Wes Nichols
Appearances
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
We have offices in California, Seattle, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and we're constantly expanding and growing.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
The other reason is, is they think they're too busy and it's gonna take a lot of their time. If that's the case, go hire an expert. At least worst case scenario, have someone review it. And most people in the industry charge a contingency fee. So you don't pay them unless they win. Okay, so there's, in our case here, You don't owe us anything until we win.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
And then from there, they would owe a fee after the fact. So with that being said, it doesn't hurt. You just have to be like anything in life or anything in business. You have to be aware. You have to know your numbers. You have to know what's going on. And so the key is, is when you get a notice or you get a tax bill, make sure someone's reviewing it. Make sure an expert's reviewing it.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
That's the biggest key of advice is just don't be fall asleep at the wheel. Make sure you're paying attention to it.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
And most states, you file the appeal, you win, and then that reduces the future tax bill. State of California is different. You file the appeal, you pay the taxes, and then you get a refund. But each state's a little different. But the key is being aware, having a tax professional look at it.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
waking up the wealth is, uh, from that movie quote, you're in a position to fuck you. You know, you've got your house, you've got a home warranty, it's fully paid off and you got cash in the bank. I mean, I think getting to a place to where you can choose to say yes or no to the work rather than the work saying you having to be forced to say yes or no to the work. Um,
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
When you wake up on a Monday, you get to choose what you want to do. That's wealth to me, is having personal freedom and choice. You can travel whenever you want. You can go whenever you want. That to me is wealth.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Correct. So right now, we're doing a lot in, say, San Francisco, downtown or L.A., San Diego. Our two asset types that we're seeing the most reductions on are definitely office apartments because cap rates have changed from three and a half, four to now they're four and a half, five and a half caps. We're also seeing some reductions in hotels.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Most of the reductions right now are based on the debt market and the higher cap rates and the post-COVID environment right now.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
It's all based on the data. That's one. And then two is motivating the assessor to do the right thing. So there are some states or municipalities out there where they won't agree to large reductions. And they basically say, hey, this is going to impact the local government.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
And I say, hey, if these taxes aren't lowered, this is going to impact local government because this is going to drive businesses. This is going to drive investors out of your county and out of your city. So we try to have a win-win solution. That's in certain markets. Certain markets, it's all based on data. Like state of California, certain counties, they're flush with money due to Prop 13.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
But there's only really 5%, 10% of the property taxes, maybe 15%. that we can actually get reductions on in California. And some of those, like for office buildings, would be very sizable. We're seeing values for office properties go back to 1999 or early 2000 values. So you're seeing upwards of 60% reductions or more on some of these office properties. It's pretty substantial.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Our biggest client that we've ever got a large refund was over $3 million, and that was a hospital. They were being assessed for $113 million, and we got them down $44 million. That was a couple of years back, but we've got cases where... I've got an office park up in the Bay Area where it says for $280 million and our penny value is $180 million.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
That's $100 million right there that would basically generate over $1.2 million in refunds. We've got some quotes out there right now. There are large reductions right now where the refunds could be millions of dollars back to clients. That's on the big stuff, but We typically, we don't just say no to everyone.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
We have a lot of properties that are in that $3 to $5 million range where we might be able to get them 15, 20%. We might get them back 15, 20 grand. That 15, $20,000 to any investor, that's still... Um, so we try to have a wide range approach where yes, we do the big stuff, but at the same time, you know, my roots are is I want to help the small, small person and help them out.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Or maybe a mom and pop where they did a transfer or a change in ownership and it messed up their reassessment. They got bad legal advice where I could go in and fix that for them. So I look at it and go, I'm here to help everyone. And if I have that context and have that attitude, you know, everything will fall in line.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
So what you do is you file an appeal. Certain states, certain jurisdictions, you have to turn in your valuation. So here's a copy of the valuation that we do here. And really what this is, is a mini condensed appraisal. So most appraisals, 70% of it's fluff, where it talks about the flood zone, the demographics, et cetera. This goes straight to the heart of, here's the property.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Here's what's good about it. Here's what's bad about it. Here's the financials. Here are the market rents or the data that would support the value or what we think it would sell for as of a certain period of time. And this is the data that we have to support that opinion of value. And so how you work is, is you go in, you present this, the assessor county has an opportunity to cross-examine you.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
They try to poke holes in your cases, then they go. And then that's where I get to go and poke holes in their cases and show that they really don't know what they're talking about. And you do closing arguments and rebuttals. And depending on the board, you will get a very favorable decision. And sometimes you don't get as good a decision as you want. So that's how the process works.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
You know, certain jurisdictions were able to do via like WebEx or Zoom, you know, summary in person. So but, you know, with the post-COVID, it's been nice. We can do a lot of stuff remote. It's been very helpful.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Yeah, the states and areas where we see where they're the most egregious, you definitely have state of Texas. The state of Texas, as you know, doesn't have an income tax. So how they tax is a property tax. So not only is their tax rate one of the highest, so it's like 3%, but it's reappraisable every year. And how they come up with a value is they use a computer model.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
And so the state of Texas, you just have to beat it. The other thing that's great about Texas is they are an equalization state. So what that means is, let's say your neighbor across the street has a similar model as you, and they're being assessed less than what you are.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Well, in the state of Texas, you can say, even though your value might be correct, you can say, I want what he has, and they will lower it to his value. So when we do taxes, we look at it from two perspectives, what your competitors are doing, are being assessed at, and what we can win on the market level. So we do that.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
The other states that are really egregious are Illinois, has extremely high tax rates and extremely burst in. A lot of the New England states, such as New Jersey, We're also seeing a lot of work in Florida because of the pricing increases. The states where we don't see much work is Arizona because they have like a limited value in Oregon.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
But mostly where we're doing most of our work would be, I would say, state of Washington, California. We're doing a few in Utah and Colorado and Texas are the big ones right now.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Or in some states like Massachusetts and New England, they have a set budget. So you might get the value lowered, but they just raise your rate to get the taxes that they wanted in the first place. So it... They will get their money. But yeah, Texas is, you need to be forecasting what increases, even though you bought it, unfortunately.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
I mean, there are parts of Texas that, like office and whatnot, that have been hurt, that should be on decline. But Texas is ground zero for property tax, as well as the state of Illinois.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Yeah. Best way to describe what we do is we're half brand attorneys and half brand appraisers. But the great thing is, is I'm not an attorney and I'm not an appraiser.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
I am one of the luckiest men in the world. I have an amazing wife, amazing kids. Another thing that makes me lucky is I'm very passionate and love what I do. And if the assessor's office offers me a good offer option, I will take and sell a case with them. But if they make me go to court with them, I will do whatever it takes to win. And what that means is I will ask the tough questions.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
I will be over-prepared. whatever it takes. Cause yes, I love to win, but more importantly, I hate to lose. And I, when I lose a case and it sometimes happened, but rarely my wife's like, why are you so upset? Did you lose a case? And I'll be upset for like a couple of days. And it's not because of what I did is it's because of the board or the decision that was done because I know I'm right.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
Or at least I think I'm right. Maybe I'm too right. But at the end of the day, I think where that comes down to is one of my clients was talking to me on the phone this week and she goes, you know, what you do is very righteous, is very you're helping a lot of people out. And I and I and I always thought like, hey, I'm helping the wealthy get wealthier or whatnot.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
But we do help a lot of, I would say, small business owners or small homeowners. And it really hit me. I was like, yeah, I guess I am making a difference in people's lives is when I can get them back that refund. I can get them back that money and lower their property taxes and that helps them dramatically.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
I know in the past that I have saved properties where that refund helped them make the mortgage or got them out of foreclosure. Yeah. So that's what keeps me passionate about that is I know what we do matters. I know what I do matters. And so I need to make sure that what I'm doing, I have my a game. And, and part of that is just having the right attitude and passion for what I do.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
We're just really good at arguing value for property tax reduction and in consulting taxpayers, property owners on how to navigate the property tax system, how to reduce potential future impacts, as well as reduce current impacts of property taxes. I've got a staff of over 30. We represent over $40 billion in assessed values.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
I have a crazy story. So it was 2008. I was my background was in commercial. So basically, I was a loan loan originator. And that's where I learned how to evaluate commercial real estate, learn how to appraise properties. And I was right around the Lehman collapse and I knew it was going to be bad. And I said to a coworker of mine, I said, hey, I feel sorry for the teachers and sheriffs.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
They're going to get laid off because the property tax revenue is going to be way down. He goes, I was a banker in St. Louis and I knew this firm. they lowered property taxes and they had a lot of money in their bank account. I'm like, that's a thing. So I get on my internet, I Google.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
And at the time there were a few large nationwide firms out there and the websites came up and you saw some of the success stories. I'm like, okay, well, most contingency attorneys charge 33%. I was like, Holy crap, there's money in this. And I'm looking at this going, I can do this. You know, I can sell and pick up clients and whatnot. And, you know, part of it was a good thing.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
I was dumb enough not to know what I know. And not to know that it can take, you know, two plus years before you start making any money and you have to have the infrastructure in the place and you have to have some knowledge. But, you know, I just kind of bootstrapped it and did it. Next thing I know, I've got a lot of clients. I just keep growing. I got employees.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
And then we just every year we keep getting better. you know, from an operational standpoint, a sales and marketing standpoint, a valuation standpoint, and every year you'd get better, you get, you enjoy what you do and you just get better. And so, you know, we went from having just a couple of employees to now having 30 to now, you know, In 2017, I think we filed $3 billion.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
2021, we filed $21 billion. Last year, $30 billion. This year, $40 billion. So now it's like, wow, see what's possible here. If you have the right vision, you have the right team, it's unlimited what you can accomplish.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
I think having a team and a process is that. The other is having a vision and just sticking to that vision. Like this is our every year that we've set out, we set a goal. And every year I've hit that goal. And it's amazing what goal setting can do of I'm going to do X. And this is what we're going to do. And just say, come hell or high water.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
And so it's just having that grit and that context of no matter what, this is happening.
Wake Up to Wealth
Mastering Property Tax Savings with Wes Nichols
I think anyone should if you hire us or hire someone else, the key fact is, is majority of people don't file an appeal. And the main reasons why people don't file an appeal is they're afraid of retribution from the government, which that's not the case. The other is, is they get too busy and get distracted.