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Tracy Mansolillo's avatar

Great use of AI. As a real estate broker I am accustomed to many of these metrics but it takes time to research and compile the information. On a personal note I have challenged reevaluations/ assessments/ appraisals and even with the best information it is hard to win. Cities and towns dig in because they usually need the tax revenue. I hope your experience is different. Good luck. I’d love to know how you make out.

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Thank you so much for the thoughtful comment, Tracy!

I really appreciated it when I first read it, but I wasn’t quite sure how to respond at the time, so I held off until now.

Maybe it’s due to different regions, but in our case, the town staff were actually quite understanding.

When it was our turn, he immediately referenced the materials we submitted and confirmed that each of our points made complete sense. He even tried to reassure us, suggesting there might have been some confusion or errors on their side.

In the end, we were told to expect a confirmation letter with adjusted numbers soon. So it seems like a promising first step, but we’ll see what the final outcome is.

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Tracy Mansolillo's avatar

That’s fantastic! I’m so happy to hear that the town tax assessor/ staff were open and willing to address the issue and make adjustments. It is not the norm in my area but good to know that other areas are different. Thanks for the update!

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Krsna PROUT Domine's avatar

This is eminently useful. San Mateo County ? Theyre not that merciless in Contra Costa.

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Thank you so much! It's not actually from San Mateo, but you're right, I've heard some counties can be really tough to push back on. Appreciate your time reading it!

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Intoobus's avatar

I'm seeing your post through my home page and wanted to give it some engagement. If you wouldn't mind doing it back to my newsletter post that would be amazing. New post is up!

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Tam Nguyen's avatar

This is brilliant, honestly. They should decrease the tax simply because you came up with this idea!

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Oh haha thank you. That'll be so motivating!

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P.Q. Rubin's avatar

You have to be very brave, or very diligent to file paperwork like this. I wouldn't trust an LLM to calculate a percentage, let alone figure out legal issues on its own. So double-checking against established sources is key.

I'm kind of curious about NotebookLM and o3 finding each other's mistakes; one imagines LLMs tend to fall for the same traps.

Thanks for sharing your story!

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Thanks for the reminder, I totally agree. You really have to be confident in the sources LLMs are referencing and the way they’re combining information to ensure accuracy.

That said, it’s already so much easier when the LLM presents the materials in a way that’s ready for me to quickly open and verify. I really appreciate that.

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James Presbitero's avatar

Very very cool use case of AI, Jenny!! Explorations and documentations like this is why I subscribe to this newsletter. So cool.

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Thank you, James. Truly appreciate your heartfelt support!

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Luan Doan's avatar

Love this, Jenny. So cool to see AI used not just for work tasks but real life challenges like tax appeals.

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Thanks, Luan! Totally, while I have a general sense of what AI can do, it still amazes me every time it actually works out.

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Daria Cupareanu's avatar

This use case is crazy. It’s so amazing that now we can use these tools not just for work, but to actually help us with personal challenges too + the fact that it does such an amazing job....

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Absolutely, I know what to expect with AI by now, but it still blows my mind when things actually come together and work so well!

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Anton Zaides's avatar

Wow! Loved the example, and really curious to hear how the hearing will go :)

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Just thought I'd share some progress :)

The hearing went very well. The staff member immediately referenced the materials we submitted and confirmed that all our points made complete sense. He even reassured us, suggesting there may have been some confusion or errors on their end. We were told to expect a confirmation letter with adjusted numbers, so it’s a promising first step.

I may write a follow-up once everything is finalized!

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Anton Zaides's avatar

Nice!!! Great to see there is sometimes sense in bureaucracy :)

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Jenny Ouyang's avatar

Glad you enjoyed it! I’ll definitely report back once I hear how it goes!

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