How to Review a Home’s Property Tax Appeal & Exemption History in Cook County

Because not everyone appeals their property taxes, or does so effectively because they try doing it themselves or use an inexperienced third-party service, a home in Cook County may be over-assessed.

Additionally, not everyone claims all of the exemptions due to them – or they do claim exemptions that you don’t qualify for if you are to purchase the property, and they pay much less than you will have to as a result.

If you’re planning to purchase a new home in Cook County and want to know how much you’re on the hook for, or want to know a home’s appeal and exemption history for any other reason, this blog outlines the steps for how to do so.

The Steps

1. Go to the Cook County Property Tax Portal
2. Enter your PIN – if you do not know your PIN, you can find it by entering your address here
3. In the middle of the page, under “EXEMPTIONS,” you will see “[x] Exemptions Received” received by the homeowner; by clicking on this link, you will see which exemption(s) were received – every homeowner should receive the “homeowner exemption” if the property serves as their primary residence
4. Under “APPEALS,” you will see “Appeal Filed” indicated for each year an appeal was filed either with the Cook County Assessor or Board of Review; though it does not say how much of a reduction was achieved; “Not Accepting Appeals” is listed for years when an appeal was not filed
5. To see the recent appeal history at the Assessor’s office for the property, click here and enter the PIN
6. To see the recent appeal history at the Board of Review for the property, click here and enter the PIN

Know Before You Buy

Before buying a home, it’s important for prospective homeowners to know both appeal and exemption history to understand what your monthly mortgage payment will include. Specifically, you’ll want to know:

• If the previous owner did not appeal, you could reduce your property taxes by hundreds or thousands per year and we can estimate how much is possible at no charge to you
• If the previous owner did appeal but only received a reduction of a few hundred dollars, you could potentially receive a higher reduction
• If the previous owner didn’t claim any exemptions, you at least qualify for the homeowner’s exemption if this is to be your primary residence and you may qualify for some of these other exemptions if you are a senior and/or veteran
• If the previous owner did claim an exemption that you do not qualify for, your property taxes will likely be higher—perhaps significantly higher—than is reported by Cook County
• If you buy the home for a price below the market value on which its assessed value is based, you may be able to use your purchase price as an argument for reducing the assessment; conversely, if you pay more for the property than the market value on which its assessed value is based, Cook County will likely raise your assessed value the next time your township is assessed

Confused or Don’t Have the Time?

Let us do the heavy lifting for you. We can evaluate the property’s appeal and exemption history, use our proprietary algorithm to determine how much of a property tax reduction is possible, and estimate your property taxes going forward. Get started today by clicking the link below:

Get Your Free Property Tax Reduction Estimate