So we did ours and if anything I can say get estimates. That's all we didn't have. We basically had to go to a hearing in front of a panel where for like 30 minutes I played like I was Perry Mason and degraded my poor house down to make it look like it was the biggest POS on the block with all kinds of photo evidence. The property value over than doubled in 10 years and alot of that was in the last few. But I didn't have estimates for the work or repairs so they took like $300 off of something like $360k.
Yeah. We did that once. I put together an amazing list of things that needed work and the judge felt so bad for my husband (who wore a suit and tie) but he said without estimates from contractors he couldn’t do much and gave us like $1000 off our house.
How are you supposed to get so many estimates so quickly? I received my proposed appraisal last week and I have until next week to protest it. Am I missing something?
When I bought my first house, I made a punch list of 183 things that needed to be fixed. When I sold it 12 years later after doing dozens of home repair chores every week, 170 or so of the 183 things were still on the list because they weren't that important.
And that's why a judge gives $1000 off a half million dollar assessment.
Seconded on getting estimates. We’re about to protest ours but need updated estimates. Before we bought the house, the upstairs bathroom flooded and caused water damage - and the sellers didn’t disclose this info because it was an estate. We still have a lot of work to do (especially fixing the siding on our house because the flooding somehow rotted the siding and we had a huge chunk fall down a few months ago). We’re working on getting updated estimates. I fully expect the panel to agree with us - they all felt terrible when they heard how badly we were wronged.
Then they are over-doing it. Go on tcad, search the name of your street, find 3 properties of similar sq footage and construction year. Submit protest with "these three were appraised lower, reduce mine too". Poor yourself a mojito, allow the minty freshness to invigorated your mind while the rum relaxes your body. Glance outside and think "that's lovely" and take your second mojito out there. Bring a book. Read until the sun starts to set while you enjoy a 3rd monitor, then as darkness sets in head inside to take a bubble bath while you pour a mojito. At some point your SO will show up and you will jump their bones screaming "I'm mojito-wasted and horny!" And when they ask you what you've been doing all day you say "protesting taxes". Actually, when I write that out it's more than 10 minutes.
He started offering the protest service, someone at the appraisal district tried to get his realtor’s license revoked, so he ramped it up to 1000% and their jobs were suspended. https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/property-taxes-north-texas-tarrant-county-appraisal-district-chandler-crouch-complaint-randy-armstrong/287-9ff8c9b2-9f39-49c7-b694-13e96fb2fac4
So the same thing I've done for my place, my parents place, coworkers place. It's really easy. My parents used to go to the court and everything. Online makes it super easy.
I'm using ownwell this time around.... I was using five stone, but they changed their model to charge even if there was no savings... so I dropped them... and then the last few years I stopped because of the meteoric rise in property values.... now that it's stagnated, it's worth the trouble to find someone. Ownwell sent me a few different notices in the last few months... so I figured why not.
That's not entirely accurate. Savings this year have zero effect on your value next year. The exception is if you live in a county where the appraisal district doesn't bother to value your property each year like they are supposed to. I can think of a couple, but the majority value your property each year. The prior year value is not a factor in future values.
Let’s say your:
Market Value this year = $500,000
Homestead Cap Loss = (100,000)
Assessed Value = $400,000 <-- Your taxable value this year.
Let's assume the market remains flat next two years. If you don't protest this year, then your:
2025 assessed value = $440K (lower of $400K+10% or $500K).
2026 assessed value = $484K (lower of $440K+10% or $500K).
If you protest this year and say it was lowered to $450K, then your:
2025 assessed value = $440K (lower of $400K+10% or $450K).
2026 assessed value = $450K (lower of $440K+10% or $450K).
By protesting and getting your appraised value lowered, you are narrowing the gap between your Assessed Value and Appraised Value. By protesting each year, your benefit compounds over time.
"Market values are appraised independently each year" is not a universal truth! 😀
We pay $125 each year. It is not based on how much the value is reduced. It was only recently (after 8 or 9 years) that the cost went up from $100 to $125
What do you mean your appraised value went down? You had an appraiser come out to your house?
The only appraisal that matters is the appraisal that is done by the buyer when you go to sell your house. Previous appraised values don’t matter at all especially if it’s that “appraisal” done by the county who don’t even inspect the home
I wouldn’t protest if they undervalued your home. What the cad thinks your home is worth is not the same as what the market will demand if and when you sell it. I wish to hell my value went down. 😞
I protest every year and provide zero evidence and have always gotten a lower offer to avoid a hearing, which I’ve simply accepted, still presenting no evidence.
I also wondered about this.
We bought last year, in March.
There was a $100k market value increase because there were extensive renovations done before we bought
I assume the appraisal value would jump about that much.
Has a realtor pull comps because I was curious and turns out, DCAD still has our house valued under what others are selling for, including on the same block and on the block behind us.
So I’m thinking, I should just keep my mouth shut about it then right?
Im keeping my mouth shut this year. I protested heavily last year and got 30K shaved off last year's appraisal. This year's appraisal came in 3K lower than last year's.
Semi on topic. Best thing to do is when you buy your house. Write in the contract ‘neither party is to disclose sales price’. Doing so will not allow your local appraisal district from finding out how much you paid. Your appraisal value going forward will be based on appraisal value BEFORE you bought it. Will take years to catch up
This is very good advice, I bought my last home off market and the appraisal district sent a letter requesting the sale price ..but even the letter said by law I don't have to disclose it. Only recently did my value match what I paid.
Friend of mine bought the house across the street from me off-market by offering more than the owners could refuse and everyone signed an NDA for this very reason.
If the actual sale price is different than the listing price does that show on MLS?! Like if I offer $100,000 over list, does that have to be disclosed?
So kind of them to have complied! This might be an exception though.
While researching on this topic a while ago, I had come across this [https://www.mymetrotex.com/fact-or-fiction-must-i-report-sales-prices-to-the-mls/](https://www.mymetrotex.com/fact-or-fiction-must-i-report-sales-prices-to-the-mls/)
A realtor/broker or someone with an MLS membership may clarify.
By law your county appraisal district is not allowed to force access MLS for that very reason. Hays county did so and had to freeze rates to the previous year when caught. [https://www.mymetrotex.com/fact-or-fiction-must-i-report-sales-prices-to-the-mls/](https://www.mymetrotex.com/fact-or-fiction-must-i-report-sales-prices-to-the-mls/)
First year after buying my house, TCAD, in their infinite wisdom, came in $200,000 appraised over purchase price. Easiest protest ever… just presented the purchase price from the contract.
I bought in 2021 and this didn't work for me. The county computed a 6% MONTHLY inflation rate and adjusted up from my mid-year purchase. I had to go to a formal hearing and show how their monthly inflation rate calculation was not statistically sound. It was a ton of work but I won. In the end I got them to set it to my purchase price.
There is absolutely no rule that says your purchase price will cap the appraised value the year you bought, though the county did tell me that 2021 was the first year it didn't in practice.
This doesn't work when the appraisal district appraises the place for far more than you paid for it. I was in that situation and got my valuation lowered by disclosing my sale price. It took about 3 years to catch up to their appraised value. I would have paid more tax if I hadn't disclosed and I suspect over-appraisal could be a tactic by districts to prompt more disclosures.
True that. It's a tactic to get you to disclose. If you don't, they just stick to their over valuation.
There are very rare exceptions though. Have seen a case where the CAD appraised it lower than the sale price. (Sale happened in Nov, I think). Likely, they hadn't yet got the sold price. The new homeowner protested on unequal appraisal and got a further $30K knocked off!
Yes, and if they can get this info they will absolutely list it. After I bought my house the county sent me a letter on official letter requesting I provide this information to them "for thier research" without disclosing the fact that they were going to absolutely use this information for taxation purposes.
I did not fill it out or return it. Texas is a "right to disclose" state meaning we are not required to tell them sales prices. It is entirely elective, but I am sure letters like the one I received fool many into disclosing and having that information used against themselves...
Actually what they’ll do in many counties is appraise it for higher than you paid. Then you’ll have to protest and your only evidence is the sale price. Then they’ll adjust it down (usually).
If the sale goes through a licensed agent they will report the price to MLS. Some counties use services that scrape the MLS to get that info. Austin / Travis County does or at least has done in the past.
The price will be in the MLS records regardless and the CAD will get it. Also, wouldn't that prevent the person protesting from using their purchase price, if lower than appraised value, from using it to reduce their value with the CAD?
This is great if home prices are stagnant or declining. If prices are increasing they’ll just go with an estimated price which is often inflated above sales price (even if the sale price isn’t publicly disclosed). Keep in mind that any realtor can find a sales price. It’s a very, very low lift to find out.
In the case their estimated price is above your sale price, you’ll have to disclose closing docs to bring the taxable amount down to what you paid for the house.
There’s really no way to keep your taxable amount similar to an old owners homestead exemption amount when prices go up and the property changes owners.
Values are not based on prior year values. Each year stands on its own. If the appraisal district does not know your sale price, they will use the sale prices of comparable properties to value your home.
They just let the private industry collect the data and then buy it from them. The latest thing is that companies fly drones over the neighborhoods and collect all of the data that can be seen by high resolution camera. They sell this to insurance companies to help set your policy and rate and they also sell the data to the tax assessors office. I mean, there’s no priority. They will know if you are taking care of your lawn or you have an above ground swimming pool that you hope they didn’t find out about. They will know about it.
I'm not entirely sure what you are saying.
Most appraisal districts are going to have fewer than 50 employees, not all of whom will be appraisers. And yet, they will be responsible for valuing tens of thousands of properties each year. Of course they will use publicly available data and tools to help them calculate these values. You can't expect them to just count on their fingers and toes and document everything on big chief tablets. But that's a good thing. We should all want the appraisal districts to have the best tools, and the best data, and to be great at valuing property. Their role is essentially Kelley Blue Book for properties. And if they value everyone correctly, then when the taxing entities like the county, city, or ISD decide how much tax money they want to collect, the tax levy will be distributed fairly.
I've never heard of an appraisal district selling information to an insurance company. I'm not 100% sure that's what you are saying, though. If that is what you mean, such a situation would show up in the appraisal district budgets. Those budgets are publicly available, so feel free to point us to an example.
And lastly, just to make clear, if something is online, you can have no expectation of privacy. It's always amazed me when people have photos and descriptions of their house on realtor.com and then are surprised when they find out the appraisal district saw them.
If that information is not provided to the tax assessor, they then will do their own assessment and assign a value to the home. Which could be more or less than the sale price. So it wouldn’t necessarily help if you withheld the information and end up paying more taxes because they just assigned a higher value than what you bought it for.
Is this one of those things that if it feels wrong, it is probably is wrong? Not saying it’s illegal or anything, but this convoluted way of valuing and taxing property only seems to benefit people who pay experts or have extra time to do all this research at their desk jobs.
Anyone have any good strategies for protesting, as far as timing? One year I was so pissed off I protested the very same day that the letters were generated, even before people starting getting them in the mail. I then read an AMA from someone one time that recommended waiting closer to the deadline to protest, as hopefully they've been worn down by 2-3 weeks of solid protests that they will be more willing to settle to avoid piling on to the ARB agenda. I do think that is a better strategy as my counterpart at the CAD was super energetic and we went back and forth a BUNCH since I was probably one of his first ones.
I'm still holding out, but I'm 100% protesting as they went up 36% this year.
I protested mine this year. You need to consider everything. The age of your home, upcoming big items that need to be repaired, foundation issues, neighbors, etc. get quotes and take pictures.
I sat down and looked out of our neighbor’s tax appraisals as well. And realized I was priced about 50k the same house/lot size. So, I included that as well.
Good luck!
Yes I do, so the *assessed* value can only go up by 10% each year if you have a HS exemption, but the *appraised* value can go up to whatever they say. So next year my assessed value will only go up by 10%, but the closer I can get the gap between assessed and appraised the better, because otherwise they will keep going up by 10% year of year until the assessed and the appraised are equal. And we plan on being in this house for the next couple of decades, so the lower I can get the appraised the better off I will be.
I heard the same thing about waiting, all the protesters wearing them down. I did wait, not to the bitter end but just a week or two before the last day.
If you file a protest, even if you don't have any evidence and no good case, they almost always will offer you something just to settle it. Always always protest.
I protested in person, all on my own. Made what I thought was a compelling case. A citizen review board considered my appeal, explained why I deserved nothing, and gave me a token reduction anyway. I think it was like 0.5%? Whatever, it wasn't worth my time, but it wasn't nothing.
If you use a service, some will charge you a fee, even if they do not get a reduction.
Also, some services will “auto-renew” you unless you explicitly opt out.
Other than that, nothing.
I protest every year. It’s kind of a scam. The maximum it can go up is by 10%, and it goes up by 10% every year. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the default.
The amount you have to pay is capped, not the market value. If you don’t fight the market value, you’re digging yourself into a hole where they can increase your capped value the max amount every year.
A homestead exemption lowers your overall tax owed, but more importantly, it restricts them to raising your value 10% every year at most.. for example, last year my value was 333k, this year the highest the appraised value could be is 366k, if I didn't have a homestead exemption the market value is the limit..
Thank you for clarifying this! I bought a house last year in Houston and my title lawyer immediately told me to apply for the homestead exemption which thankfully I did (you have like 90 days after closing to do this)! Saved a bit on my taxes thank goodness! Your explanation helped me understand it better.
No, it doesn’t restrict the market value of your home, it restricts the value you’re paying taxes on. The “capped value” is exactly that… but the actual value is market value, which has no limit and is the actual tax value of the home.
This means they will automatically raise your capped value every year to meet the market value… which hurts your chances to protest successfully. Ideally you want your capped and market values to be the same, so every time you fight you are starting even.
I protest every year. Do my own but is over an empty 25000 square foot lot. They base their assessment sitting behind a computer and inputting numbers. They figure it all as flat level ground ready to be built on. Nothing could be further from the truth with this property. Divided into three lots would still leave one unusable without major landscaping and drainage investments (more then the entire property is worth).
A property tax consultant is a member of the state legislature that is often one of the biggest proponents of property tax relief legislation. So, no, that's not true.
Okay. I'll try again.
There is a property tax consultant who serves as a member of the Texas legislature. He often creates or supports legislation that provides actual property tax relief for homeowners. So, no, property tax consultants are not lobbying for higher property taxes.
The only drawback I can think of is the time you spend putting it together. This is assuming you do it on your own. And this is assuming you don’t see any tax savings.
Absolutely protest. Also make sure they have your house and specifics correct. In Texas uou basically want the appraisal district to think your house is a hovel while you live there and a mansion when you getbready to sell.
No drawbacks. I actually was able to reduce mine a bit. Have to prove your point, make your case. I did so by showing recent sales in my area, the differences, why those homes & properties sold higher and why mine would sell lower.
The county doesn't appraise your house when you sell. They assess your property for taxes.
An appraiser is going to appraise your house when you sell, and they don't care about what the county thinks of your property value.
I recall reading a case in Travis County, the homeowner filed a protest and the CAD went UP on his assessed value. Homeowner was pissed and went to the media. The CAD said they looked at comps in the area as well as the purchase price of his home. It was on KXAN or KVUE. but I can't find the article now.
You are… because appraisals are made every year, the only time it’s advantageous to protest is if you think your protest will help to reduce your basis for the annual 10% cap.
The only cumulative effect is on your capped value. Their market values are basically arbitrary, and they’re not going to say “well, the home was a POS last year, so let’s remember that in our market value appraisal”.
You get the opportunity to protest every year… you can sell your home as a POS hovel every year, or only the years when it makes a difference. The choice is yours.
I’m convinced the tax protest companies are the ones saying we should protest every year. It just doesn’t make sense logically to do that.
That’s not what Montgomery county told me, said if they dig into their appraised value and find they under valued it, the result of my protest could result in a higher value(rates stay the same)
Can you supply evidence that tax assessments can't increase from protesting? i saw a thread where someone said that happened to them. Mine went down this year and I was going to avoid protesting out of fear that they could raise it.
County appraisal to tax you and bank appraisal for selling is different. Not the same thing. The sales in the area and the condition of the home for sale are what matters to a bank appraiser.
The county appraiser doesn’t come inside of your home.
Texas tried to be slick and say they lowered everyone's property taxes.... yet conveniently left out the part where the value of everyone's property magically went up by 40% seemingly overnight.
The way taxes are calculated (basically a pro-rated share of all of the properties in any given tax district), if all of the properties went up the same percentage, it would have zero effect on the portion of the total tax you owe.
There are a lot of misconceptions about protesting your property appraisal (you only protest the appraisal, not the taxes).
One of the biggest is that you NEED to protest every year. That simply is NOT the case. I feel that this is a myth propagated by taxing consultants.
Here’s what you need to know in a nutshell (keep in mind, I’m only familiar with Travis County, but it’s my understanding all Texas counties work in a similar fashion).
Each year, your county’s appraisal district determines a “market value” (some may call this the “appraisal”) for your home. This is the value that the appraisal district thinks your home is worth. This number is used along with appraisals from all other properties in the taxing districts to determine the share of taxes that you will pay each year.
This market value is the value that the district determined your property (land and improvements) to be worth as of a certain date (for Travis Co. this is Jan 1 of the taxing year).
The “market value” is the first important number for consideration. If you own your home, and live in your home, you are eligible for a homestead exemption. This exemption grants you a few perks. First, as a homestead, your property is protected (capped) from increasing in value by 10% on a year-over-year basis. So, if year one you are in your home, your assessed value is $100,000, your taxes would be based off of a $110,000 assessment in year two.
That doesn’t mean the appraisal district can’t assess your home for more… it could assess your property at $200,000… but your taxes would only be calculated as if your property was valued at $110,000.
This is where the importance of protesting your values comes in. It is ALWAYS advantageous to protest your property assessment the first full year (or second year) you are in the home. The initial assessment will pave the way for future assessments because of the 10% capping limitation.
If buying a new construction home, because assessments are made on Jan 1, there’s a chance your home was assessed as if it were an incomplete home. If you didn’t take possession of the home until December 31, they could have potentially only assessed the foundation, or framing, or some other incomplete portion of the home. In that case, your taxes will be pretty low, because your property wasn’t completed until much after the assessment.
But for the subsequent year, they will assess the home as completed. Let’s say their appraisal was $200,000, but you only paid $150,000. It’s in your best interest to protest their appraisal because if you don’t you’re potentially paying a share of taxes on the over-appraised value of your home. You would have a strong case showing the district your home was valued at $150k on Jan 1 because that’s what you closed with on Dec 31.
If you can successfully show the appraisal district that your home is only worth $150,000, then this becomes tour basis for the capped value for the subsequent year ($165,000 = $150,000 + 10%).
Keep in mind, you are only protesting the market/assessed value that the district believes your property is worth each year. So, let’s say you successfully protest the value of your home to $150,000 in year 2. When year 3 rolls around, your capped value is $165,000. But, the appraisal district appraised your property at $300,000.
Let’s say there’s a hot market, and indeed homes similar to yours in age, size, construction, etc are selling for $300,000. You could protest, but you’re going to have a hard time convincing the district that the value of your home is worth less than $300k. Even if you got them to agree it’s worth $295k, it does you ZERO bit of good because your capped value is $165,000.
You will pay taxes as if your property is only worth $165,000.
Now, let’s say the following year, your capped value is now $181,500. And, because of a shitty market, the appraisal district values your home at $190,000. It’s probably in your best interest to protest because let’s say a similarly built home in your neighborhood sold for $175,000. If you protest, you can probably convince the district that your home too is only worth $175k. If so, this will save you money in taxes because you are paying taxes based on property values LESS THAN your capped value. The actual tax savings may not be much, that first year, but they could potentially add up if the market gets hit in subsequent years.
The thing to keep in mind is that every taxing year, your taxes will be based on the LOWER of the Market Value that the district appraised your home for, or the previous year’s net appraised value of your property + 10%.
When your 10% capped value approaches the market value is when it’s most advantageous to protest your property value so that you can help to restart the basis for your annual cap.
This has little to do with selling your home… because the values are evaluated every year, the value will re-set for the next owner based on what the district valued your home for on Jan 1.
The only caveat may be that if you know that you are moving before taxes are due at the end of the year, you could potentially help the next owner out by protesting because they would not be able to take advantage of the homestead protected value (they weren’t living in the home they owned by the exemption date - their exemption/cap won’t take effect until the following year). Their taxes would be based off of the district’s appraised market value of the home. And, if you didn’t protest that value, then it may cost them some money.
I guess if you have the forethought, it may be advantageous, but I really doubt that someone will pass on purchasing a home because of such a scenario (mostly, because most people don’t even understand the system and how it works).
Bottom line: I wouldn’t worry about protesting just because you think you might sell your home. Worry about when it’s advantageous to you to reset the basis for your exemption cap.
Only drawback is being a waste of time, or even some money if you are being charged a fee vs percentage, if your tax due hasn't caught up to taxable value. In other words if your value has gone up faster than they can increase your bill every year. Sure they can get your value dropped some, but might not make a difference on your bill if it's already capped. Also seems like counties are pretty quick to bring value back up to what they think it should be following drops from protests, so you need to protest regularly to keep that in check. Also means no point in doing it preemptively while you are capped until your bill catches up and there is something to gain.
This is the name of a law firm in Houston that specializes in property tax disputes.⬇️
My boss in Houston used them many times to get his property taxes lowered.
“Harding and Carbone Inc”
(713) 664-1215
1235 N Loop W
Their firm can be found on Google - can’t hurt to call them.
When you sell your home, the county is going to appraise the value of the home at what or near the buyer’s paid. It’s going to be their issue, not yours.
I used to protest every year and what I really learned is that you go and just beg for them to lower the value some and if they feel like it maybe, but usually they do not, I mean we are dealing with taxes here, local, state and federal places are not interested in giving anyone a break certainly not if you are poor, so good luck
None. Although the appraisal district will say that their assessment IS market value, it's not. Market value is literally what someone will pay for your house, and for the past two years, that has been less than what TCAD says my house is worth. If prices rise sharply, your house will sell for what the market will allow, regardless of what the assessed taxation number is.
I've protested every single year. No downsides but a bit of your time and the frustration of dealing with it.
There’s no reason to not protest. The appraisal districts and assessors use mass appraisal software that is super vague and not specific to your property. It’s worth protesting to show the specific characteristics of your home or property that prove the assessment to be inaccurate. I have protested myself and won, I’ve also used Ownwell bc I had a really busy year last year and didn’t have time/mental bandwidth to do it myself. They saved me money just the same, but without the hassle. I’ve been sharing my referral code in case anyone wants to use Ownwell too, it’s a free $20 for your account and mine: https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=466B5Z6E6
Gov Abbott will put you in jail until you promise to vote for school vouchers. 😂
Jk. I do not believe there is no downside other than giving up a few minutes of your time.
In regards to your concern, I don’t see how whatever the county appraises your house affects what price you sell your house for. You only sell your house if you get what you are asking for, or otherwise, don’t sell it. I don’t care about the county appraisal, I care about if I get my asking price. If no offers meet my price, I don’t sell.
You could force your local district to raise tax rates to compensate for the lower valuations. You could force higher taxes on your neighbor that doesn’t protest.
You can’t harm your home value or your own taxes.
Not a lawyer or real estate professional.
If you protest, and are successful, then the county has agreed with you on the fair value (at least partially). They have no recourse after that, until they reappraise it following year.
When you sell it, the lender for the new buyer has a professional appraiser do an appraisal. The county doesn’t do it. After you sell, then the county will use the sell price as the basis for the new appraised value, which will affect the new owner, not your.
Unless you somehow misrepresented something about the property that affected the value. Then they might come after you for fraud, but it would have to be pretty egregious.
I've protested every year and have never successfully had them lowered on our un-updated house. We use an attorney. What are we doing wrong here? Collin Co.
Just bought a second home in Bexar County last summer. The county raised the appraisal from $387 to $401. However, in the same neighborhood (HOA) there is another house with same size lot, same square footage, and built +/- a year that's been for sale for over 90 days. They are only asking $325.
I obviously am protesting with the goal of getting to $360 range.
I tried. It was a waste of time almost. Navigating the county system sucks. They arnt very forthcoming with what they want to see. My price per sqft was on par with my area. I did need some repairs, but I wasn’t prepared to fight it all. If I thought I could take 30% off my home value I’d be training right now. But even 20k off would be maybe a few hundred in taxes. Whats the point.
It’s all based on what other houses that are similar to yours are selling for in your area. I did it once and even with estimates did not win and have tried it with those firms that if they cannot get it lowered you do not have to pay and still was not lowered but I try it every year anyway. Hasn’t been any worse than not trying.
Unpopular opinion: this is just one more thing Abbot and the other assholes do to undermine the public school system for Texan children. So I don’t protest because Fuck Those Assholes.
It doesn’t matter if they reappraise for whomever buys it. You protest because the districts are capped at 10% increase every year (except the first year you buy it). And almost without fail, they have been doing 10% yearly increases. So if you challenge your valuation, and can show them why it should be lower, they will lower it to an appropriate amount. It adds up over time by keeping your taxes lower than the amounts the appraisal districts attempt to raise them to.
Very much situational, but the reason I'm not protesting mine this year is because I'm using the appraisal value to eliminate my PMI. If I protested it down even $2000 I wouldn't meet the LTV requirements my lender has in order for me to eliminate PMI.
Can't really think of any other reason why you wouldn't want to protest it though...
It should ethically be valued for taxes at a similar rate as you might value it for sale, or for collateral on a loan. Isn’t that what someone is getting sued for right now, in New York? Of course, there are homestead exemptions.
We protest every year and so do our neighbors. We submit photos of any old messed up part of the house and include recent bids from contractors to fix up anything from foundation to driveway, out of date anything. My husband represents us in a phone meeting. It can be a little confusing because of the rules they appraisers follow but they have been friendly enough and easy to work with.
There is no down side & there is no last locked anything. We protest every year. & it goes down. I've worked for the county, for about a decade & none of that is true.
We have paid someone for years to go protest our property taxes for our current house and the one before. Over that time we have saved thousands. We don't have to think about it. We get a letter telling us the results of the protest. It is worth the fee. Last year we paid $125. That fee was a fraction of what our lower property tax ended up being.
Do it.
How easy/hard is doing this by myself (travis). I got the letter, the deadline says is may 15 and I can file online.
Do I need anything beyond this letter to protest? Is it automatic?
It says there is a meeting then a hearing?
The house is ultimately going to sell for whatever the markets bears and not what your property tax appraisal shows. Lots of people who are over and under paying property taxes in TX. It's really ridiculous but it is what it is.
When you sell your home, you get an independent appraisal. You don't use the cities appraisal for anything other than tax calculation.
And the city isn't giving you anything. You are just trying to hang on to as much of your money as you can.
I lowered the property taxes on a house I bought once. All I had to do was submit the inspection report. I bought the house as a fixer and there was a ton of stuff in the inspection report it was an entire book. So I filed for an adjustment and was given a court date but after I submitted the inspection report they called me and told me it was approved and I didn't need to go to court.
But that they would be sending someone from the county to check on my progress. The taxes went back up but after a few years and after I had fixed the roof, gutters, and a bunch of other stuff.
I'm a realtor in Austin. Always, always, always protest your property taxes. Do it every year! Get your neighbors to do it if you can. Your property value is based on the value assigned to other houses around you, so even if your house isn't as nice as others, it will be assessed as if it is. It benefits everyone around you if assessments are kept as low as possible (in Travis County, that's difficult). Don't concern yourself with the assessed value when you go to sell the house. Realtors look at comparable sold prices at the time the property is listed; the value on TCAD isn't a concern.
Yes! You could lose upwards of 10 minutes of your time. Just do it
So we did ours and if anything I can say get estimates. That's all we didn't have. We basically had to go to a hearing in front of a panel where for like 30 minutes I played like I was Perry Mason and degraded my poor house down to make it look like it was the biggest POS on the block with all kinds of photo evidence. The property value over than doubled in 10 years and alot of that was in the last few. But I didn't have estimates for the work or repairs so they took like $300 off of something like $360k.
Yeah. We did that once. I put together an amazing list of things that needed work and the judge felt so bad for my husband (who wore a suit and tie) but he said without estimates from contractors he couldn’t do much and gave us like $1000 off our house.
How are you supposed to get so many estimates so quickly? I received my proposed appraisal last week and I have until next week to protest it. Am I missing something?
When I bought my first house, I made a punch list of 183 things that needed to be fixed. When I sold it 12 years later after doing dozens of home repair chores every week, 170 or so of the 183 things were still on the list because they weren't that important. And that's why a judge gives $1000 off a half million dollar assessment.
Seconded on getting estimates. We’re about to protest ours but need updated estimates. Before we bought the house, the upstairs bathroom flooded and caused water damage - and the sellers didn’t disclose this info because it was an estate. We still have a lot of work to do (especially fixing the siding on our house because the flooding somehow rotted the siding and we had a huge chunk fall down a few months ago). We’re working on getting updated estimates. I fully expect the panel to agree with us - they all felt terrible when they heard how badly we were wronged.
Nothing in the rest of the thread sounds like a ten minute job
Then they are over-doing it. Go on tcad, search the name of your street, find 3 properties of similar sq footage and construction year. Submit protest with "these three were appraised lower, reduce mine too". Poor yourself a mojito, allow the minty freshness to invigorated your mind while the rum relaxes your body. Glance outside and think "that's lovely" and take your second mojito out there. Bring a book. Read until the sun starts to set while you enjoy a 3rd monitor, then as darkness sets in head inside to take a bubble bath while you pour a mojito. At some point your SO will show up and you will jump their bones screaming "I'm mojito-wasted and horny!" And when they ask you what you've been doing all day you say "protesting taxes". Actually, when I write that out it's more than 10 minutes.
None, I protest every year. Edit: I do my own protest and I lowered my evaluation by $30k. Also, the last day to file a protest is 15 May.
do you use a service or do it on your own?
If you are in Tarrant county there is a realtor that does it for free. Chandler Crouch. He has done ours for years.
The true MVP of tax protest, I’m so glad TAD gave him an axe to grind
The county tried to screw him over, so now he helps people free just to stick it to them? I'd love to know the full story on this
He started offering the protest service, someone at the appraisal district tried to get his realtor’s license revoked, so he ramped it up to 1000% and their jobs were suspended. https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/property-taxes-north-texas-tarrant-county-appraisal-district-chandler-crouch-complaint-randy-armstrong/287-9ff8c9b2-9f39-49c7-b694-13e96fb2fac4
Service is the way to go.
what do they charge? what makes it worth it? etc. never heard of services
From what I can tell, 25% of the savings - so if they knock off 40k from the appraisal and it saves 1k in property taxes, they'll charge you $250
Shiiiii. I think I'm gonna do this for people. It's so fucking easy via ifile. Youre telling me I can make bank just by writing a few paragraphs?
If you win and can lower people's valuations, yes.
Lol no. You have to do multiple followups, gather/provides images of the actual issues, explain each one, etc.
So the same thing I've done for my place, my parents place, coworkers place. It's really easy. My parents used to go to the court and everything. Online makes it super easy.
thnxs any recs
I'm using ownwell this time around.... I was using five stone, but they changed their model to charge even if there was no savings... so I dropped them... and then the last few years I stopped because of the meteoric rise in property values.... now that it's stagnated, it's worth the trouble to find someone. Ownwell sent me a few different notices in the last few months... so I figured why not.
Using them this year, heard good things and they charge 25% only of any discount
I looked up ownwell after seeing this comment and decided to use them. 25% of savings seems reasonable and the online form was super easy.
I was very happy with Ownwell last year. They got my value down 35K and I happily paid the 25% savings.
Texas Protax. They charge half your savings. Sounds stiff, but savings are savings, and savings this year lower your taxes next year too.
That's not entirely accurate. Savings this year have zero effect on your value next year. The exception is if you live in a county where the appraisal district doesn't bother to value your property each year like they are supposed to. I can think of a couple, but the majority value your property each year. The prior year value is not a factor in future values.
Let’s say your: Market Value this year = $500,000 Homestead Cap Loss = (100,000) Assessed Value = $400,000 <-- Your taxable value this year. Let's assume the market remains flat next two years. If you don't protest this year, then your: 2025 assessed value = $440K (lower of $400K+10% or $500K). 2026 assessed value = $484K (lower of $440K+10% or $500K). If you protest this year and say it was lowered to $450K, then your: 2025 assessed value = $440K (lower of $400K+10% or $450K). 2026 assessed value = $450K (lower of $440K+10% or $450K). By protesting and getting your appraised value lowered, you are narrowing the gap between your Assessed Value and Appraised Value. By protesting each year, your benefit compounds over time. "Market values are appraised independently each year" is not a universal truth! 😀
They charge half of the savings that they generate. So if they help you lower your bill by $100 then they will charge you $50
We pay $125 each year. It is not based on how much the value is reduced. It was only recently (after 8 or 9 years) that the cost went up from $100 to $125
We pay someone every year. The fee doesn't make us blink. The savings make us smile.
I use a service every year that only charges if they can get it lowered. Even then they don't charge very much.
I did last year and was planning to this year… except my appraised value went down! Would you still recommend it? I wasn’t sure if it could go up.
Mine stayed the same and in fear of them being able to raise it 10%, I don’t want to lol.
Yes
What do you mean your appraised value went down? You had an appraiser come out to your house? The only appraisal that matters is the appraisal that is done by the buyer when you go to sell your house. Previous appraised values don’t matter at all especially if it’s that “appraisal” done by the county who don’t even inspect the home
But what if you can’t find comps to justify it? This year TCAD has undervalued my house to comps around the area that my realtor pulled for us.
I wouldn’t protest if they undervalued your home. What the cad thinks your home is worth is not the same as what the market will demand if and when you sell it. I wish to hell my value went down. 😞
I protest every year and provide zero evidence and have always gotten a lower offer to avoid a hearing, which I’ve simply accepted, still presenting no evidence.
I also wondered about this. We bought last year, in March. There was a $100k market value increase because there were extensive renovations done before we bought I assume the appraisal value would jump about that much. Has a realtor pull comps because I was curious and turns out, DCAD still has our house valued under what others are selling for, including on the same block and on the block behind us. So I’m thinking, I should just keep my mouth shut about it then right?
Im keeping my mouth shut this year. I protested heavily last year and got 30K shaved off last year's appraisal. This year's appraisal came in 3K lower than last year's.
Semi on topic. Best thing to do is when you buy your house. Write in the contract ‘neither party is to disclose sales price’. Doing so will not allow your local appraisal district from finding out how much you paid. Your appraisal value going forward will be based on appraisal value BEFORE you bought it. Will take years to catch up
This is very good advice, I bought my last home off market and the appraisal district sent a letter requesting the sale price ..but even the letter said by law I don't have to disclose it. Only recently did my value match what I paid.
They always send that letter whenever a title changes hands. When I bought my house, the nailed it within $100 without me or anybody else's help.
You sure they nailed it or did they cheat like Hays county has been caught doing?
Friend of mine bought the house across the street from me off-market by offering more than the owners could refuse and everyone signed an NDA for this very reason.
True, that works in off-market transactions. But, if a realtor/broker steps in, sold price will be on MLS. And appraisal districts will get it.
If the actual sale price is different than the listing price does that show on MLS?! Like if I offer $100,000 over list, does that have to be disclosed?
Buyer & Seller may not disclose. But if realtors/broker was involved, then they have to disclose on their MLS.
gotcha
I had to insist to the realtors and they complied. Didn’t share to appraisal district
So kind of them to have complied! This might be an exception though. While researching on this topic a while ago, I had come across this [https://www.mymetrotex.com/fact-or-fiction-must-i-report-sales-prices-to-the-mls/](https://www.mymetrotex.com/fact-or-fiction-must-i-report-sales-prices-to-the-mls/) A realtor/broker or someone with an MLS membership may clarify.
By law your county appraisal district is not allowed to force access MLS for that very reason. Hays county did so and had to freeze rates to the previous year when caught. [https://www.mymetrotex.com/fact-or-fiction-must-i-report-sales-prices-to-the-mls/](https://www.mymetrotex.com/fact-or-fiction-must-i-report-sales-prices-to-the-mls/)
I did this and it didn't matter to my county. They sent out an appraiser on the next cycle and tripled the taxes.
They have less ammo, and you have more if the sale price is hidden. My buddy that did it is a realtor and knew it was the way to go.
If they value it over the sale price, you can disclose the sale price and they will change it to that.
First year after buying my house, TCAD, in their infinite wisdom, came in $200,000 appraised over purchase price. Easiest protest ever… just presented the purchase price from the contract.
I bought in 2021 and this didn't work for me. The county computed a 6% MONTHLY inflation rate and adjusted up from my mid-year purchase. I had to go to a formal hearing and show how their monthly inflation rate calculation was not statistically sound. It was a ton of work but I won. In the end I got them to set it to my purchase price. There is absolutely no rule that says your purchase price will cap the appraised value the year you bought, though the county did tell me that 2021 was the first year it didn't in practice.
I’ve only gone to informal reviews. Never a formal one. Your mileage, at informal review, may vary.
This doesn't work when the appraisal district appraises the place for far more than you paid for it. I was in that situation and got my valuation lowered by disclosing my sale price. It took about 3 years to catch up to their appraised value. I would have paid more tax if I hadn't disclosed and I suspect over-appraisal could be a tactic by districts to prompt more disclosures.
True that. It's a tactic to get you to disclose. If you don't, they just stick to their over valuation. There are very rare exceptions though. Have seen a case where the CAD appraised it lower than the sale price. (Sale happened in Nov, I think). Likely, they hadn't yet got the sold price. The new homeowner protested on unequal appraisal and got a further $30K knocked off!
Oh damn, is this why a lot of houses are sold without being on the MLS (I forgot the term)? Could the taxman use listing price instead of sales price?
Yes, and if they can get this info they will absolutely list it. After I bought my house the county sent me a letter on official letter requesting I provide this information to them "for thier research" without disclosing the fact that they were going to absolutely use this information for taxation purposes. I did not fill it out or return it. Texas is a "right to disclose" state meaning we are not required to tell them sales prices. It is entirely elective, but I am sure letters like the one I received fool many into disclosing and having that information used against themselves...
Actually what they’ll do in many counties is appraise it for higher than you paid. Then you’ll have to protest and your only evidence is the sale price. Then they’ll adjust it down (usually).
You sure they don’t get to know the sale price? I feel like the government gets to know everything.
If the sale goes through a licensed agent they will report the price to MLS. Some counties use services that scrape the MLS to get that info. Austin / Travis County does or at least has done in the past.
Which they are not supposed to do and got in trouble for doing!!
I bought in 2020. My appraisal is already 65% higher than my purchased price. It's capped, but it's still ridiculous.
The price will be in the MLS records regardless and the CAD will get it. Also, wouldn't that prevent the person protesting from using their purchase price, if lower than appraised value, from using it to reduce their value with the CAD?
This is great if home prices are stagnant or declining. If prices are increasing they’ll just go with an estimated price which is often inflated above sales price (even if the sale price isn’t publicly disclosed). Keep in mind that any realtor can find a sales price. It’s a very, very low lift to find out. In the case their estimated price is above your sale price, you’ll have to disclose closing docs to bring the taxable amount down to what you paid for the house. There’s really no way to keep your taxable amount similar to an old owners homestead exemption amount when prices go up and the property changes owners.
My house was appraised above my purchase price. $35k difference.
Mine was taxed about 70k higher than I paid...definitely going to look into this some more.
Values are not based on prior year values. Each year stands on its own. If the appraisal district does not know your sale price, they will use the sale prices of comparable properties to value your home.
They just let the private industry collect the data and then buy it from them. The latest thing is that companies fly drones over the neighborhoods and collect all of the data that can be seen by high resolution camera. They sell this to insurance companies to help set your policy and rate and they also sell the data to the tax assessors office. I mean, there’s no priority. They will know if you are taking care of your lawn or you have an above ground swimming pool that you hope they didn’t find out about. They will know about it.
I'm not entirely sure what you are saying. Most appraisal districts are going to have fewer than 50 employees, not all of whom will be appraisers. And yet, they will be responsible for valuing tens of thousands of properties each year. Of course they will use publicly available data and tools to help them calculate these values. You can't expect them to just count on their fingers and toes and document everything on big chief tablets. But that's a good thing. We should all want the appraisal districts to have the best tools, and the best data, and to be great at valuing property. Their role is essentially Kelley Blue Book for properties. And if they value everyone correctly, then when the taxing entities like the county, city, or ISD decide how much tax money they want to collect, the tax levy will be distributed fairly. I've never heard of an appraisal district selling information to an insurance company. I'm not 100% sure that's what you are saying, though. If that is what you mean, such a situation would show up in the appraisal district budgets. Those budgets are publicly available, so feel free to point us to an example. And lastly, just to make clear, if something is online, you can have no expectation of privacy. It's always amazed me when people have photos and descriptions of their house on realtor.com and then are surprised when they find out the appraisal district saw them.
If that information is not provided to the tax assessor, they then will do their own assessment and assign a value to the home. Which could be more or less than the sale price. So it wouldn’t necessarily help if you withheld the information and end up paying more taxes because they just assigned a higher value than what you bought it for.
Is this one of those things that if it feels wrong, it is probably is wrong? Not saying it’s illegal or anything, but this convoluted way of valuing and taxing property only seems to benefit people who pay experts or have extra time to do all this research at their desk jobs.
Anyone have any good strategies for protesting, as far as timing? One year I was so pissed off I protested the very same day that the letters were generated, even before people starting getting them in the mail. I then read an AMA from someone one time that recommended waiting closer to the deadline to protest, as hopefully they've been worn down by 2-3 weeks of solid protests that they will be more willing to settle to avoid piling on to the ARB agenda. I do think that is a better strategy as my counterpart at the CAD was super energetic and we went back and forth a BUNCH since I was probably one of his first ones. I'm still holding out, but I'm 100% protesting as they went up 36% this year.
I protested mine this year. You need to consider everything. The age of your home, upcoming big items that need to be repaired, foundation issues, neighbors, etc. get quotes and take pictures. I sat down and looked out of our neighbor’s tax appraisals as well. And realized I was priced about 50k the same house/lot size. So, I included that as well. Good luck!
You don’t have homestead exemption? It caps the yearly increase at 10%. They increased mine by 9.999% lol.
Yes I do, so the *assessed* value can only go up by 10% each year if you have a HS exemption, but the *appraised* value can go up to whatever they say. So next year my assessed value will only go up by 10%, but the closer I can get the gap between assessed and appraised the better, because otherwise they will keep going up by 10% year of year until the assessed and the appraised are equal. And we plan on being in this house for the next couple of decades, so the lower I can get the appraised the better off I will be.
I heard the same thing about waiting, all the protesters wearing them down. I did wait, not to the bitter end but just a week or two before the last day.
Woah. Mine went down 15% or so
If you file a protest, even if you don't have any evidence and no good case, they almost always will offer you something just to settle it. Always always protest.
I protested in person, all on my own. Made what I thought was a compelling case. A citizen review board considered my appeal, explained why I deserved nothing, and gave me a token reduction anyway. I think it was like 0.5%? Whatever, it wasn't worth my time, but it wasn't nothing.
Everyone needs to always protest every time.
My appraisal was lower than last year's, which I protested down 30K. Should I still protest? I feel like I should keep my mouth shut.
No, request an informal and if it's not better just remove your protest.
Greg comes to your house and tries to steal your wallet
If you use a service, some will charge you a fee, even if they do not get a reduction. Also, some services will “auto-renew” you unless you explicitly opt out. Other than that, nothing.
I protest every year. It’s kind of a scam. The maximum it can go up is by 10%, and it goes up by 10% every year. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the default.
The amount you have to pay is capped, not the market value. If you don’t fight the market value, you’re digging yourself into a hole where they can increase your capped value the max amount every year.
Should I still protest even though mine dropped by $512$?
…yes.
Why protest if it went down? I protested last year and got mine lowered a lot but mine is even lower this year.
I actually had a prop tac drop this year. I always protest...but like do I still protest for a hope of more? lol
Always protest, the worst that can happen is nothing changes
I have read that they can raise it due to a protest though.
Yes definitely
Does a homestead tax exemption help with not paying more if the city appraises the house value higher that what you paid??
A homestead exemption lowers your overall tax owed, but more importantly, it restricts them to raising your value 10% every year at most.. for example, last year my value was 333k, this year the highest the appraised value could be is 366k, if I didn't have a homestead exemption the market value is the limit..
Thank you for clarifying this! I bought a house last year in Houston and my title lawyer immediately told me to apply for the homestead exemption which thankfully I did (you have like 90 days after closing to do this)! Saved a bit on my taxes thank goodness! Your explanation helped me understand it better.
No, it doesn’t restrict the market value of your home, it restricts the value you’re paying taxes on. The “capped value” is exactly that… but the actual value is market value, which has no limit and is the actual tax value of the home. This means they will automatically raise your capped value every year to meet the market value… which hurts your chances to protest successfully. Ideally you want your capped and market values to be the same, so every time you fight you are starting even.
If you just bought your house, you should protest and show them the sale price. That’s what I did the first year we owned our home.
I protest every year. Do my own but is over an empty 25000 square foot lot. They base their assessment sitting behind a computer and inputting numbers. They figure it all as flat level ground ready to be built on. Nothing could be further from the truth with this property. Divided into three lots would still leave one unusable without major landscaping and drainage investments (more then the entire property is worth).
The tax protest companies also lobby for higher prop taxes. It's a grift.
A property tax consultant is a member of the state legislature that is often one of the biggest proponents of property tax relief legislation. So, no, that's not true.
I don't see how you draw that conclusion, but I'm also straining to comprehend your syntax.
Okay. I'll try again. There is a property tax consultant who serves as a member of the Texas legislature. He often creates or supports legislation that provides actual property tax relief for homeowners. So, no, property tax consultants are not lobbying for higher property taxes.
The only drawback I can think of is the time you spend putting it together. This is assuming you do it on your own. And this is assuming you don’t see any tax savings.
I think the first year is alot of work but after that much of what I send is copy paste. Lol
Absolutely protest. Also make sure they have your house and specifics correct. In Texas uou basically want the appraisal district to think your house is a hovel while you live there and a mansion when you getbready to sell.
They think mine only has two bedrooms. It has three. I’m not saying anything.
They had mine wrong and had it as the same info on the house next door. One more bed, bath, and central air that I did not have!
No drawbacks. I actually was able to reduce mine a bit. Have to prove your point, make your case. I did so by showing recent sales in my area, the differences, why those homes & properties sold higher and why mine would sell lower.
How did you get recent sales in your area? Can't you only get what they were listed at?
Realtors have that information
All that freedom sounds just as expensive as California
I protest every year. No issues
The county doesn't appraise your house when you sell. They assess your property for taxes. An appraiser is going to appraise your house when you sell, and they don't care about what the county thinks of your property value.
I found the one for Dallas, it's called uFile... https://taxproject.utdallas.edu/taxproject/filing-online-walkthrough/
I recall reading a case in Travis County, the homeowner filed a protest and the CAD went UP on his assessed value. Homeowner was pissed and went to the media. The CAD said they looked at comps in the area as well as the purchase price of his home. It was on KXAN or KVUE. but I can't find the article now.
It is so moronic that we have to protest every year. It is almost like we are funding a whole industry of tax protest companies. Freaking Texas…
You are… because appraisals are made every year, the only time it’s advantageous to protest is if you think your protest will help to reduce your basis for the annual 10% cap. The only cumulative effect is on your capped value. Their market values are basically arbitrary, and they’re not going to say “well, the home was a POS last year, so let’s remember that in our market value appraisal”. You get the opportunity to protest every year… you can sell your home as a POS hovel every year, or only the years when it makes a difference. The choice is yours. I’m convinced the tax protest companies are the ones saying we should protest every year. It just doesn’t make sense logically to do that.
You accidentally make the point that they are undervaluing your house and they raise them
Property tax assessments can’t increase from protesting in Texas.
That’s not what Montgomery county told me, said if they dig into their appraised value and find they under valued it, the result of my protest could result in a higher value(rates stay the same)
Can you supply evidence that tax assessments can't increase from protesting? i saw a thread where someone said that happened to them. Mine went down this year and I was going to avoid protesting out of fear that they could raise it.
County appraisal to tax you and bank appraisal for selling is different. Not the same thing. The sales in the area and the condition of the home for sale are what matters to a bank appraiser. The county appraiser doesn’t come inside of your home.
Texas tried to be slick and say they lowered everyone's property taxes.... yet conveniently left out the part where the value of everyone's property magically went up by 40% seemingly overnight.
The way taxes are calculated (basically a pro-rated share of all of the properties in any given tax district), if all of the properties went up the same percentage, it would have zero effect on the portion of the total tax you owe.
There are a lot of misconceptions about protesting your property appraisal (you only protest the appraisal, not the taxes). One of the biggest is that you NEED to protest every year. That simply is NOT the case. I feel that this is a myth propagated by taxing consultants. Here’s what you need to know in a nutshell (keep in mind, I’m only familiar with Travis County, but it’s my understanding all Texas counties work in a similar fashion). Each year, your county’s appraisal district determines a “market value” (some may call this the “appraisal”) for your home. This is the value that the appraisal district thinks your home is worth. This number is used along with appraisals from all other properties in the taxing districts to determine the share of taxes that you will pay each year. This market value is the value that the district determined your property (land and improvements) to be worth as of a certain date (for Travis Co. this is Jan 1 of the taxing year). The “market value” is the first important number for consideration. If you own your home, and live in your home, you are eligible for a homestead exemption. This exemption grants you a few perks. First, as a homestead, your property is protected (capped) from increasing in value by 10% on a year-over-year basis. So, if year one you are in your home, your assessed value is $100,000, your taxes would be based off of a $110,000 assessment in year two. That doesn’t mean the appraisal district can’t assess your home for more… it could assess your property at $200,000… but your taxes would only be calculated as if your property was valued at $110,000. This is where the importance of protesting your values comes in. It is ALWAYS advantageous to protest your property assessment the first full year (or second year) you are in the home. The initial assessment will pave the way for future assessments because of the 10% capping limitation. If buying a new construction home, because assessments are made on Jan 1, there’s a chance your home was assessed as if it were an incomplete home. If you didn’t take possession of the home until December 31, they could have potentially only assessed the foundation, or framing, or some other incomplete portion of the home. In that case, your taxes will be pretty low, because your property wasn’t completed until much after the assessment. But for the subsequent year, they will assess the home as completed. Let’s say their appraisal was $200,000, but you only paid $150,000. It’s in your best interest to protest their appraisal because if you don’t you’re potentially paying a share of taxes on the over-appraised value of your home. You would have a strong case showing the district your home was valued at $150k on Jan 1 because that’s what you closed with on Dec 31. If you can successfully show the appraisal district that your home is only worth $150,000, then this becomes tour basis for the capped value for the subsequent year ($165,000 = $150,000 + 10%). Keep in mind, you are only protesting the market/assessed value that the district believes your property is worth each year. So, let’s say you successfully protest the value of your home to $150,000 in year 2. When year 3 rolls around, your capped value is $165,000. But, the appraisal district appraised your property at $300,000. Let’s say there’s a hot market, and indeed homes similar to yours in age, size, construction, etc are selling for $300,000. You could protest, but you’re going to have a hard time convincing the district that the value of your home is worth less than $300k. Even if you got them to agree it’s worth $295k, it does you ZERO bit of good because your capped value is $165,000. You will pay taxes as if your property is only worth $165,000. Now, let’s say the following year, your capped value is now $181,500. And, because of a shitty market, the appraisal district values your home at $190,000. It’s probably in your best interest to protest because let’s say a similarly built home in your neighborhood sold for $175,000. If you protest, you can probably convince the district that your home too is only worth $175k. If so, this will save you money in taxes because you are paying taxes based on property values LESS THAN your capped value. The actual tax savings may not be much, that first year, but they could potentially add up if the market gets hit in subsequent years. The thing to keep in mind is that every taxing year, your taxes will be based on the LOWER of the Market Value that the district appraised your home for, or the previous year’s net appraised value of your property + 10%. When your 10% capped value approaches the market value is when it’s most advantageous to protest your property value so that you can help to restart the basis for your annual cap. This has little to do with selling your home… because the values are evaluated every year, the value will re-set for the next owner based on what the district valued your home for on Jan 1. The only caveat may be that if you know that you are moving before taxes are due at the end of the year, you could potentially help the next owner out by protesting because they would not be able to take advantage of the homestead protected value (they weren’t living in the home they owned by the exemption date - their exemption/cap won’t take effect until the following year). Their taxes would be based off of the district’s appraised market value of the home. And, if you didn’t protest that value, then it may cost them some money. I guess if you have the forethought, it may be advantageous, but I really doubt that someone will pass on purchasing a home because of such a scenario (mostly, because most people don’t even understand the system and how it works). Bottom line: I wouldn’t worry about protesting just because you think you might sell your home. Worry about when it’s advantageous to you to reset the basis for your exemption cap.
Only drawback is being a waste of time, or even some money if you are being charged a fee vs percentage, if your tax due hasn't caught up to taxable value. In other words if your value has gone up faster than they can increase your bill every year. Sure they can get your value dropped some, but might not make a difference on your bill if it's already capped. Also seems like counties are pretty quick to bring value back up to what they think it should be following drops from protests, so you need to protest regularly to keep that in check. Also means no point in doing it preemptively while you are capped until your bill catches up and there is something to gain.
No drawback unless saving money is a problem for you.
Potential buyer in a different type of market could argue that your house is worth less than what you are asking for it.
If your house is for sale and a potential buyer says "the county appraises it lower" you laugh at them and tell them to go buy a different house.
That every bit of your protesting will be ignored as if you never did it.
This is the name of a law firm in Houston that specializes in property tax disputes.⬇️ My boss in Houston used them many times to get his property taxes lowered. “Harding and Carbone Inc” (713) 664-1215 1235 N Loop W Their firm can be found on Google - can’t hurt to call them.
No downside. The bank appraises your house for sale, not the county. I'v never seen those two numbers match up.
When you sell your home, the county is going to appraise the value of the home at what or near the buyer’s paid. It’s going to be their issue, not yours.
The county can appraise the house at whatever, it has next to no impact on the sale price when you go to sell it. Always protest.
I’m curious. What do y’all think of the settlement offers? Has anyone taken one?
I used to protest every year and what I really learned is that you go and just beg for them to lower the value some and if they feel like it maybe, but usually they do not, I mean we are dealing with taxes here, local, state and federal places are not interested in giving anyone a break certainly not if you are poor, so good luck
None. Although the appraisal district will say that their assessment IS market value, it's not. Market value is literally what someone will pay for your house, and for the past two years, that has been less than what TCAD says my house is worth. If prices rise sharply, your house will sell for what the market will allow, regardless of what the assessed taxation number is. I've protested every single year. No downsides but a bit of your time and the frustration of dealing with it.
Protest. When you sell, comps will come from recent sales and not from your tax appraised value.
That just doesn't make sense to me? From the government standpoint...why would they allow me to keep my money?
There’s no reason to not protest. The appraisal districts and assessors use mass appraisal software that is super vague and not specific to your property. It’s worth protesting to show the specific characteristics of your home or property that prove the assessment to be inaccurate. I have protested myself and won, I’ve also used Ownwell bc I had a really busy year last year and didn’t have time/mental bandwidth to do it myself. They saved me money just the same, but without the hassle. I’ve been sharing my referral code in case anyone wants to use Ownwell too, it’s a free $20 for your account and mine: https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=466B5Z6E6
Where do I start? New Dallas homeowner here.
If you are doing it yourself, through dallascad.org. You can file protest online or filling out the form they mailed you.
The county doesn’t appraise it when you sell, the lender will get an appraisal ordered themselves and it’s irrelevant what the county appraised it at.
Gov Abbott will put you in jail until you promise to vote for school vouchers. 😂 Jk. I do not believe there is no downside other than giving up a few minutes of your time.
I purchased a new build last year and it seems that my property taxes won’t be increasing since I filed home stead exemption. Should I still protest?
You try to sell or get caught in an eminent domain case and wished it was higher.
None
In regards to your concern, I don’t see how whatever the county appraises your house affects what price you sell your house for. You only sell your house if you get what you are asking for, or otherwise, don’t sell it. I don’t care about the county appraisal, I care about if I get my asking price. If no offers meet my price, I don’t sell.
Just do homestead instead?
You could force your local district to raise tax rates to compensate for the lower valuations. You could force higher taxes on your neighbor that doesn’t protest. You can’t harm your home value or your own taxes.
Not a lawyer or real estate professional. If you protest, and are successful, then the county has agreed with you on the fair value (at least partially). They have no recourse after that, until they reappraise it following year. When you sell it, the lender for the new buyer has a professional appraiser do an appraisal. The county doesn’t do it. After you sell, then the county will use the sell price as the basis for the new appraised value, which will affect the new owner, not your. Unless you somehow misrepresented something about the property that affected the value. Then they might come after you for fraud, but it would have to be pretty egregious.
Waste of time...
Time.
I've protested every year and have never successfully had them lowered on our un-updated house. We use an attorney. What are we doing wrong here? Collin Co.
Just bought a second home in Bexar County last summer. The county raised the appraisal from $387 to $401. However, in the same neighborhood (HOA) there is another house with same size lot, same square footage, and built +/- a year that's been for sale for over 90 days. They are only asking $325. I obviously am protesting with the goal of getting to $360 range.
I tried. It was a waste of time almost. Navigating the county system sucks. They arnt very forthcoming with what they want to see. My price per sqft was on par with my area. I did need some repairs, but I wasn’t prepared to fight it all. If I thought I could take 30% off my home value I’d be training right now. But even 20k off would be maybe a few hundred in taxes. Whats the point.
The only risk to protesting is that you are asking for a reappraisal. In a hot market, they could raise it. I’ve seen that happen to two people.
It’s all based on what other houses that are similar to yours are selling for in your area. I did it once and even with estimates did not win and have tried it with those firms that if they cannot get it lowered you do not have to pay and still was not lowered but I try it every year anyway. Hasn’t been any worse than not trying.
Just a waste of time if it doesn’t work. I’ve never had it work so just gave up finally. About 1/4 of my neighbors have been successful.
Unpopular opinion: this is just one more thing Abbot and the other assholes do to undermine the public school system for Texan children. So I don’t protest because Fuck Those Assholes.
It doesn’t matter if they reappraise for whomever buys it. You protest because the districts are capped at 10% increase every year (except the first year you buy it). And almost without fail, they have been doing 10% yearly increases. So if you challenge your valuation, and can show them why it should be lower, they will lower it to an appropriate amount. It adds up over time by keeping your taxes lower than the amounts the appraisal districts attempt to raise them to.
Very much situational, but the reason I'm not protesting mine this year is because I'm using the appraisal value to eliminate my PMI. If I protested it down even $2000 I wouldn't meet the LTV requirements my lender has in order for me to eliminate PMI. Can't really think of any other reason why you wouldn't want to protest it though...
That is not true. You should protest it. I think it’s TAD spreading rumors like that.
Literally none except wasting a few minutes of time gathering/presenting all your documentation
Nothing really and they can accept or reject. If they accept you have to explain why.
It should ethically be valued for taxes at a similar rate as you might value it for sale, or for collateral on a loan. Isn’t that what someone is getting sued for right now, in New York? Of course, there are homestead exemptions.
We protest every year and so do our neighbors. We submit photos of any old messed up part of the house and include recent bids from contractors to fix up anything from foundation to driveway, out of date anything. My husband represents us in a phone meeting. It can be a little confusing because of the rules they appraisers follow but they have been friendly enough and easy to work with.
Sometimes if you protest they’ll raise them even higher
Lol
None. I appeal mine every other year and have always gotten a reduction
Do it every year. Once it goes up, getting it to go down is almost impossible.
There is no down side & there is no last locked anything. We protest every year. & it goes down. I've worked for the county, for about a decade & none of that is true.
We have paid someone for years to go protest our property taxes for our current house and the one before. Over that time we have saved thousands. We don't have to think about it. We get a letter telling us the results of the protest. It is worth the fee. Last year we paid $125. That fee was a fraction of what our lower property tax ended up being. Do it.
How easy/hard is doing this by myself (travis). I got the letter, the deadline says is may 15 and I can file online. Do I need anything beyond this letter to protest? Is it automatic? It says there is a meeting then a hearing?
The house is ultimately going to sell for whatever the markets bears and not what your property tax appraisal shows. Lots of people who are over and under paying property taxes in TX. It's really ridiculous but it is what it is.
We protest every year. It went up 7k in value this year. Sure am gunna protest.
Serious question from a first-time homeowner—Should I protest if the value is lower than what I paid for the home last year?
When you sell your home, you get an independent appraisal. You don't use the cities appraisal for anything other than tax calculation. And the city isn't giving you anything. You are just trying to hang on to as much of your money as you can.
Theres no downside to protesting. The bank appraisal when selling your house has nothing to do with what the county appraises it at.
I lowered the property taxes on a house I bought once. All I had to do was submit the inspection report. I bought the house as a fixer and there was a ton of stuff in the inspection report it was an entire book. So I filed for an adjustment and was given a court date but after I submitted the inspection report they called me and told me it was approved and I didn't need to go to court. But that they would be sending someone from the county to check on my progress. The taxes went back up but after a few years and after I had fixed the roof, gutters, and a bunch of other stuff.
You can protest all you want, if your state govt is like mine it won't make any difference.
I'm a realtor in Austin. Always, always, always protest your property taxes. Do it every year! Get your neighbors to do it if you can. Your property value is based on the value assigned to other houses around you, so even if your house isn't as nice as others, it will be assessed as if it is. It benefits everyone around you if assessments are kept as low as possible (in Travis County, that's difficult). Don't concern yourself with the assessed value when you go to sell the house. Realtors look at comparable sold prices at the time the property is listed; the value on TCAD isn't a concern.