So, what can you do about it? Well, you can either agree with what you are assessed, or you can try the following:

1. Contact Your County Assessor: These guys set the prices, and you can file an appeal through them. Be warned you may have to take a day off and go to their office directly.
2. Know Your Neighbors: Keep track of the costs of houses selling in your area. Most counties have online search tools, or you can use other websites to help. Zillow is one that is useful in my neck of the woods. Having a list of similiar selling prices is great ammunition to fight the claimed value from the county.
3. Be Careful: It’s not out of the question that they come back and say the value is even higher. There is a difference between market value and property value. Assessments tend to be a little lower than what the selling price could be.

If you are feeling the pinch of government trying to squeeze an extra dollar (or more) out of you through your property taxes, take action! Don’t be afraid to challenge their estimates or go up against the tax man. Revenues are being lost and raising tax values on property is a very easy way for them make up those losses.

• They want to help responsible owners get lower mortgage rates for homes that have lost value and no longer qualify for the mortgage rates of today.
• Help those who have lost their job or portion of their income stay current on their mortgage payment.
• Targeted to help 7-9 million homeowners restructure and refinance their current mortgages.
• Pump more money into Fannie and Freddie Mac.

Do I think these things will turn the economy around? Doubtful. I’m not a big fan of government intervention. What wasn’t listed above is that the government is going to pay mortgage brokers to refinance loans and give them multiple incentives for changes existing loans. If you are job hunting, may I suggest the mortgage business because it’s going to be booming. I’ll probably discuss these incentives in a later post, but I wanted to know what others feel about this.

Are you enjoying this plan? Do you think it is a waste of money? Are you eligible?

• Can they? Does your mortgage company allow for automatic payments? This is question number one, although I can’t imagine many not having this option.
• Can you? Do you have the money? If you are living paycheck to paycheck, this isn’t the best option for you. There is a high amount of risk that you’ll bounce a payment which would be an extremely bad idea.
• Lick the stamp. Are you the type of person who needs a physical interaction with your money? If you feel attached to the motions of paying, keep stroking your check.
• What was I just talking about? Are you forgetful? Do you find yourself constantly calling customer service and saying the check is in the mail? This is the option for you.

If you answered “yes” to the above questions, then automatic payments may be a good option for you. The actual process of setting up automatic mortgage payments is fairly simple. I had to fill out a form with my banking information, give the mortgage company permission to take the withdrawal, and that’s about it. There is usually about a month gap for when the payments begin.

If you have a balanced checkbook and want to reduce the stress of remembering when to pay a bill or just want to save the cost of a stamp, automatic payments are a great option.