Choose Your Real Estate Tax Provider Wisely

Have you ever wondered if the fee you pay your real estate tax provider is worth it? Or if switching to another provider (like Cavalry) makes sense? And if you do switch, how can you be sure you’ll get the same or better results if you’re paying a lower fee?

I’ve worked in this industry for almost 20 years in numerous capacities at small, medium and large firms… and I’ve heard those same questions more times than I can count. And my answer is always the same… you don’t.

Tampa Bay didn’t know if their bet on Tom Brady would pay off the way that it did, but what we all know is that math and statistics don’t lie. Our win rate and the average time it takes us to successfully resolve a tax appeal are better than the industry average. Using that as a baseline, the fact we can do it a lower cost to you is as sure a bet as signing a six-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the stats, commitment, and drive that make him stand out amongst his peers. The numbers simply don’t lie.

Let’s break it down:

Assume you own a $7.5 million office building in Washington, D.C. Using current commercial real estate tax rates, your tax bill would be $132,750. Let’s also assume that during a successful tax appeal, you reduce your assessment by 20%. The tax savings would be $26,550. Considering that your average real estate tax appeal service provider charges you 25%, you would owe that service provider $6,638. Cavalry charges a flat fee of just 15%, reducing that amount to $3,983.

But the benefit comparison doesn’t stop there.

The average time it takes for us to achieve savings is approximately 63 days. I know companies that thrive on keeping taxpayers and their properties wrapped up in appeals for YEARS! Slowly kicking the appeal down the pipeline until they ultimately end up in court. The process takes so long that by the time your appeal ends up on the court’s docket, two years have passed and you’re already fighting additional tax years before that first one was even resolved. To add insult to injury, some of those same firms charge you MORE once they get to court. After paying for a 3^rd party appraisal ($5,000+) plus the higher court fees (1/3 of the savings) and spending two years in the appeal process, your return on investment has diminished considerably.

Consider the time value of money. The longer someone holds onto your money, the less time that money has to grow as investment somewhere else. So why would you waste years tying up your tax money that could be invested elsewhere just to spend more to get it back in the end? I’ve always said that if you do the hard work up front and present a well-supported case, your best bet in resolving an appeal quickly is to resolve it with the individuals that assigned the value in the first place. I have operated this way successfully for decades and the numbers prove that out.

Bottom line: Cavalry will save you as much money or more than the average provider and we’ll get it done in less time at a lower fee because we’ve invested in processes, technology, business practices and the right people to do just that.