Top 7 New Home Trends

BY : Joshua Ferris

New homes are the top tier when it comes to home buying because they afford you the option to customize your home to your liking with upgrades and you get to be the first owner of the home. As the real estate market continues on its path to recovery there are many home builders who are now reconsidering what to include in a new home's standard features list.

Many of these newly included standard features previously served as pricey options so new home buyers today are getting the latest in creature comforts without the heavy price tag. Check out seven of the latest new home trends and keep this list handy as you browse new homes to see what's included in the builder's standard features list.

Granite Countertops and Undermount Sinks in Kitchen and Baths - This premier touch surface of high end homes can be seen on the standard features list of townhouses and other moderately priced properties nowadays. A secondary benefit to granite countertop surfaces is the undermount sink which means you won't have any sink edges rising up past the countertop creating a very clean, modern look.

Living Room Evolution - Living rooms used to serve as the crucial gathering room but today's homeowners tend to gather in the kitchen instead. If builders are using a floorplan that includes a living room you can expect it to offer features unseen in living rooms of the past like ethernet wall ports and home theater system niches to hide home theater hardware.

Solid Wood Front Doors - The cold steel front door is more frequently being swapped out with the vastly more attractive solid wood door. Solid wood doors come in many styles ranging from intricate glass detailed doors to solid wood doors reminiscent of those seen in craftsman home design.

Hardwood Floors - During the middle and late 20th century it was all the rage to have carpeting throughout your home because it was a softer walking surface and kept the floors warmer than hardwood and tile during the winter. Now that radiant floor heating and the demand for low maintenance flooring have become more common it's expected that hardwood floors will replace carpeting in high traffic areas like foyers, hallways and family rooms.

Stone Exteriors and Accents - Vinyl siding is very low maintenance and styling options have grown in recent years. Even so, full stone exteriors or stone accented exteriors are hot because they give a more substantial curb appeal to a home and help break up the monotony of some home designs.

Solid Interior Doors - An increasingly popular trend in new home design are solid interior doors. Solid interior doors are different because they create a stronger sound barrier between rooms and are more durable.

Nine to Ten Foot First Floor Ceilings - Feeling cramped inside a home is the number one reason homeowners opt to move up into a larger home. One way builders are countering this concern is to raise ceiling height by one to two feet bringing the total floor to ceiling distance to nine or ten feet. This creates a vastly more open space and the cost to builders is minimal.

Utilizing this list of the seven latest new home trends, many of which can now be found standard in new homes, you will have the distinct advantage of buying the most house for the money and owning a home that will require few, if any, updates should you decide to sell in the future.

Appealing Property Taxes for Your Home

BY : Patrick oconnor

Property taxes are a substantial expense for Texas homeowners, averaging about $3,600 annually. To reduce this expense, property owners should annually review and consider appealing property taxes. While there is no guarantee that an appeal will be successful, a recent survey conducted by O'Connor & Associates indicates that 70% of property tax appeals are successful.

Since the mortgage company typically disperses payments, property taxes tend to be a stealth tax. Although the homeowner writes a check, including taxes and insurance monthly, the property tax component is not evident. The property tax component can become quite evident when the homeowner is asked to fund a deficit in the escrow account.

Although 70% of property tax appeals are successful, only 7% of homeowners appeal each year. Research indicates five primary reasons homeowners do not appeal:

The process seems overwhelming and they do not know how to appeal,

They do not think an appeal is likely to be successful,

They think their home's assessed value is below market value and there is no basis for appealing,

They do not understand they can appeal on unequal appraisal,

They are busy and do not want to set aside time, given the presumption that "you can't fight city hall".

Why appeal?

Consider an appeal for a $150,000 house where the property taxes are reduced by 5%. This would reduce the assessed value by $7,500 and the property taxes by $225, based on a 3% tax rate. Since the typical appeal hearing takes less than an hour, these are meaningful savings for the time involved. Regularly appealing your property taxes will minimize the value, so you are assessed for less than most of your neighbors. Most of the property tax appeals are resolved at the informal hearing, which is the first step in the process.

How to appeal

The first step to appealing annually is to send a written notice to the appraisal review board (ARB) for the county in which your home is located. Even if you have not received a notice of assessed value from the appraisal district, file a notice of appeal by May 31st for the following reasons:
The notice of assessed value can get lost in the mail, A notice of assessed value is not necessary unless your assessed value increases by more than $1,000, and

You should appeal annually

You can file a notice of appeal by utilizing the Comptroller's form available at www.cutmytaxes.com or by sending a letter to the ARB. The letter to the ARB simply needs to identify the property being appealed and the basis for your appeal. You should always appeal on both market value and unequal appraisal. Since the appraisal district staff is extremely busy during late May and early June, sending any data on the value of your property tax is probably a waste of time. At the same time you send your notice of appeal to the ARB, send a "House Bill 201" request to the chief appraiser at the appraisal district. The House Bill 201 request will provide you a volume of information at a modest price.

Reasons for obtaining House Bill 201 information

Since most homeowners are not familiar with House Bill 201, you may be wondering what it is and when it became available. House Bill 201 is the term used by property tax consultants and appraisal district staff to describe provision 41.461 of the Texas Property Tax Code. This section reads as follows:

"at least 14 days before hearing on a protest, the chief appraiser shall: … inform the property owner that the owner or the agent of the owner may inspect and may obtain a copy of the data, schedules, formulas, and all other information the chief appraiser plans to introduce at the hearing to establish any matter at issue."

The property tax code further provides the chief appraiser the right to charge up to $15 for each residence, and up to $25 for each commercial property owner for this information. However, there are limits on the cost per page an appraisal district can charge. Practically speaking, the maximum charge is $1 to $2 for a residence. In Harris County, most homeowners can print this information from the appraisal district's web site once an appeal has been filed using the "I file" system.

This section of the tax code was added in 1991, but many appraisal districts have attempted to ignore this section of the property tax code for years and some still do. After discussing this section of the Texas Property Tax Code on a radio show in 2005, several listeners called back a week or two later to report certain appraisal districts were claiming to be unaware of this section. When O'Connor & Associates sent House Bill 201 requests to appraisal districts in 2005, some called us and said "what do you mean you want our information, we plan to use your information at the hearing to prove our value." While these examples seem quaint and cute, it is surprising that 15 years after taxpayer friendly legislation has been passed, that appraisal districts are still ignoring property owners and tax consultants who ask for this information.

There are at least seven reasons to utilize House Bill 201 to obtain the information the appraisal district will use at the hearing:

It is an effective way to obtain information regarding both market value and unequal appraisal for your property tax appeal, You will receive the appraisal district's information regarding the size, condition and other qualitative and quantitative data for your house,

The information can be obtained for a nominal cost, It is helpful to know what information your adversary will be able to use at the hearing, Making the request limits what information the appraisal district can present at the hearing. If you do not request their information prior to the hearing, they can use any information available to them at the hearing. However, if you request the appraisal district information using a House Bill 201 request, they may only use information previously provided to you,

If they do not provide you information on market value or unequal appraisal in the House Bill 201 request, you win by default at the ARB hearing, and In many cases, the appraisal district House Bill 201 information clearly supports a lower value.

Preparing for the hearing

When you receive the appraisal district House Bill 201 information, start by reviewing the appraisal district's description of your home and ask yourself these questions:

Is the year built accurate?

Are the qualities and amenities accurate?

If the appraisal district overstates either the quantity or quality of improvements to your property, this is an excellent means to reduce your property taxes both for the current year and subsequent years.

Filing a 2525c Appeal

If the appraisal district has overstated the size of your house by more than 5% to 10%, even if you did not file a property tax appeal in prior years, you should consider filing a 2525c appeal. This will allow you to reduce the assessed value of your property for the current year and for prior years.