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Andrew Wilkinson is the Co-founder of Tiny. He's been in the startup industry for quiet a while now. He has done an immense job with dribble too. Recently he started an startup known as Bcappraisalexperts.
Lets find out what his startup does and how nocode has helped him launch this startup within weeks.
Problem that he was trying to solve?
In British Columbia (Canada) where Andrew lives—the government uses an algorithm to set property values each year: House with garden. The average house price in BC has jumped up to 3x in the past decade, so people are paying a LOT more property tax. This automated number is then used to calculate your annual property taxes. The number is usually roughly right but, but often it makes mistakes. Sometimes the algorithm doesn’t account for key facts and can be way off base and you can appeal the value by pointing them out:
- Major repairs needed on your house
- View impaired (bushes, trees in way)
- Incorrect data (wrong # of rooms) etc
Almost nobody realizes that they can appeal the value the government sets and the savings can be pretty massive. Typically thousands of dollars a year less in property tax, if successful. And it’s not a particularly complex process, just a pain to fill out and file annoying forms. Of course, nobody likes filling out forms and sometimes there’s a more complex legal process that complicated cases need to go through.
Solution that he has offered?
So, Andrew and his friend whipped up a Webflow site, hired some appraisers, and started a new business called BC Appraisal Experts where they can help people appeal their property taxes. They charge nothing upfront then take 70% of the first year’s savings as a fee.
For Example: If they reduce your assessed house value by just $250,000 this will save the owner approximately $1,200 per year. Their fee in this case would be a one time payment of $840 (70% of $1,200). If their appeal gets rejected and the owner dosen’t save anything, they don't charge anything at all.
And the Savings can be significant, ranging from $1,000-$10,000 per year depending on the size of the house. That's like a new car every year, extra money for a renovation, or even a family vacation.
Here's the form that people need to fill first so that bcappraisal can contact them
So in conclusion, this is another testament to the fact that you don’t need to have a technical background to start at startup. Proponents of no-code tools look forward to a bright future. Not only will they stimulate more businesses in the digital space. They have the potential to bring in ideas, perspectives and solutions from people outside of the formal tech sector, which is needed more than ever.
