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It's Reassessment Time!
 This year, assessors will be out looking at property in St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and in St. Charles to determine whether or not the property's tax bill will increase or decrease.
Why is this important for us? As real estate agents, we are able to provide valuable information on reassessment to our clients and the community.
What is a reassessment?
Before we jump into what reassessments are, let’s begin with plain old assessments. An assessment is a process that is done to determine one’s property tax bills, which are based on both the assessed value of your property and the property tax rates. Reassessments are processes that simply reevaluate your property for tax purposes. It happens to everyone every other year.
Why are reassessments done?
A reassessment is done to make sure that your property is assessed based on current market values. Market values change as the years go by, so reassessments are there to help equalize among taxpayers, along with accurately reflecting current market conditions.
How can we help?
Tools like the new Buyside BMA can be helpful to our clients during reassessment, as it can provide them with a more accurate property valuation, based on the area, size, features and additions to their home. By providing a free home valuation and BMA, we can tell them what they can expect their property value to increase or decrease by and how that might affect their taxes.
What if they disagree with the assessor’s opinion on property value?
There is always the option to file an appeal to the Board of Equalization (BOE) if a client doesn’t agree with the assessor. Here’s the only catch – they can only file an appeal every other year. For example, if they choose to file an appeal this year, they can’t put in another appeal in 2020.
We highly recommend reaching out to your clients and encouraging them to let you do an evaluation on their property for them, so that they know what to expect. Not only is this information helpful to them, but it can also be a conversation starter if they are looking to sell!
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BHHS Moves to Milan
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices now has an office in Milan, Italy!
Chris Stuart, CEO of HSF Affiliates, met with the Italian media regarding the upcoming transition of Milan's Maggi Properties to a BHHS franchise.
Maggi Properties is independently owned and operated by founder and CEO Cesare Maggi.
“We are proud to represent the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand in Milan and throughout Northern Italy,” said Maggi. “We believe the brand will be embraced by local and international clients seeking real estate guidance. Also, the brand will be sought out by American clients looking for property in Milan, Lake Como and the Tuscany region.”
Welcome to the BHHS family Maggi Properties!
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You Can't Buy Your Business
As we all know, there are plenty of disruptors in this industry, including ones from unexpected places.
For example, on average, only 2% of all business for Realtors comes from third-party referral companies. Meaning that the paid leads that come through Zillow or Realtor.com, are minimal in your overall lead generation business plan.
Furthermore, nearly 60% of your business comes directly from your sphere, and 20% comes from your website or social media, including tools like Buyside. Across the board, the trend we are seeing is that paid leads are just not worth it, as they are often not credible or non-existant.
The above chart came from an awesome Real Estate Disruptor course at Convention this year, and shows exactly where business can come from. Another thing to note, is that you can actually get the same number of leads from an open house or client appreciation event, as you can from paid lead generation for a brokerage our size.
This market is competitive, and everyone wants more leads. However the data shows, it's just not worth it to pay for that business - your efforts are better spent on new ways to engage your existing sphere and increasing your online sphere.
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HSA A/C Tune-Up
HSA is now offering a Spring A/C tune-up for only $75 for those with an HSA Home Warranty!
If your clients recently purchased a home warranty through HSA or are wondering if they should with the purchase of their new home, this might be the time to do so. A/C work can be expensive, and this tune-up can keep costs low all year 'round by performing much needed maintenance a homes ventilation system.
Speak to your HSA representative for more information, and the A/C Tune-Up flyer is available now on the Marketing REsource Center.
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May 4th
Shred It Day
All Offices
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September 23rd
SSK Golf Tournament
WingHaven Country Club
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