Property taxes are rising right along with the cost of food, gas and other necessities. One main difference: You won't have to wait for inflation to come down to lower your property taxes. And you can do it all yourself.

"Most people are under-assessed, but the market is changing," says Alison Tulio of Incenter Tax Solutions, a company that appeals property tax assessments on behalf of homeowners. The company works with a network of 10,000 local appraisers and attorneys across the country. "Values are declining, which means more and more people will (soon) be over-assessed. That's when you can appeal."

It's not hard to protest your tax: Just follow the instructions that come along with your tax bill. I once did it.

All I had to do was find out which houses were being used by the local assessor's office as comparables for mine. Then I went to these houses, giving each of them a once-over to determine how they differed from my place. (I couldn't get inside, of course -- didn't even try -- but the exterior differences were enough to make my case.)

Once equipped with my list, I made an appointment to discuss my findings on the phone. The woman on the call was very nice, listened to me politely, asked a few questions and said I'd be hearing from her office in due course.

A few weeks later, I received a letter telling me the assessment had been lowered. I don't remember by how much, but it was sizable enough for me to think it was well worth the little bit of time and trouble I put in.

If you're too busy to do the spade work yourself, there are companies that help people object to their high tax bills. They'll do the research and make the case on your behalf, following the rules of your county.

What's more, they claim an extremely high success rate. Since it launched in 2021, Incenter claims a 93% success rate for residential appeals and 98% winning percentage for commercial properties. The company says that last year, it cut its residential clients' tax bills by about $4,000, on average.

Of course, there's a fee involved. In Incenter's case, there's no charge to review a case and no charge if the appeal is not successful. If the company wins your case, though, you owe half of the first year's savings. Every year after that, the savings are all yours because your house will continue to be taxed at a lower figure until it's reassessed.

There are plenty of local outfits that will appeal your property tax, including some lenders and real estate brokers. Tulio herself appealed tariffs for hundreds of property owners in Pennsylvania and New Jersey before becoming Incenter's president. But her company is one of the few national firms offering the service.

Again, though, you can always file an appeal on your own. Tulio says it is incumbent upon all homeowners to check their tax bills every year. If you think you were over-assessed, you should file an appeal, with or without professional help.

Unfortunately, in Tulio's experience, most people don't. Many just don't bother, she told me, and some miss the deadline. But others are intimidated by the process or don't know what evidence they need.

Usually, the rules are pretty cut and dry. But no one tells you how to prepare, Tulio warns. That's where the professionals come in.

"It's scary to attend a hearing," she says, "and if you don't know what you're doing, if you don't present the right information, you can open up yourself to a higher assessment. It's not a game people want to be playing."

If you decide to go it alone, pay attention to the appeals deadline. You may have only a few weeks to get your ducks in a row. Next, determine how your property is assessed. This process varies among local tax authorities, but most use a percentage of the assessed value to calculate the tax. So if your house is assessed at $500,000, and the assessor bases the tax on 75% of the value, the tax will be for a $375,000 property.

"There are two numbers involved: assessed market value and actual market value," Tulio explains. "If your actual market value is lower than the assessed market value, you are over-assessed and should appeal."

Now check for mistakes in the tax documents. Is the square footage correct? Number of bedrooms and baths? Do the records show you have a garage when you don't? Look for errors online or by going to the assessor's office. Discovering a major error could result in cutting your tax bill without having to appeal.

The next step is to compare your property to others like it in your neighborhood. Talk to your neighbors to see what they are paying. You may be getting off cheap, or you could be paying too much. And look for recent sales in your neighborhood to see if values are still on the upswing, holding steady or declining.

Finally, when you file, arm yourself with photos, repair estimates if applicable, and perhaps even blueprints. Anything to support your case.

If you win your case, the savings won't just be for the current year. You'll pocket the difference at least until the next assessment -- which could be three, four or five years away.

With the inventory of unsold houses rising on a daily basis, it's time for sellers to consider taking a page out of the homebuilders' playbook -- especially when it comes to financing.

More than 70% of builders who spoke with researchers at John Burns Real Estate Consulting in November were offering some kind of incentive to attract buyers to their model houses. Builders, of course, have all sorts of tactics they can employ to attract traffic: reducing their prices, offering free upgrades and paying buyers' closing costs, to name a few. But the one used most often -- and usually the most effectively -- is the mortgage rate buydown.

With a temporary buydown, the builder pays a fee upfront to the lender in exchange for lowering the buyer's mortgage rate for a set period. The Burns firm found that roughly a third of the surveyed builders were buying down their rate on a temporary basis for two years, while another third bought their rate down for the entire term of a 30-year loan.

Buydowns come in all shapes and sizes: You can pay to drop the rate as low as you want for as long as you want. But, of course, the lower the rate and the longer the buydown, the more it will cost. Burns reports that builders are paying 5% to 6% of their homes' sales prices to lower their buyers' rates by 1% to 2% for the entire 30 years.

As an individual seller, you likely wouldn't want to give away that much. But for a lot less money, you can stair-step the buydown: The rate will be its lowest in the first year of the loan, slightly higher in the second, and then in the third year, the rate reverts to what it was when the loan was written.

The most popular buydown among builders seems to be the 2-1 model. They pay roughly 2% of the purchase price to lower the first-year rate by two percentage points and the second-year rate by 1 percentage point. In other words, if market rates are 6%, the homebuyer's rate would be 4% the first year, 5% the second year and 6% thereafter.

A buyer will still have to qualify at the highest rate that will occur during the 30-year term -- 6%, in the example above. Some buyers may not qualify, but those who do could get some relief from higher payments for 24 months.

In some regards, a buydown is similar to an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM): The rate, and therefore the payment, is lower in the beginning of the loan, then rises after a set period. If you're selling your place, you can suggest that your buyer consider an ARM.

Today's ARMs are not the same as those that helped bring the housing market to its knees in 2008, precipitating a financial crisis and the Great Recession. Back then, one- and two-year ARMs with super-low starting rates and no documentation requirements were dangled before any buyer who could fog a mirror.

Since then, federal regulators have tightened the rules. Most loans now have a fixed starting period of five, seven or even 10 years before the rate adjusts, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The extended time frame allows borrowers to build enough equity to reduce the risk of foreclosure. And by the first adjustment, the thinking goes, most borrowers will have refinanced into a fixed-rate loan.

Another possibility: If your home loan is backed by Uncle Sam -- that is, by the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs -- it may be assumable, meaning a qualified borrower can simply take over your mortgage. If the loan has a low enough rate, says Florida agent Cara Ameer, "it could be a huge selling tool."

Texas broker Erika Rae Albert agrees: "Sellers with an assumable loan should be clearly advertising this unique selling feature."

Again, though, your buyer will have to meet your lender's approval. They'll also have to come up with the difference between the purchase price and the outstanding loan amount, which means either a larger down payment or a second mortgage, which will also have to be cleared by the lender.

There are other financing techniques, too, but they are more dangerous. One involves funding the deal yourself; the other is called a "wraparound mortgage."

If you own your place outright, you can agree to be your buyer's lender. If you still owe part of your mortgage, but the outstanding balance is low enough that it's covered by your buyer's down payment, you can pay off your loan and still act as the lender.

Here, you must be as diligent as a regular lender would be. Look over your buyer's bank statements and tax returns; verify their employment and credit score. Since you are the lender, you get to dictate the interest rate, the length of the loan and other terms.

A wraparound involves two loans: your original loan with your lender and a new loan with your buyer. You would continue to pay your mortgage and charge your buyer a higher rate on the other loan, with the difference going in your pocket. Again, though, you have to be extremely diligent. Consider employing a real estate attorney to put the deal together.

Would you design and buy a home entirely online -- picking everything from the lot to the cabinets without ever seeing or touching them in person? Many people say they would, according to a company that's leading builders in that direction.

And when it came time to sell, what if you could spruce up your place to today's standards without spending a dime of your own money until the house sold?

These are two of the hottest trends in housing today. But in the case of purchasing a new house, buyers are light-years ahead of builders. "We are playing catch-up," says Jay McKenzie of BDX, a digital marketing company for homebuilders.

In a recent survey of 1,000 shoppers visiting NewHomeSource.com, a site where folks can search for newly built houses, 1 in 4 said they'd be happy to purchase their homes entirely online. Many would even pay their deposits, closing fees and design consultation charges online.

And why not? After all, today's consumers buy everything else online. Even automobiles: Customers look at the available inventory and pick the model, color and options. They might only visit the dealership to take a test drive and validate the paperwork.

To catch the trend, BDX is building an e-commerce program for homebuilders. In the initial phase, buyers can put down a deposit to reserve the lot of their choice. But eventually, according to McKenzie, the program will do much more.

Working with a group of builders who see the internet as the next great sales frontier, BDX has mapped out a consensus of what steps in the buying process it can bring online, and in what order.

One facet will allow visitors to a builder's website to walk through an entire model home that does not exist, eliminating the need to erect and maintain an expensive sample house. Another would create an online design center where buyers could view the myriad choices available to customize their purchases.

The online center would feature hundreds of thousands of products, all with prices listed, so you can look at flooring, lighting, appliances, countertops, cabinets and more until you find exactly what you want at a price you can afford. "Everything would be in the library," says McKenzie.

Some builders might even add furniture to their offerings. After all, many new homebuyers purchase furnishings shortly after they move in, so why not make it easier?

This so-called Dreamweaver component will not only obviate the need for costly on-site design centers. It also puts an end to what some builders call "design center divorce court," where spouses battle over selections, sometimes to the point where they throw up their hands in disgust and cancel the deal altogether.

Like they do in the auto sector, customers will make their selections through Dreamweaver from the comfort of their current residences and head to the sales office only to finalize things.

But what about selling your house? Many owners value speed above all else. They believe the quicker the place sells, the better -- less hassle, less intrusion, fewer headaches.

But in pursuing a speedy sale, they often leave money on the table. How much? That's impossible to say, since each case is different. But one source says it could be as much as six figures.

Many sellers try to maximize their gains by doing minor repairs, adding a fresh coat of paint and staging the place in order to secure a higher price. Some folks even go so far as to make major renovations such as remodeling their kitchens or finishing their basements. Those who do often base their improvements on what their real estate agents suggest will catch a buyer's eye. And many agents, in turn, seem to base their recommendations on the annual Cost vs. Value survey from Remodeling Magazine.

That study is a good first look at the localized cost of kitchen and bathroom remodels, new windows, doors and other upgrades, as well as how much they might add to a home's value. But it sometimes raises the hackles of agents, who complain it is far too specific to be useful to most sellers.

Enter presale renovation firms that offer, among other advantages, to help sellers take the guesswork out of the equation and pay for the work so there is no out-of-pocket cost to the owner. They hire the contractors to do the job and wait to be paid when the house sells. They also take over the back-office functions that often cause otherwise qualified contractors to fail.

Such companies "provide the entire back office so the contractor can pick up a hammer and do the best job possible," says Michael Alladawi, founder and CEO of Revive Real Estate.

The Compass real estate brokerage is often credited with starting this business model, now utilized by companies like Revive, Curbio and others. Revive just signed a deal with The Keyes Company, a major Florida brokerage, to help clients maximize their profits. And Curbio just signed on to a pilot program with Consumer Reports.

What kind of money are we talking about here? Revive says its clients obtain an additional $186,000 in profits when selling their upgraded homes. That's not a typo -- and it's not chicken feed, either.