Re: Who\'s on first?
I got lucky. Shortly after I bought our property, and was out on the tractor doing some clearing, I saw a fellow in an SUV driving slowly down the street and stopping in front of each house. Moreover, he had a pair of binoculars, and was staring intently at some of the houses.
Now, this looked pretty suspicious. Our street is a cul-de-sac, and I'm at the open end of it, so all I had to do was wait for him to come back out. When he did, I just "happened" to be out in the swale next to the road, messing around with the tractor.
I flagged him down, and he pulled over to chat. I knew right away he was not a bad guy, because he had a white beard and glasses, and all the folks that have those are good guys. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif What he was, was a contractor agent for the property tax assessor's department -- a semi-retired property appraiser. What he was looking for was overhead electrical hookups from the transformers to the houses. Turns out that if the hookup is underground, it's because the homeowner paid for it, and it belongs to the property. But, if it's overhead, the electric company owns it, and it's included in THEIR assets to be taxed. Florida Power and Light Co. had disputed their county tax bill; and this fellow was taking inventory to prove their assessment.
But, I digress. Basically, I got him talking (which wasn't hard to do, because that's another characteristic of guys with white beards and glasses), and he started telling me what the county looked for when they appraised the property. I fiddled him a bit, flattered him and stroked his ego a bit, and generally got him to tell me more than his boss would have considered wise. I'm not sure how one could accomplish the same thing if one started out to do it deliberately -- maybe follow one of the appraisers home from work every night until he stops at the local tavern, casually follow him in, and find a way to buy him a drink...I'm not sure the savings are worth that much effort...
I got lucky. Shortly after I bought our property, and was out on the tractor doing some clearing, I saw a fellow in an SUV driving slowly down the street and stopping in front of each house. Moreover, he had a pair of binoculars, and was staring intently at some of the houses.
Now, this looked pretty suspicious. Our street is a cul-de-sac, and I'm at the open end of it, so all I had to do was wait for him to come back out. When he did, I just "happened" to be out in the swale next to the road, messing around with the tractor.
I flagged him down, and he pulled over to chat. I knew right away he was not a bad guy, because he had a white beard and glasses, and all the folks that have those are good guys. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif What he was, was a contractor agent for the property tax assessor's department -- a semi-retired property appraiser. What he was looking for was overhead electrical hookups from the transformers to the houses. Turns out that if the hookup is underground, it's because the homeowner paid for it, and it belongs to the property. But, if it's overhead, the electric company owns it, and it's included in THEIR assets to be taxed. Florida Power and Light Co. had disputed their county tax bill; and this fellow was taking inventory to prove their assessment.
But, I digress. Basically, I got him talking (which wasn't hard to do, because that's another characteristic of guys with white beards and glasses), and he started telling me what the county looked for when they appraised the property. I fiddled him a bit, flattered him and stroked his ego a bit, and generally got him to tell me more than his boss would have considered wise. I'm not sure how one could accomplish the same thing if one started out to do it deliberately -- maybe follow one of the appraisers home from work every night until he stops at the local tavern, casually follow him in, and find a way to buy him a drink...I'm not sure the savings are worth that much effort...
