tax assessors

I'm thinking of buying a property and building, but the average yearly property tax being something like $20 per $1000 is a daunting commitment.

I did a search for "Assessors" and "tax" and didn't really find anything relevant.

Does anyone have experience with how their earth berm, tiny house, wofati, or small quaint passive solar structure is assessed, relative to the average stick and siding job? Do assessors see this as a decrease in value, or an increase? and do they take into account the idea that it may cost almost nothing to heat year round? How do assessors view permie edges that may look like chaos to the uninitiated?

Thanks for any input.

Aaron Harris wrote:I'm thinking of buying a property and building, but the average yearly property tax being something like $20 per $1000 is a daunting commitment.

I did a search for "Assessors" and "tax" and didn't really find anything relevant.

Does anyone have experience with how their earth berm, tiny house, wofati, or small quaint passive solar structure is assessed, relative to the average stick and siding job? Do assessors see this as a decrease in value, or an increase? and do they take into account the idea that it may cost almost nothing to heat year round? How do assessors view permie edges that may look like chaos to the uninitiated?

Thanks for any input.

As a rule of thumb, I would suggest looking at it like a lender would if you were to get a loan for your project, and document your costs so you can argue with something when they rape you. Assessors are globally and fundamentally incompetent and will pull arbitrary numbers out of their rear end. Usually on subjective comparisons of recently sold property. If they have nothing to compare a living structure to, they would probably compare it to a high end house of the same square footage, or a shed for a non-living area.

There is a fundamental problem with assessment, in that the only time anything has any monetary value is at the time it is bought and sold. Also value is different than price as price can change wildly depending on conditions of the transaction and value is subjective to whims of the individual. For example if a seller is willing to wait a year before selling, he is likely to get a higher price than someone who must sell the same property within a week. Or someone who is sentimentally connected to a property, may be less likely to take a low ball offer. Thus any number assessors come up with is arbitrary, speculative, biased and largely random.

Aaron H. : Assessors measure the outside envelope of the structure , this means they charge more for the number of square feet in a well insulated house
as compared to the square feet in a same sized building with 2x4 walls, The Best you can hope for is that something visually comparable was sold on the open
market about the time you get assessed ! Big AL

Thanks for the input.