anita wrote:
OK folks, thanks for all the helpful info. We finally "MAY" be
getting the
house. I am not going to post all the details of what happened here-
just
yet. We plan to complain about it to the appropriate authority- if I
have
the energy to. I say "may" because we no longer know what our agent
is
capable of and at what stage this can be derailed. It helps that many

parties involved in the transaction have seen through the scheming of
this
agent so we are trying to do this by keeping him out of the picture
as much
as possible. still who knows- I have my finers crossed...

We are buying this house for a few thousand less than the assessed
value as
shown in the assessment records. But the assessed value of this house
is
still WAY over the assessed value of the immediate neighbours with
MUCH
bigger plots, more accesible, newer built and better maintained. I
dont
understand how our assesment could be so way off.

Are there any grounds for contesting this assessment ? Or do we have
to
just live with it- because by buying this house we have PROVED that
the
assessment is close to its market value. It does not seem fair that
this
property has such a high tax compared to its neighbours twice the
size of
the lot, and newer buildings, better maintained etc.,

BTW Its in King county, WA

Thanks
Anita

Have you checked out the township/town records regarding their
assessment basis? A two-second search on google turns up:

http://www.metrokc.gov/appeals/faqs.htm

Seems like a pretty codified process.

Caledonia