Why Appeal Your Property Taxes Every Year

The conventional wisdom is to appeal your Cook County property taxes once and be done with it.

Even better: some make sure they appeal after the county has re-assessed property taxes every three years based on their triennial schedule (1/3 of all 38 Cook County townships are re-assessed each year).

Even better yet is to appeal every year – or to at least have Kensington run a free, no-obligation property tax appeal estimate to see how much savings may be achieved and if it’s worth the effort. Here’s why this makes sense.

Comps Change

Do home values in the Chicago metro area stay the same every year? Of course not. They change every month.

As such, valuations change based on the recent sale prices of comparable properties or “comps” that match your home’s characteristics – e.g. square footage, lot size, location, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, age, construction type, etc.

When the value set for your home by the assessor is greater than the value determined by actual comparable sales, you have a comparable sales argument to make for a reduction in your property’s assessed value – which requires a fair bit of research.

Nothing to Lose

The process begins with our free property tax appeal estimate. This determines how much you may save based on the most relevant comps. If we both agree that it’s worth it to appeal based on the estimate, then we proceed. You only pay a small percentage over the multi-year savings.

Though we have a success rate over 90%, you will not be charged anything if an appeal doesn’t generate any savings for you. Thus, what do you have to lose?

Appealing Twice per Year

What’s better than appealing once a year? How about twice per year?

Over the first eight months of the year, you can appeal with the Cook County Assessor. You can then also appeal with the Cook County Board of Review. If, based on our estimate, the assessor comes up a bit short you have another shot with the Board of Review.

Even if the window to appeal isn’t open with either the Assessor or Board of Review, contact us and we’ll reach back out to you when it is time to appeal – we’ll run the free estimate prior to contacting you so we already know what savings to expect.

Get Your Free Property Tax Reduction Estimate