Thread by @awilkinson

New Business Alert 🚨

A friend and I started a fun little business I wanted to share.

It’s super simple:

1. In British Columbia—where I live—the government uses an algorithm to set property values each year 🏡

For example, my home value is guesstimated based on:

- The average price that similar houses in your neighborhood have sold for
- The age of your house
- Whether you have a water view
- Etc

The average house price in BC has jumped like 3x in the past decade, so people are paying a LOT more property tax.

2. This automated number is then used to calculate your annual property taxes.

The number is usually ROUGHLY right but, but often it makes mistakes.

Sometimes the algorithm doesn’t account for key facts and can be way off base and you can appeal the value by pointing them out:

- Major repairs needed on your house
- View impaired (bushes, trees in way)
- Incorrect data (wrong # of rooms)
- Etc

3. Almost nobody realizes that you can appeal the value the government sets and the savings can be pretty massive.

Typically thousands of dollars a year less in property tax, if successful.

And it’s not a particularly complex process, just a pain to fill out and file annoying forms.

Of course, nobody likes filling out forms and sometimes there’s a more complex legal process that complicated cases need to go through.

So, my friend and I whipped up a @Webflow site, hired some appraisers, and started a new business called BC Appraisal Experts where we help people appeal their property taxes.

We charge nothing upfront then take 70% of the first year’s savings as a fee.

Check it out: bcappraisalexperts.ca. Perfect little launchpad business.

PS: We are hiring appraisers. If you are a Canadian appraiser looking for a remote gig, email us your resume: [e-mail]