- Oct 28, 1999
- 62,484
- 8,344
- 126
As many know I'm building a house. Since we signed a contract and submitted plans (over a year ago) we've been able to see the last two years of tax assessments of similar houses in our area.
The only word to describe it is "disgusting". I'm talking like $12,000-$14,000 a year on a $300k-$350k house. They've gone up almost $4,000 per house in the last two assessments. Bleh.
That being known...and with my place being already framed...I'm wondering if I can leave some places "unfinished" so as not to count towards the living sq/ft.
I've got two rooms in particular that I would consider. I've got an over 300 sq/ft "bonus" room over my garage that I could just stick a door on leave framed out. I've also got an interesting floorplan that has a 220 sq/ft room that sits about 4' off of my basement floor and a couple feet into the "main" living space that I could easily hang a door on and leave.
Problem is that both have electrical and HVAC duct work run to them. How would an assessor count that? If it was bare studs and not "finished" does it count because of the electrical and HVAC being there? Neither room is really connected to any main living space. They are both in corners of the home and have no other connected rooms to them.
Not counting that sq/ft would probably save about $2k a year in taxes at this point.
The only word to describe it is "disgusting". I'm talking like $12,000-$14,000 a year on a $300k-$350k house. They've gone up almost $4,000 per house in the last two assessments. Bleh.
That being known...and with my place being already framed...I'm wondering if I can leave some places "unfinished" so as not to count towards the living sq/ft.
I've got two rooms in particular that I would consider. I've got an over 300 sq/ft "bonus" room over my garage that I could just stick a door on leave framed out. I've also got an interesting floorplan that has a 220 sq/ft room that sits about 4' off of my basement floor and a couple feet into the "main" living space that I could easily hang a door on and leave.
Problem is that both have electrical and HVAC duct work run to them. How would an assessor count that? If it was bare studs and not "finished" does it count because of the electrical and HVAC being there? Neither room is really connected to any main living space. They are both in corners of the home and have no other connected rooms to them.
Not counting that sq/ft would probably save about $2k a year in taxes at this point.