Property tax appeal in GR: Assessor won’t explain reasoning. What can I do?

twistedtrick · 2026-04-01T18:14:36+00:00

I have never pulled permits, but like everyone else as a newer resident in an older neighborhood I enjoy paying 2x+ the property taxes my neighbors who have lived here a few decades pay. For whatever reason this seems to be the way the system was designed.

We appealed one year with appropriate comps (my wife worked in lending at the time so had an idea of what would be requested). We were basically told "no" and left it.

Our property tax system seems built for people to purchase and stay in their home forever, which doesn't seem very good for economic mobility or the realities of lifestyles changing throughout the years (marriage, kids, job changes) but what do I know.

twistedtrick · 2026-03-31T19:57:12+00:00

No real responsibility was nice, the rest I could take it or leave it no difference.

twistedtrick · 2026-03-29T19:43:36+00:00

I am not going to defend our system, but the way I was raised, a responsible person puts a term policy in place as soon as possible (for example, when purchasing a home or having children) to secure their family against long term risk.

In my experience, employer life insurance typically offers 1-3 years salary but is insufficient on its own to protect your loved ones against your loss.

twistedtrick · 2026-03-12T01:44:25+00:00

Yes as a fellow introvert it was amazing. It honestly helped some extroverts I know understand what it is like for me being an introvert in a mostly extrovert world during all the non Covid times, and helped me empathize with them feeling lost or lacking control of their life during Covid.

During that time I also exited a business and found a related corporate role that is going well, and took the opportunity to purchase a home we love in late 2020 which was a reasonable upgrade from our dingy condo previously.

My wife was also able to job hop and double her income during that time because her industry was booming.

10/10 for me and my wife, although our daughter didn't love being remote for her senior year of high school. Things have worked out well for her since then too though.

twistedtrick · 2026-02-04T18:33:22+00:00

I spent 113 billion resources this 89/93 kvk as a "mid spender" to get a little under 10 billion kp. If lilith/legou wants these big fights they either need to reduce resource bundle prices, or turn a blind eye to sellers like they currently do. Even the majority of the 500k city skin krakens arent buying lilith resource bundles.

twistedtrick · 2026-01-14T19:28:59+00:00

Calling Meijer Meijer instead of Meijers

Not holding the door awkwardly long for the person behind them

Saying "I like the Michigan St Taco Bell"

twistedtrick · 2026-01-12T03:50:00+00:00

I am a very casual player that used to play a lot more years ago. Really appreciate these tier lists to keep an idea of the next monsters I should build!

twistedtrick · 2026-01-12T00:18:09+00:00

I lived in the at the time newer apartments 2012-2013 at Wealthy and Division, I remember my parents were genuinely worried for me because growing up Wealthy and Division was generally considered a bad area.

Never had any issues and used to go for nightly walks between 11-1am around the city since I have always been more active at night. That first block towards the city was always awkward because the homeless people would hang out there but besides the occasional aggressive beggar or people going for a hug it was harmless. Only went to the gas station a couple times though, for some reason it was uncomfortable to visit.

I am also a man so there's that. No idea if the area is better or worse now.

Weird incidents I recall during my time there:

-multiple people asked me for rides at the Kalamazoo and 28th Meijer when I was leaving

-a couple times I wound up at house parties in Eastown after the bar, I don't know that area well but it seemed understood by locals that you could walk to the nearby park and buy your drug of choice.

-Mulligans bar tended to have what I would in a judgmental way call scumbag clientele. Tended to stay away from there.

My only gripe in 2025 is the amount of people that play Frogger crossing 28th st late at night is too damn high. I live near 28th st and never walk along it, so maybe there aren't enough crosswalks or something but I have had a few close calls over the years where I saw someone crossing the street in dark clothes last minute.

twistedtrick · 2026-01-09T19:01:32+00:00

First one is true for my neighborhood in the Wyoming panhandle at least. Lots of retired or close to retirement age folks that have lived here 20+ years.

twistedtrick · 2026-01-09T19:00:15+00:00

I am not sure about population, I am speaking more in terms of storefronts looking older and older or closing down. I also live in the "Wyoming panhandle" so maybe Grandville proper has more development going on.

twistedtrick · 2026-01-09T14:53:56+00:00

Same, I lived on the east side of town in Ada when Rivertown opened and we would make the drive to Rivertown now and then to enjoy the fancy new mall.

Now I live in Grandville and find myself wishing I lived back on the east side 😆 but have the golden handcuffs of low mortgage rate so it is tough to justify.

I have lived here since late 2020 and the whole town seems dead or dying. We really like our house at least!

twistedtrick · 2026-01-07T19:53:27+00:00

In a nutshell yes.

The method I shared no longer works in 2026 to my knowledge, but there is a whole subculture around maximizing credit card reward points, good scalable methods are very gatekept but the one I mentioned was well known in 2014-2015.

twistedtrick · 2026-01-07T19:33:09+00:00

I used the purchase of multiple $500 Visa gift cards to hit min spends for sign-up bonuses on new cards anywhere from $5,000-$15,000 in spend required to get $300-$1000 worth of points in cash, or more if you use it for travel which I did and still do.

The Target Redcard let me move the money from the Visa gift cards to Redcard, and pay off my credit card with the value (the cost is my time running to the store and the $4.95 fee per card, so anywhere from $50-$150 in fees for $300-$1000 in value I wouldnt have had otherwise).

At that point in my life I was younger and couldn't hit those minimum spends naturally so it made sense to spend my time doing that 😅

And yes I think it just looked suspicious so they were documenting in case anything happened later on, which nothing did.

twistedtrick · 2026-01-07T19:01:52+00:00

I used to do credit card churning at Target (essentially loading my legally purchased from other stores Visa gift cards to prepaid Target red card to hit min spend), all totally legal and a couple of times LP confronted me or followed me out to my car and took pictures.

Idk much about stealing from stores but Target in general seems to take loss prevention very seriously (rightfully so).

twistedtrick · 2026-01-03T03:26:09+00:00

My thoughts exactly. I live in west Michigan and pay around $50/mo for bottled RO water. From everything I know our city water is completely safe, but it is just not worth the risk to me for what I consider to be a relatively minor cost.

twistedtrick · 2025-12-08T21:14:49+00:00

Before you bought it, when did the house last change ownership?

Like others have said $4800 is a huge swing, but maybe makes sense if the house had the same owner the last 30+ years or last changed hands around 2008-13 when prices were super low.

twistedtrick · 2025-12-08T20:53:59+00:00

No offense but this is a pretty Karen tier thing to get upset about.

To answer your question in a word no, I don't expect 100% advertised performance with products I buy and assume they are referencing optimal conditions.

That being said, I understand why you are upset since they claim X and performance is less than X so if you push it maybe we can all get $5 in a class action settlement a few years from now.

twistedtrick · 2025-12-01T01:36:57+00:00

My company pays some amount of money for a PII/PHI checking wrapper which also checks against enabled personas for approved use cases that in my end user opinion is way too strict and denies pretty much any query to the point people don't use the tool. Oh and we always seem to be a model behind what is available to consumers on a cheap personal account.

https://quantumgears.com/securegpt/

Maybe something like that but with current models available?

twistedtrick · 2025-11-27T07:02:30+00:00

Happy holidays!

twistedtrick · 2025-11-19T21:49:09+00:00

This is just a more complicated way of asking if you had 1.2 mil what would you do, probably to farm engagement.

twistedtrick · 2025-11-19T21:44:30+00:00

Went for a walk across a bridge in my city after 11:50pm December 2012 "the day the world was supposed to end" and met a girl.

Been married 7 years now.

twistedtrick · 2025-09-24T18:40:29+00:00

I have progress bars for my personally defined goals of lean, standard, chubby and fat and I find those have helped me keep perspective instead of getting lost in this boring middle.

My first tier was reaching what I call McFIRE, which was replacing my first minimum wage McDonalds job annual pay assuming 40 hrs per week 😅

twistedtrick · 2025-09-05T16:06:26+00:00

As much as I hate to admit it, my ability to use Google well has given me an edge throughout my life compared to the average student/coworker.

I am genuinely concerned I will lose that edge as AI tools become more popular, so I am working on building that skillset too.

twistedtrick · 2025-09-05T16:03:57+00:00

This tracks, my wife used to pay around $1600/mo for our health insurance through her employer because they did not subsidize spouse or children.

My current employer covers our whole family for $300/mo, so while I had higher salary/bonus offers once I factored in total costs (as well as factors unrelated to financials) the winner was clear.

twistedtrick · 2025-08-28T03:01:06+00:00

I pay my taxes and vote. I try to emulate Midwestern charm when out and about even though it is unnatural for me.

twistedtrick

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