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quote:
Originally posted by Owen..
It is possible in SoCal to get 1.5k to 2k a month for that. If it has a view maybe 3k
Edited by - itsnotyou on 09/12/2025 14:52:27
Complaining about property taxes and insurance is a position of privilege. I mean, I get it, I own, but just try renting once, eh? It's worse.
One way or another, when there is demand for government services (and there is in many places), some way must be found to pay for them. Often that has come in the form of high fees for building permits and other bureaucratic requirements that decades ago were covered by annual increases in the now-limited property taxes. Sales tax hikes, regressive as they are, are also used, along with state income tax, to take up the property tax shortfall. But when you go to a state like Oregon, with no state income tax, property taxes are through the roof. As the cliché has it, there is no free lunch
My bank handles my insurance.It's attached to my mortgage payment and that payment is slowly reducing.
quote:
Originally posted by reubenstumpTakoma Park declared itself the first nuclear free city or something like that way back in the 60s. When I was a kid and we lived in College Park we went to Takoma Park Baptist Church. I still remember the huge oak trees on both sides of the road by the church, which created an amazing canopy that completely spanned the road.
It was a bit later. Takoma Park passed its nuclear-free ordinance in 1983. It's been the object of much derision. Mostly by people who think the very name is a joke, since it was never very likely that any businesses within the city would ever engage in the production, transportation, storage, disposal, or use of nuclear weapons or their components. And it was never It also prohibits the city from doing business with businesses engaged in any of those activities. The ordinance has a waiver provision, which I think has been invoked a couple of times over practicality. My recollection they involved the acquisition of new police cars and radios.
I've always wondered if any of the many work-at-home consultants here in town had Pentagon contracts. Never wondered enough to do anything about it.
As to the grand oaks, we lost both of ours to root rot years ago. Cost over $2,000 each to take them down. No idea what that would cost today. We miss the shade, but not the clogged gutters, leaf raking or acorns bombing our cars.
In the 80s the property tax for 38 stone-walled,forested acres and new 24' saltbox was $150.
Now it's $1250.
quote:
Originally posted by Old Hickoryquote:
Originally posted by 1935tb-11its a racket,,for sure between property taxes and home owners insurance we are paying bout 288 dollars a month. A MONTH !
You're paying $3,456 for property taxes and insurance, PER YEAR? Total?
I bet you wouldn't want to trade with me.
is yours 1100 sq ft and in the county ? 91/100 of an acre . we do have county water of which i am not hooked up to. but no sewer service. and a fire hydrant about 200 feet from the house.
quote:
Originally posted by 1935tb-11
is yours 1100 sq ft and in the county ? 91/100 of an acre . we do have county water of which i am not hooked up to. but no sewer service. and a fire hydrant about 200 feet from the house.
Do you mean an 1100 SF house on .91 of an acre?
No. I have an approximate 2500 SF house on about 4/10 of an acre.
I have a 100' drilled well and a septic system that don't owe me anything and have been paid for for over 20 years.
I would have paid off my mortgage by 2007,but the only way for me to continue lobstering was to get a bigger boat and hire a sternman.
I didn't know at the time that I was going to have to sell my new boat at a loss 4 years after buying it.
I survived that.
I use the cheapest insurance in my area, with full coverage and replacement costs. But I have noticed they insure my house for $30,000-$60,000 over the tax assessment. And that's their final answer. Tax assessments are only good for the year of reassessment, and then while value continues to rise, the assessment doesn't. And I know for a fact, they will never give me their insurance assessed value should I suffer a total loss. Not going to happen. The biggest problem in Tennessee is, people are moving here from northern and western States. By coming from areas with much more expensive cost of living, there have been bidding wars for homes, none being nearly as expensive as what they left. So you see, about two years ago, the State seeing this, came in and raised values across the board around $50K per every home, to keep up with the demand and bidding wars. You would think having a highly increased value would be great, but just think, if you sell, you will never be able to replace your property. Not to mention taxes, which so far have been adjusted down so there hasn't been an increase yet. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world.
your right elmo...... i did a search on 300,000 dollar houses in my area of the county,,, all that showed up was some land plots. no houses. but brand new 1700 sq ft cookie cutter houses are priced at 310,000 on a half acre.
and ken if you have a 2500 sq ft house then NO NO NO i would not want to pay your taxes. or home owners .
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Originally posted by Elmo_SmileyAnd I know for a fact, they will never give me their insurance assessed value should I suffer a total loss. Not going to happen.
No, it isn't. First, there's the deductible. Second, there's depreciation - and they don't pay out for that, either.
Let me tell you a story, which might serve as something of a cautionary tale. About six years ago, we had a pipe burst on the second floor. Huge amount of water damage. Much of the first floor, mostly the kitchen/family area, had to be gutted and high-powered dehumidifies brought in to prevent mold. The second floor had to be totally stripped of furniture and carpeting, and the sheetrock was cut up to about 18" so things could be dried/dehumidified.
At the recommendation of the owner best flooring place in town (we went there because we were going to need new floors and what else were we going to do right then?) we hired an independent adjuster. It was a smart move. They take ten percent of the insurance payout for their service - and IMO that was money VERY well spent. Among other things, they do all the wrangling with the insurance company for you.
There were several things that really helped us make the house far better than it was before the damage. First was the kitchen cabinetry: when my late parents bought the house, the cabinetry was already there. As we were doing the demolition, I happened to notice that there was a brand badge on the sink unit. It turned out that the company was not only still in business - it was a super-premium brand, and the insurance company is responsible for matching value (once past deductible and, of course, with 10% knocked off for "depreciation." Even so, that allowed us to buy quality MIDRANGE cabinetry and bank the difference towards other improvements.
Second was the first-floor flooring. It was 7" white oak. That stuff is INCREDIBLY expensive. The settlement was based on the idea of replacing that in the kitchen/family area (about 60% of the floor area) and refinish the remainder to match. Instead, we opted to re-do the entire first floor (except carpeted areas) with 3" red oak - and that was pretty much a wash.
The third item was that a large part of the walls in the impacted area was painted judge's paneling -and truth to tell, it was NOT in great shape. But it was to be replaced, and the settlement value reflected that. Instead, we opted to replace it with sheet rock - which is MUCH cheaper.
Similarly, the bedrooms on the second floor were all wallpapered. Wall papering is a much more expensive process than painting (you need to remove the old wallpaper in both cases), and wallpaper is definitely a matter of taste. So we opted to paint the rooms instead. And we like them much better (as I said, wallpaper is a matter of taste, and the taste of the previous owners wasn't exactly the same as ours).
The lesson here is that you can make certain decisions based upon what was there before and what you'd like to have next. And that brings us to the one place where we got screwed.
The second floor carpeting was all soaked and needed to be jettisoned. It was pretty nice stuff! Unfortunately, the recovery company in on the first stage of things (demolition, de-humidification) didn't save a sample of that carpeting. Had they done so, we could have replaced the upstairs carpeting with something much nicer than we did; the insurance companies have par values for most things (cabinets, carpeting, etc.) and base their settlement offers off of that. We got lucky with the kitchen; we lost out on the second floor.
So here's my counsel. If you have a major loss, hire a quality independent adjuster. They know the game; they know how the insurance companies try to lowball, and they know the way the policies work. Some of the aesthetic decisions described above were based on what we wanted the house to be post-incident, but the money saved in that stuff made up for much of the 10% fee the adjuster charged. As said, it was money well spent.
Second: know what you've got, pre-incident, and have that information stored in such a manner that you can access it if you need to. The decisions with the wallpaper and judge's paneling were easy. But we saved a boatload in the kitchen because of the fortuitous discovery of the brand - which was purely luck. If only we'd had proof of the carpeting!
To finish the tale, the demolition in the immediate aftermath revealed some rather alarming structural deficits owing to projects done by the previous owner. I needn't get into those, other than to say that we were able to correct a lot of problems we had no idea existed, and do so, reasonably within the confines of the insurance settlement, thanks to decisions made along the way.
No, we didn't get full replacement value on anything. But we did end up with a stronger and more attractive house, without a huge amount out of pocket.
quote:
Originally posted by eagleislandquote:
Originally posted by Elmo_SmileyAnd I know for a fact, they will never give me their insurance assessed value should I suffer a total loss. Not going to happen.
No, it isn't. First, there's the deductible. Second, there's depreciation - and they don't pay out for that, either.
Let me tell you a story, which might serve as something of a cautionary tale. About six years ago, we had a pipe burst on the second floor. Huge amount of water damage. Much of the first floor, mostly the kitchen/family area, had to be gutted and high-powered dehumidifies brought in to prevent mold. The second floor had to be totally stripped of furniture and carpeting, and the sheetrock was cut up to about 18" so things could be dried/dehumidified.
At the recommendation of the owner best flooring place in town (we went there because we were going to need new floors and what else were we going to do right then?) we hired an independent adjuster. It was a smart move. They take ten percent of the insurance payout for their service - and IMO that was money VERY well spent. Among other things, they do all the wrangling with the insurance company for you.
There were several things that really helped us make the house far better than it was before the damage. First was the kitchen cabinetry: when my late parents bought the house, the cabinetry was already there. As we were doing the demolition, I happened to notice that there was a brand badge on the sink unit. It turned out that the company was not only still in business - it was a super-premium brand, and the insurance company is responsible for matching value (once past deductible and, of course, with 10% knocked off for "depreciation." Even so, that allowed us to buy quality MIDRANGE cabinetry and bank the difference towards other improvements.
Second was the first-floor flooring. It was 7" white oak. That stuff is INCREDIBLY expensive. The settlement was based on the idea of replacing that in the kitchen/family area (about 60% of the floor area) and refinish the remainder to match. Instead, we opted to re-do the entire first floor (except carpeted areas) with 3" red oak - and that was pretty much a wash.
The third item was that a large part of the walls in the impacted area was painted judge's paneling -and truth to tell, it was NOT in great shape. But it was to be replaced, and the settlement value reflected that. Instead, we opted to replace it with sheet rock - which is MUCH cheaper.
Similarly, the bedrooms on the second floor were all wallpapered. Wall papering is a much more expensive process than painting (you need to remove the old wallpaper in both cases), and wallpaper is definitely a matter of taste. So we opted to paint the rooms instead. And we like them much better (as I said, wallpaper is a matter of taste, and the taste of the previous owners wasn't exactly the same as ours).
The lesson here is that you can make certain decisions based upon what was there before and what you'd like to have next. And that brings us to the one place where we got screwed.
The second floor carpeting was all soaked and needed to be jettisoned. It was pretty nice stuff! Unfortunately, the recovery company in on the first stage of things (demolition, de-humidification) didn't save a sample of that carpeting. Had they done so, we could have replaced the upstairs carpeting with something much nicer than we did; the insurance companies have par values for most things (cabinets, carpeting, etc.) and base their settlement offers off of that. We got lucky with the kitchen; we lost out on the second floor.
So here's my counsel. If you have a major loss, hire a quality independent adjuster. They know the game; they know how the insurance companies try to lowball, and they know the way the policies work. Some of the aesthetic decisions described above were based on what we wanted the house to be post-incident, but the money saved in that stuff made up for much of the 10% fee the adjuster charged. As said, it was money well spent.
Second: know what you've got, pre-incident, and have that information stored in such a manner that you can access it if you need to. The decisions with the wallpaper and judge's paneling were easy. But we saved a boatload in the kitchen because of the fortuitous discovery of the brand - which was purely luck. If only we'd had proof of the carpeting!
To finish the tale, the demolition in the immediate aftermath revealed some rather alarming structural deficits owing to projects done by the previous owner. I needn't get into those, other than to say that we were able to correct a lot of problems we had no idea existed, and do so, reasonably within the confines of the insurance settlement, thanks to decisions made along the way.
No, we didn't get full replacement value on anything. But we did end up with a stronger and more attractive house, without a huge amount out of pocket.
Great information! Fortunately, I have a great insurance company, USAA, and have had several claims for water damage due to broken pipe over the 50 plus year I have insured with them. Fortunately they were in a finished basement, so the damage was limited. In both cases of the water damage we were totally reimbursed the full value of the work, less the deductible. I probably would not hire an independent adjuster to deal with them, but in most cases I think that is an excellent idea.
quote:
Originally posted by BanjoLinkGreat information! Fortunately, I have a great insurance company, USAA, and have had several claims for water damage due to broken pipe over the 50 plus year I have insured with them. Fortunately they were in a finished basement, so the damage was limited. In both cases of the water damage we were totally reimbursed the full value of the work, less the deductible. I probably would not hire an independent adjuster to deal with them, but in most cases I think that is an excellent idea.
If it was limited to the basement, I might not have hired one either. The described event impacted all three levels of the house, furniture. fixtures and appliances. It impacted pretty much everything. Forget what the total was, but if memory serves the entire recovery was close to $230,000 once everything was added up; once the adjuster was paid I think we were out of pocket maybe $20K. And a decent chunk of that involved fixing the structural issues we found once the place was gutted.
Edited by - eagleisland on 09/21/2025 10:16:25
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