What are the Taxes for this Property? Is there Mello Roos?

I am often asked what the taxes will be on a property, along with whether a property has Mello Roos or any other bonds.

The rule of thumb that most Realtors, lenders and escrow officers use is that the taxes will be somewhere between 1 and 1.25% of the assessed value.

I never really liked using this rough of an estimate, but was forced to do so, due to the lack of readily available information. If the property is in California, than you know that it will be at least 1%. The problem comes when you factor in miscellaneous bonds and Mello Roos taxes.

Both of these items can vary greatly from one location in Placer County, to another. And while there is a field in the MLS for agents to indicate how much the bonds will be, it is normally marked as unknown.

The only way to find out the actual amount of bonds and Mello Roos in the past, was to go the Placer County offices, have a title company pull the tax records for you or get a copy of the tax bill directly from a property owner.

But now there is a new source for this information. Placer County has now added a tool to their website that allows you to look up tax bills with a parcel number. So long as you have the parcel number for a property, you can now determine its exact tax rate from the privacy of your home.

The tax bill will show state taxes, school bonds, fire protection fees, mosquito abatement fees, Mello Roos and any other miscellaneous fee attached to a properties tax bill.

This tool, along with the parcel map tool I wrote about last week, will ad a new level of clarity to the real estate transactions in the area. This increase in clarity will lead to better decisions regarding home purchases and sales and will create a more efficient market. Not to mention, they will make my life a bit easier.

To use the new tax bill tool on the Placer County site, visit our Placer County Building Resources page and click on the Placer County Tax Records link. You will then need the parcel number of the property you are interested in. The APNs for all of the active listings in Placer County are available on the details page for any of the properties listed on our site.

If you have any questions on how to use this tool, please feel free to call me at 916-728-1981, e-mail me at pat@patandalison.com or leave a comment below.

8/28/07 Update:

The Placer County tax bill search has not worked for a month or two. I sent an e-mail to the county assessor's office, which was forwarded to the Treasurer, regarding the issue. They responded that:

" The 2007/2008 annual current secured tax bills should be available online by mid September.  At this time, the prior year’s tax bill is not accessible online, but may be available in the future.  The Tax Collector staff is available weekdays between 8:00 and 5:00 to answer questions on the 2006/2007 tax bills.  Our number is 530 889-4120."

So it looks like for now, if you want to find out the specific tax rate for a property, you will need to call the Tax Collectors at 530-889-4120.

9/25/2007 Update:

I just received a copy of my tax bill in the mail, so I thought I would check to see if the online tax bill search is working again.

It appears that it is now operational again. This means we can now research whether or not a property has bonds or Mello Roos attached to it. I expect that it will continue to work until sometime until the beginning of next years tax billing cycle, at which point it will return nothing for 2 to 3 months.

Comments

[Wayne]

Wayne Says:

Pat,
I am interested in buying a home in Rocklin and heard there are Mello-Loos taxes in many districts of the city.
I work with an agent but don't want to bother him for every house I find in listing until I can narrow down to few houses. Luckily I find your great tool to search parcel number (BTW, this is a great tool that I think you are the first pioneer I know of)

http://lis.placer.ca.gov/gis.asp?cmd=identify&maxx=6772126.76896872&minx=6770825.8162385&miny=2062076.6338001&maxy=2063153.34570404&vis=cty,cpa,schd,zon,lak,str,par,aer,&nvis=soi,rda,gen,mac,bos,air,fir,cenbl,centr,con,riv,&p=12&t=1&x1=6771476.292603606&y1=2062614.989752066&label=367270012000&city=&zipcode=&thetype=&minsize=0&maxsize=0&units=&selid=&report=&distance=&s=1011&h=785&sic=&parcel=367270012000&address=&query=&owner=&state=identify&X=6771160.397788817&Y=2062907.748608596

I randomly select a parcel 367-260-018-000 in the street I have interest but when I use put this number in "Assessment #" with "Equal to", it returns "No record"

Can you shed a light for me about what did I do wrong?
Thank you in advance for your help.

Wayne
http://www.placer.ca.gov/Tax/Taxes/TaxBillSearch.aspx

[Patrick Hake]

Patrick Hake Says:

Wayne,

I wish I could take credit for the tool. It is actually on http://www.placer.ca.gov, which is Placer Counties official site.

I checked to see if I had the same problem with the APN you provided and I did. I tried another APN that I was sure was correct and it came up "No Record" as well.

The other tools at http://www.placer.ca.gov/Services.aspx are all returning info for the APN you provided.

I would check back in a day or so. It is probably just a technical issue on their side.

Good luck on the house hunt :)

[Adam]

Adam Says:

For Sac County:

If you find your parcel number here: http://www.assessor.saccounty.net/AssessorsParcelViewerApplication/default.htm

Then you can list your tax bill here: http://www.eproptax.saccounty.net/

From what I found this will list all Mello Roos and associated taxes for any property in Sac County if you only know the street address. :-)

Adam

[Patrick Hake]

Patrick Hake Says:

Thanks Adam,

I find that Mello Roos can be a problem in some areas of Sacramento County as well.

It is nice to have a resource that allows us to do self guided research.

In the past, we would have to contact a local title company or the county tax collector to find out what the tax bill was for a property.

Hooray for the internet :)

[Jazmine]

Jazmine Says:

I am currently looking to buy a home in lincoln. The only information available to me is the MLS # and the property address. IS there any way for me find the Mello Roos bonds on a property with that information alone.

I like to have the mello roos information before i look at a house to ensure it will be within my budget.

help

[Patrick Hake]

Patrick Hake Says:

Hello Jazmine,

You can find the APN# for active listings by entering the MLS number for the property you are interested in on the bottom of the search page on our site, which is located at http://www.placercountyhomesandland.com/public/page.do?page.ID=72472 .

The property detail page will then list the APN as the Parcel #.

Normally, you can then insert the APN (Parcel #) in the online tax bill look up on Placer County's website, located at http://www.placer.ca.gov/Departments/Tax/Taxes/TaxBillSearch.aspx .

Unfortunately, this tool goes down for about 2 months every year as new tax bills are sent out in July. The tool should be useful again by the middle of September.

In the meantime, you can contact the Placer County Tax Collectors office with the APN and they can give you the tax info over the phone. Their phone number is (530) 889-4120.

I hope that helps :)

[form 2290]

form 2290 Says:

The property taxes in Dallas, TX are unreal. A lot of businesses pay a fortune just to operate.