Well, good afternoon, everybody. This is Chris Berger. It’s time for a Berger Point.You know, being here in the middle of November, looking forward to buying a new house in the spring or selling your house in the spring,

I wanted to bring your attention to your taxes on the house and what you can do to lower them and what you should do.

Because basically me as a buyer, when I’m looking at a house, if the taxes say are over $12,000.Well, I could eliminate that fairly quickly because I can’t afford that.

So maybe my limit might be $10,000.But you as a seller with a $12,000 tax bill, you can certainly enter your name and address into the STAR program of New York State and they will lower your taxes.You’ll get a rebate.

However, one thing that I tell all of my clients on both sides, buyer or seller, is that if a property is available —- Well, if you own that home and the taxes are too high, then go to your town board, make an appointment and do something called grieving your taxes.

And if you don’t want to do it, it’s not terribly difficult.

However, if you can also hire someone and they will charge you a fee based on what they’ve reduced your taxes.

So if they’ve reduced your taxes by $1,000, they may charge you 25% of that.

But it’s well worth it.It’s something to do over the next six months, especially now that prices have sort of stabilized, if not dropped a little bit.

So you’re in the driver’s seat. So go grieve your taxes and get ready for the spring. That's my point.

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