How to Find Comps for a Property Tax Appeal (and What Actually Counts as Comparable)

A comp is a property enough like yours that a stranger would price the two the same way. For a tax appeal you generally want at least four of them, they come from your county's own property records rather than a real estate website, and pulling them costs nothing but your evening. That last part mat

Moving to Lockport, IL: Should You Buy a Home Here?

Lockport is the only town on my list where you can stand on a street that was laid out around a canal lock from 1848 and be looking at a subdivision that did not exist four years ago. That is not a slogan. It is the actual reason the numbers in this article behave strangely, and it is the reason a t

How to Appeal Your Property Taxes in Kankakee County (and How to File It Yourself)

Kankakee County publishes assessment changes in September and sets a single final appeal date in October for the entire county. The county posts that exact date each year, and filing the appeal costs you nothing. I know the process works because I ran it on my own house. My assessment jumped about 2

How I Rate Southwest Suburb Towns (and What Each Star Actually Means)

Every town guide I write ends with a star rating across eight categories. This page defines every one of them: what is measured, where the number comes from, and what separates three stars from four. I am putting this in writing for a simple reason. Almost every town rating online tells you a place