I’ve noticed a lot of news lately regarding homeowners attempting to lower their property taxes due to reduced home values. My first instinct was, “Sign me up!” After all, my home’s value dropped more than 55% in the last few years. On one hand, this could mean thousands of dollars in savings, especially in areas like mine where the decline in home values is significant. On the other, what will it mean for publicly-funded services like fire departments, law enforcement, schools, and libraries?

Perhaps nothing. As the amount of property tax collected decreases, local governments can raise the tax rate to make up for it. Wait, I could actually end up with a tax increase this year?

“Taxes are based on property values times [the tax rate]. We could have declining values but make up for it by raising the rate,” said Bill Donegan, the property appraiser for Orange County, Fla., which includes my hometown, Orlando. (source CNNMoney.com)

But wait, there’s more. He goes on to say that the decline in home values has been so great, it’s unlikely that any increase in tax rate would offset the lower assessments. To make up for it, local governments can raise fees and even taxes in other areas.  In other words, the money is going to come out of your pocket eventually.

In the meantime, if you want to challenge your property tax assessment, eppraisal.com can assist.  Here are some steps to follow:

• Know your home’s property value and compare it to the tax assessment value.
• Verify the information on record (number of rooms, square footage, etc.)
• Research neighborhood property values
• Get an appraisal from a licensed professional appraiser
• Submit your case to the county tax assessor

Today eppraisal.com released its National Real Estate Market Analysis report for 186 markets across the continental U.S. This report, which tracks median sales price of residential homes, compares data on homes sold in the last three months ending May 2009 with homes sold in the previous three months beginning on December 2008 and ending February 2009.

For the first time this year, more than half of the markets tracked by eppraisal.com saw an increase in the median home value. Of the 97 markets that saw positive gains, more than 25 percent of those markets saw a double-digit increase in the median home value. For example, in the Ohio markets of Columbus, Sandusky, Lima, and Cleveland-Elyria, all saw double-digit increases of 12.7 percent, 23.1 percent, 26.7 percent, and 29.9 percent respectively. Overall, increases were seen across most states. Ithaca, NY, saw an increase of 16.9 percent to a median home value of $159,000, Fairbanks, AK, increased by 9.3 percent to a median home value of $225,506, and Boston-Quincy, Mass., areas increased by 7.1 persent to a median value of $300,000.

In the previous report, smaller markets led the list with overall increases in home values; however, larger markets have begun to make a comeback as well. For example, San Jose-Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, Calif., saw an increase of 8.4 percent to a median value of $439,000. San Francisco-San Mateo, Calif., was up 10.4 percent to a median value of $635,000, and Chicago-Naperville, Ill., saw an increase of 3.1 percent to a median value of $115,000. This is the second time this year that San Francisco has seen an increase in home values. For the first time this year there are more positive markets in California than negative.

On the other side of the country, Florida leads the list with the most declines, with 14 of the 19 markets tracked by eppraisal.com showing declines in the median home value. In Jacksonville, Fla., home prices dropped 3.9 percent to a median home value of $152,900. In the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, home values dropped 3 percent to a median value of $125,000. The Orlando-Kissimmee area dropped 8.5 percent to a median home value of $151,000.

Overall, the markets are showing signs of recovery and surprisingly less than five percent of the markets tracked by eppraisal.com saw more than a 10 percent drop in home values. This is down from the more than 30 percent of markets seeing a 10 percent or higher decline in the median home value that was reported in the March 2009 report.

See a complete list of rankings.

Today, eppraisal.com launched a new version of its Real Estate Professional Directory, allowing real estate professionals to list their business profiles not only on eppraisal.com, but also on Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, Yellowpages.com, and 80 other search engines and local directories.

Using the advanced directory service, real estate professionals get a profile page on top-ranked eppraisal.com as well as numerous other local directories, improving their online visibility on local search engines and directories.

According to the Kelsey Group, 70 percent of online searchers will use local search to find offline businesses. To support this trend, search engines have dedicated a large portion of their search results page to local search listings. For example, consumers searching for a local professional on major search engines (ie. Appraisers in Orlando) are presented with local business listings and a general map of the area. Additional business listings are shown in the “organic” results from other local directories, like eppraisal.com, Kudzu, and Yellowpages.com. With eppraisal.com’s new Professional Directory, real estate professionals can use one central location to list their business profiles on multiple directories and get greater exposure in both local and organic search engine results.

The eppraisal.com Professional Directory offers a paid service and a scaled-down free service, which is currently available to six real estate professional types: real estate agents, mortgage brokers, home inspectors, appraisers, home stagers, and title and escrow officers. During the next few months, additional professional types will be launched to the site.

Sign up for the eppraisal.com Real Estate Professional Directory.

There’s something about the iPhone that has you salivating even as you hear the name being spoken. And with all the innovative apps that are being developed for this smartphone, life sure becomes a whole lot easier when you’re able to access all that you need right from the palm of your hand. Whether you just dabble in real estate or are a real enthusiast, these five apps meant for the iPhone are just what you need to make your real estate dealings and searches more comfortable:

Coldwellbanker: This nifty application allows you to search for homes based on location, city, state, zip code, price (set minimum and maximum amounts), the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the most recent search results. Another useful utility is the one that allows you to view the values of homes in certain neighborhoods.

StreetEasy Real Estate: StreetEasy provides you with a complete real estate view of New York, allowing you to pull details of home values, building information, photographs and other data through simple searches. You could get detailed information of a particular apartment or any other building and also information on similar listings if you are looking for alternatives.

Puluwai: Another search application for the iPhone, Puluwai allows you to search for homes and other property based on location, price, keywords and the number of bedrooms. You could also search using the iPhone’s GPS capabilities.

Home Finder: Besides acting as a valuable real estate search tool, Home Finder also includes a nifty calculator that you can use to process mortgage rates and plan payment schedules. You can store your recent searches, email them to friends and others, and view maps of areas you are interested in.

Zillow Real Estate: This is one baby that’s smooth both when you’re on the move and when you’re stationary. It provides you with real estate information about houses in the area you’re in and about property in any area you want to view. You’re given information about recently sold homes, homes that are available for purchase, and the values of homes in the locality.

This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of construction management degree at her blog The Fixer-Upper Blog. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.

How your move goes depends to a large degree on your interaction with the moving company you hire, and communication plays a key role in that. Here are some tips to help things go smoothly:

1. When the moving company estimator comes to your home to give you moving quotes, be explicit about what you want and don’t want moved. First, it will likely affect your long distance moving cost — the more stuff you have, the pricier it will be. Also, if you want something to stay at the house but the moving company is unaware of that, you might pay more because of the greater weight — and you’ll have the extra hassle of getting it back.
2. Make sure the moving company has a clear understanding of move-out and delivery dates. If there are things that could change the move date — closings, building move-out dates, etc. — let your moving company know. If something does come up, tell the movers right away. This is particularly important during mover’s busy season in the summer.
3. If there’s a special item that you’re very concerned about because of its value or fragility, let the mover know that so they can prepare accordingly.
4. The moving company needs to know about any obstacles to the move at the origin home and the ship-to home. Knowing this ahead of time will ensure the moving company has the proper equipment and workers to handle your move.
5. The moving company also must know about any items that need special packaging or services. Certain items in a typical household, like appliances, may require servicing by a 3rd party company instead of the moving company.
6. For the unloading, tell the mover, or map it out for them on a schematic, where moving boxes and furniture will go in your new house. This will ensure things go more smoothly for your move.
7. Finally, give the workers refreshments or lunch, and if they earn it, tip them like you would for any other service. A happy worker will be that much more apt to do good work for you.

Get free moving quotes from licensed and professional movers.

Source: Relocation.com