Rental property taxes often increase because of the photos landlords post online.
I’ve been fighting my own property taxes for the last seven years. Along the way, I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to know, but one of the biggest surprises came just a couple years ago:
The local assessor is using your Zillow pictures against you.
Yes, the assessor looks at your sale price and MLS data – but they’re also scrolling your pretty online rental photos and descriptions you posted to advertise your rental, so they can justify raising your property taxes even higher. You know, things like…
Beautiful fully remodeled house! Brand new kitchen cabinets with quartz counters, all new bathroom with tiled showers, new LVP flooring, stainless steel appliances, new trim and paint throughout the home!
How I Found Out About This
During a heated argument with someone from the local property tax assessor’s office (if you’ve ever appealed property taxes, you can imagine how that went), they admitted they routinely browse Zillow and Trulia during reassessments looking for updated interior photos for rental listings so they can increase the property tax assessment value of your house – and that it gives them great evidence to support raising your taxes.
They use any recent sales price PLUS any rental listing photos you posted, to support their value increase.
You hear that? They literally employ staff to scroll local online listings to catch who has remodeled a rental property so they can increase their property tax revenue. New kitchen? Fresh bathroom? Updated flooring? New paint? They assume the value went up – whether the market supports it or not.
They don’t need permits, appraisals, or interior inspections when you upload the proof yourself for free.
Once those photos are public, they can also be reused in ways you never intended.
So yes, they’re scrolling your listing just like a tenant would… except they are using it to charge you more money.
Real Example: Two Nearly Identical Houses
A case study of my very own:
I own two rental houses that are located 2 blocks away from each other in a great rental area where I invest. Each of these houses is the exact same size, same layout, same street type of neighborhood, and I bought them together on the same day, off-market. Both cost $70k.
Check this out:
2023 Tax Assessments:
House A: $24,700
House B: $30,600
2024 Tax Assessments:
House A: $42,800
House B: $86,500
2025 Tax Assessments:
House A: $42,800
House B: $100,100
Take a wild guess which house I posted beautiful interior photos of for rent in late 2023. House B! Shocking right. And the assessment exploded the very next year.
The only exterior difference visible from the street on House B? I changed the front handrails and added a little landscape rock. That’s it.
Inside, we had remodeled cosmetically – no permits required. Since there were no permits, the assessor only knew about these updates because I posted the pictures so I could rent the house.
This is proof they assessed based on my pictures, not the market.
House A still has the same tenant from when I purchased the house, which means it has literally no pictures or description. We have only done some minor exterior landscape cleanup at that property so far – we cut down some overgrowth of weeds and small trees.
So from the street, both houses look almost exactly the same as the day we bought them. But you can see that the assessed values are now wildly different, because I had posted House B for rent.
Because they were off-market sales, the assessor had no photos of the interiors, except what I uploaded for House B.
This increased assessment would have cost me an additional $3743 for House B had I not appealed in 2024 and 2025. It still cost me an additional $1987 even after I appealed. I saved $1756 by appealing this house 2 years in a row, and it took me about 30 minutes of effort. Pretty high hourly rate for just a bit of work. This is one of those things you don’t realize until you’ve been a real estate investor for awhile. And I learned the hard way to take down listing pictures ASAP after a house is rented.
How to Avoid This Rental Property Tax Assessment Problem
Once you place a tenant and you have a signed lease, remove your listings immediately from:
- Zillow
- Realtor.com
- Apartments.com
Once a tenant signs a lease, there is no benefit to leaving your listing online. It only helps the assessor, not you.
When I removed pictures from those three sites, it erased the pictures from all their affiliate sites automatically. See this post for an explanation of affiliate sites these three places post to.
If I google House B’s address now, there’s nothing left but basic public data, like number of bedrooms and bathrooms. No photos, no descriptions, no details for the assessor to snoop through.
You may need to email each site to have old listing photos removed if they’ve been up for awhile. I had to do that on a couple properties. It’s worth it.
Now, the very hour that I get a signed lease, I delete all online pictures from that listing immediately.
Why I’m Aggressive About This
I fight my property tax assessments every year. And I win. I’m quite persistent and good at it. And I don’t mind making the assessor earn their paycheck, it genuinely gives me joy.
So far this year, I’ve already won 6 out of 9 appeals, and I fully expect to win the rest. Cities stall, but they still lose. I don’t mind beating them. I’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars fighting property taxes over the years.
They reassess every property in my state every single year, so each time you fight an assessment and win, you are protecting your future self.
So yes, delete your old listing pictures.
Protect your rentals and your bank account.
And let the property tax assessor go pound sand.
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
