Are you overpaying your property tax?

Yes. California Revenue and Taxation Code section 51 requires the Assessor to temporarily lower your assessed value when it exceeds your home's market value on January 1. Every county runs a free review process for this. We prepare the county's own form with evidence that follows the state's published rules, and you sign it.

We look at every recent, arm's-length sale of a similar home near yours, generally within a mile and a half and always inside your county, because that is the market a county appraiser measures you against. Timing counts as much as location: the law values your home as of January 1, so we favor sales closest to that date and use none that closed after March 31, the cutoff the state sets. We adjust each of those sales to your home for the differences that matter: living-area size, bedrooms, bathrooms, age, and lot. We then put the strongest and most similar of them on your worksheet, the ones an appraiser is least likely to challenge, and your opinion of value is the median of those adjusted sales. That is the same reconciliation an appraiser uses, and you can check it yourself against the table on your own worksheet. Swap or remove any of them and the value recomputes on the spot.

California assessors weigh residential evidence by State Board of Equalization Publication 30, the official guide for these reviews. It calls recent, arm's-length sales of similar homes the most reliable evidence, adjusted for real differences and dated near January 1. That is exactly what we build: nearby sales inside the valuation window the law requires, each adjusted to your home for size, bedrooms, bathrooms, age, and lot, presented on the state's own comparison work sheet so the appraiser can check every figure. We deliberately do not adjust for things public records cannot confirm, such as condition or view, because an unsupported adjustment invites a challenge.

You get a complete, ready-to-file package, not just a number. It is the county's own review form, filled in, plus a professional comparable-sales work sheet in the format the state's appraisers use. The work sheet places your home next to the comparable sales, side by side, and shows line by line how each sale was adjusted to yours for size, bedrooms, bathrooms, age, and lot. It is the kind of exhibit a private appraiser or tax agent would charge hundreds of dollars to prepare. You review it, sign once, and from there we follow your county's own process: where the Assessor accepts mail, email, or fax, we file it for you and confirm it arrived. Where a county takes filings only through its portal, as Santa Clara does, we hand you a ready-to-submit packet that takes about two minutes.

Checking is free. Filing is a flat $29, charged only when you decide to file, after you have seen your completed form and signed it. No percentage of your savings and no subscription: your reduction is entirely yours. See pricing.

The check is free with no obligation, and the review itself can only lower your assessed value or leave it unchanged. A decline-in-value review cannot raise your Prop 13 base value, and next year's assessment is set the same way whether or not you file.

No. By law your taxable value is always the lower of your Prop 13 base value or your January 1 market value, so a review can only leave your assessment where it is or bring it down. Asking never costs you.

Nothing changes: your taxes stay exactly as they are. You can also take it to your county's Assessment Appeals Board, which charges a filing fee of roughly $30 to $60. Deadlines vary, November 30 in most counties and September 15 in a few. We email you before yours arrives.

You can watch it happen. Your status page updates live at every step, and you get an email at each milestone. Fax counties send back a delivery receipt. Email counties receive your form with you copied on the same email. In mail counties like Los Angeles, we print and mail the county's own form First-Class with USPS tracking, and we email you again the day the postal service confirms delivery. The exact signed document we send is attached to your confirmation email, and you can view it any time from your status page.

No. This is an informal request the Assessor's staff review on paper. There is no court, no hearing, and no office visit; at most, an appraiser may call your daytime number with a question.

A decline-in-value review is an informal request, not an appeal. You give the Assessor your opinion of value and comparable sales, and a county appraiser reviews it on paper. There is no hearing and nothing to attend. A formal appeal is a separate filing with the county's Assessment Appeals Board, and it can involve a hearing. It is not only for when a review fails. Because a review does not preserve your appeal rights on its own, many advisers suggest filing one alongside your review as a backstop, then withdrawing it if the Assessor agrees. We email you before your county's deadline so you can decide.

Your details are used once to prepare your form and are not sold or shared. Your signed form goes to the County Assessor and to you, nobody else.