On the offchance that you haven't heard of the latest real estate scam related to declining property values, be on notice that residents throughout Santa Clara County are receiving invoices from an agency that appears to help homeowners get their property taxes lowered - for an outrageous fee.
The scam notices come from "Property Tax Reassessment" in Los Angeles and it claims that your property values have delined to far lower than your assessed value. We have lived in our Belwood of Los Gatos home for about 9.5 years, so our assessed value is far lower than market value (even today), but this document claimed that our property should be reassessed at about 20% lower still. My response to Jim, my husband, was "Thank goodness their proposed value is wrong". In fact, it's off in our case by about half.
Please, if you get this nonsense in your mail, just shred it.
You can check comps for your home online very easily and at NO cost at Zillow.com, Cyberhomes.com or on my Real Estate Report under the Property Analysis tab.
Hi Mary,
This truly is a sign of the times. Marty from Cyberhomes was recently interviewed by Dalia Fahmy of MSN money on another type of scam...foreclosure rescue! It's really sick how these criminals are taking advantage of desparate the times. Check out this article on tips for protecting yourself: http://budurl.com/2r55
Thanks. You're right - I'm hearing about the fake foreclosure rescue scams too. It's scary out there! Thanks for the url! I'll repost it here since on your comment it's just text rather than a link. http://budurl.com/2r55
A blog about Los Gatos real estate, homes, houses, condos, townhomes, housing market, neightborhoods, history, events, businesses, parks, schools, photos, issues, and lifestyle.
Mary Pope-Handy
Realtor, CRS, ABR, SRES, E-PRO
Luxor Real Estate Group
Mailing Address for Mary: PO Box 440 Los Gatos, CA 95031-0440
877 397-5391 (office/toll-free)