? They?are a?non profit organization with a? a holistic approach to the design , construction, ?and operation of structures.? It has three primary goals. 1.Healthy living environments 2Resource conservation and 3.Energy efficiency. Consisting of local builders, architects, engineers, landscape architects and other?members of the community providing educational resources for anyone interested in learning how to incorporate greener building techniques into their project. Sample materials are available at the County of San Luis Obispo permit center. Anyone can sign up for a free peer review of their project by SLO Greenbuild. Peer review will incorporate suggestions and a check list for including green technology into a project.

SLO COUNTY-FREE SECONDARY DWELLING HOUSE PLANS PROGRAM

The San Luis Obispo County Planning Department worked with the local chapter of the American?Institute ?of Architects, Workforce Housing Coalition, and the builders exchange to put on a design competiton?among local licensed?architects to come up with a well designed secondary dwelling. Ten winning home designs were chosen out of 29 submittals. Plans were then reviewed by structural engineers and energy consultants for compliance with codes, and then processed through the Building Department for plan check. Stock plans for a secondary dwelling will have reduced building permit ?fees as well.

The winning house plans will soon be available to the public at no charge (other than coping costs) for those properties who qualify for a secondary dwelling. Free house plans?must be used for secondary housing only. At this time this program is available to the residents of the incorporated areas of San Luis Obispo County.

Now you have found the home of your dreams be sure to protect it with the right homeowners insurance. Linda Osty 13yr+ Broker/Agent of Osty Insurance ?located in the Village of Arroy Grande explained why it’s important to contact an agent early in the process of buying a home . For most of us our home is the single largest investment we will ever make. Homeowners Insurance provides coverages for damage to your home and other structures on your property such as a shed or detached garage. In order to prevent surprises buyers should check the disclosures for insurance claims filed on the property you are purchasing especially within the last three years.??The agent will at least do a drive by inspection and there could even be a required interior inspection to see the condition and anything that might create a future claim. An example would be the roof. The roof is not leaking todays but it is not raining today! The?insurance inspection may also uncover? attractive nuisances such as concrete cracks where someone might trip and fall , or pool areas are they fenced or not and? do they have a pool? cover.

Unintentional acts are covered under personal liability. Have you heard of the Mike Tyson test? If you bite someone you are not covered. If your dog bites someone you are covered but only the 1st time.Finally in the event someone is injured on your property or you damage property that belongs to others you could be legally liable for the injury or damage. A homeowner policy provides personal and liability insurance to financially protect you should this ever occur.

Enjoy the benefits of Homeowners liability insurance even if you rent or own a condominium.If you rent or own you still need coverage for your household contents and personal belongings and personal liability.There are specific policies designed for those who rent or own condominiums.

The SLO County Farmers???? Markets, longtime favorite attractions for both residents and tourists, is turning to new technologies and beefed-up marketing efforts to stay connected to customers and to increase public awareness about their markets. A new website, a radio show on public station KCBX, email and printed newsletters and markets kiosks have been launched by the SLO County Farmers???? Market Association. According to Market Administrator Peter Jankay, the association worked with local marketing firm Barnett Cox & Associates to retool its marketing program. ???Many people do not know that we operate five different farmers???? markets in the county. We wanted help getting the word out.???

One of the highlights of the new marketing program is a KCBX radio show. ???Keepin it Fresh on the

The newly revamped website, www.slocountyfarmers.org, provides a full complement of information about in-season produce and healthy cooking with fruits and vegetables, background on the association and its board members, and details of upcoming events. The website includes extensive information about a newly launched series of cooking demonstrations featuring leading chefs from each community. Jankay also noted that tourists are an important part of the market customer base, and the website offers an easy way to communicate with out-of-towners.

Further information is available via the association website, www.slocountyfarmers.org.

If buying or selling is in you future and you haven’t a nodding aquaintenance with the world of Pest Control??your? in for quite? an education. Why should you care? Termites and other related pest control??issues can cost thousands of dollars?to repair. ?If your selling a home or buying one it can effect your bottom line costs depending upon who (buyer or seller) agreed to cover the costs.

Here are a few quick tips to get you started. If your a seller?start ?with a ?reputable inspector. If you don’t know one check with the Structural Pest Control Board. This is an excellent resource of information.

If your a buyer you may search the Board’s Wood Destroying Organism System to see if a specific property has been inspected within the last two years. The Board’s database is very specific so the best results are usually found by entering in limited information, for example, only the building number and zip code. This will ensure that the entire database is checked for the information you are seeking.

Inquiring buyer minds want to know how long has a particular? property? been on the market. Buyers? believe? a long ?time on the market could be a sign of an over priced listing? or other related problems.? They use this to their advantage in negotiating?an offer.? Agents can check data in their local MLS statistics to inform a buyer the number of days a home has been in the market.?The challenge is for the agent to be sure the data they are using is accurate.? Some Agents will take a listing and if the home has not sold in?a certain number of days will use? methods such asremoving the listing temporarilyd? from the market classifying it as expired or?withdrawn.??The property will be brought back?within a short period of time as a new listing.? These agents think? it’s an advantage l to the seller to show the property with less marketing time then the actual?days on the market?and?some agents think they can improve their personal perceived marketing statistics. Buyers given inaccurate information are not able to make an?informed decision about what is in their best interest concerning making the offer.

?Days on the market can affect the sellers who are?trying?to determine proper pricing. How their properties are percived? by buyers? within the first 30? days on the market can be critical and sometimes adjustments are needed. Questions like: Are you getting showings??Maybe your getting?showings and no offers or how about getting no showings at all.? Knowing these answer can help a seller. Concerning the market perception and time on the market an appraiser said the market dictates the price these days.When the sellers list their homes and the statistics used for pricing their properties is not accurate this can mislead sellers down a? path with data that doesn’t tell the real story.

? I am a member of??The Central Coast Regional MLS?the?MLS provides the timing data on??listings as ?DOM (days on the market) and CDOM (cumulative days on the market) showing total days on the market and?whether or not it has been withdrawn, brought back as a new listing, or expired.?The consumer and subscribers ?get an accurate ?picture of what the?property history is and with their REALTOR can interpret the data relevant to their situation.

?Federal Reserve surprised the markets with a 0.75-point reduction last week?according to?Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and according to Hassett’s commentary?on Bloomberg.com is a reduction in the rate that size?had never happened?before. Ever since the Fed began announcing changes in its policy stance in February 1994, it has been rare for the central bank to move between regularly scheduled Open Market Committee meetings. Yet even in those moments when it did take emergency action, the Fed never reduced rates by as much as it did on Jan. 22 2008.The raw economic data today are a little better than they were in 2001, and a little worse than they were in 1998. Equity markets, on the other hand, are much worse than they were in 2001, and even worse than they were in 1998. Since actions in similar periods under similar conditions proved, in retrospect, to be propitiously timed, it is easy to justify more aggressive action this time around. One can even say with confidence that Feds of the past would, faced with today’s data, almost surely have acted in a similar manner. Kevin Hassett,? is an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of

I read?an interesing story recently about??the decline last month in new housing starts.The ?numbers for single-family housing starts are right on the money in terms of what we????ve been forecasting and what our members have told us in recent surveys,??? said Brian Catalde, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from El Segundo, Calif.? ???Builders are acting appropriately to manage the number of units coming on the market and help restore better balance to the supply-demand equation.???

???The 14.2 percent decline in overall housing starts for the month of December was due primarily to a 40 percent drop-off in the multifamily sector, which tends to display significant month-to-month volatility,??? noted NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. ???On a quarterly basis, multifamily production actually has held up relatively well since the peak in the early part of 2006.???Meanwhile, housing permits were down, by lesser margins, in three out of four regions in December. The Midwest posted a 10.6 percent decline, the South posted a 7.8 percent decline, and the West posted an 11.6 percent decline in overall permits for the month, while the Northeast registered a 1.6 percent increase.