Tax appraisal protest specialists

[FLSUnFIRE]

Unrealistic. Never going to happen. As a taxpayer if a bunch of homeowners put their properties to the municipality as you suggest are you ok with you and your fellow taxpayers paying higher taxes to cover the cost of buying those properties and even if they are sold quickly incurring the relevant transaction costs? Overall bad idea.

I was being facetious. The unjustifiably high appraisals seem to be systemic in TX and probably intentional and in bad faith... at least my impression from discussions here. If they were mostly fair there wouldn't be a booming market for protest specialists.

 

[pb4uski]

Last part is true. It seems like they just throw numbers out there thinking/hoping that taxpayers will just accept them.

The reason you fooled me is that I've actually had people that I know suggest what you suggested but they were dead serious.

 

[pb4uski]

... The district has been pushing legislation every year trying to make real estate purchase prices public. They claim that this would drastically reduce their budget and greatly shorten the appraisal process as comps would be much easier to determine.

They have sales data public and online where we lived in Florida and it was a big help in evaluating whether appraised values were reasonable or not.

Funny thing here is that with there comps they don't even include the sales price... they include the date of sale, the sales price is $XXX,XXX and they include a Time Adjusted Sales Price that is a six-digit number, implying some science behind it. Strangely, since they included our sale as part of the comps (who does that?) and the Time Adjusted Sales Price is less than what we paid 10 months earlier, that suggests that they judged that prices declined slightly from when we bought our house. Very strange.

 

[Christopher13]

Yes, protesting appraisals is definitely a “thing” in Texas—especially with how fast values have climbed. I’ve used one of those firms before, and overall had a good experience. They handled everything, and I only paid a cut of the savings once the reduction was approved.

A couple things to watch out for:

1. Read the fine print. Some firms lock you into multi-year contracts or automatically renew each year unless you cancel.
2. Make sure the fee is only on actual savings—not proposed or requested reductions.
3. Check reviews—especially on neighborhood forums like Nextdoor or Reddit for Austin-area-specific recommendations.

If your value jumped a lot this year and you don’t have a clear-cut case, letting a pro handle it can be worth it. Just do a little digging before you sign anything.

 

[TickTock]

Sounds like the law needs to be amended so that the municipality is obligated to buy the property at the assessed value from the homeowner at the homeowner's discretion to force some realism into the process.

I've thought of that too, but it just leads to depressed valuations and increased tax percentages.

And yes, I've read the subsequent postings.

 

[Texas Proud]

Sounds like the law needs to be amended so that the municipality is obligated to buy the property at the assessed value from the homeowner at the homeowner's discretion to force some realism into the process. How much does the protest industry spend on lobbying there? Not selling me on moving to TX.....

The problem with this is that the actual appraised value is meaningless in a way...

An example... say they value your property at $300.... and the total for the district is $300,000... you will pay .1% of the agreed budget they come up with... but you say my property is not close to $300... I would be lucky to get $290.... so they should buy it!!

OK, so they adjust everybody and your property is now at $200... and the total is now $200,000... you will pay .1% of the agreed budget!!! The amount of taxes you owe has not changed... your tax value and tax rate has changed...

Texas went to market value so there is some ability to see if they are really doing a good job or not... a market value can be determined on all properties... some might disagree...

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

The problem with this is that the actual appraised value is meaningless in a way...

An example... say they value your property at $300.... and the total for the district is $300,000... you will pay .1% of the agreed budget they come up with... but you say my property is not close to $300... I would be lucky to get $290.... so they should buy it!!

OK, so they adjust everybody and your property is now at $200... and the total is now $200,000... you will pay .1% of the agreed budget!!! The amount of taxes you owe has not changed... your tax value and tax rate has changed...

Texas went to market value so there is some ability to see if they are really doing a good job or not... a market value can be determined on all properties... some might disagree...

For that to be true the municipalities would have to reduce their millage rates proportionally to property value increases. If they did that there would be no incentive to overvalue as much as they appear to do. Do they or do they simply find new ways to blow that taxpayer dough?

Property appraisers in FL are elected positions which may help with appraisal "inflation".... are they elected in TX? Certainly if they are hired directly by the gov't there would be more incentive to over-appraise to help the pols avoid "tax increases" via millage rates. We also receive Truth in Millage (TRIM) notices with proposed millage rates and the proposed and alternate budget/anticipated tax amount along with market and assessed value and the dates and location of public budget hearings prior to the vote.
Over several properties over 2.5 decades, I've found that the appraisals here generally seem reasonable and usually the proposed millage rates have trended down as property values have increased (not completely proportional as homestead limits the taxable value).

 

[big-papa]

I live in Austin, and hiring these firms has become de-facto for many people. I've been using one myself for quite a while. What is a bit concerning is that all systems eventually adjust to some new equilibrium. If it becomes expected that most people are protesting their valuations, then over time, on average, valuations will adjust upwards to compensate. In the end, all we will have done is add another entity in the mix to skim off some of the proceeds.

Cheers

 

[pb4uski]

Hey @pb4uski - did you engage a protest firm? I would suggest you do that, and focus on one who is from the area, not national. I used to work at that appraisal district and knew several ex-employees who went to work for both Five Stone and ProTax. ...

I PMed you with some followup.

 

[big-papa]

I PMed you with some followup.

FYI I've been using FiveStone with no complaints

Cheers

 

[jazz4cash]

I live in Austin, and hiring these firms has become de-facto for many people. I've been using one myself for quite a while. What is a bit concerning is that all systems eventually adjust to some new equilibrium. If it becomes expected that most people are protesting their valuations, then over time, on average, valuations will adjust upwards to compensate. In the end, all we will have done is add another entity in the mix to skim off some of the proceeds.

Cheers

“Will have done?” Sounds like it’s happening now already. I had the exact same thought.

 

[pb4uski]

I live in Austin, and hiring these firms has become de-facto for many people. I've been using one myself for quite a while. What is a bit concerning is that all systems eventually adjust to some new equilibrium. If it becomes expected that most people are protesting their valuations, then over time, on average, valuations will adjust upwards to compensate. In the end, all we will have done is add another entity in the mix to skim off some of the proceeds.

Cheers

Reminds me of a saying from w*rk...you can do it right or do it over.

 

[big-papa]

“Will have done?” Sounds like it’s happening now already. I had the exact same thought.

It is happening, but I don't think the majority of property owners are on board with it and many just ignore the possibility.

 

[big-papa]

Reminds me of a saying from w*rk...you can do it right or do it over.

Like the Borg, all systems adapt.

 

[Texas Proud]

Not sure everywhere else... but the county has an appraisal district that determines the property value... then ALL the gvmt entities will get a list of what is in their district... and there are a LOT of them...

It is not up to the taxing district to determine value... they get the total and have their budget and come up with a tax rate.. if the tax rate goes up too much it goes in front of the voters to approve it... but they still can increase it without voter approval...

Just some districts off the top of my head... school, county, flood control, hospital district, EMS, fire, water, college district, port (yep, we pay for the port of Houston)... there are more, I just do not remember them..

 

[TickTock]

Reminds me of a saying from w*rk...you can do it right or do it over.

Ours was, "There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over."

 

[pb4uski]

Yes, I think that was it. Same idea.

 

[tryan]

Vermont is similar to what you described. Appraised values don't change from year to year absent major changes to the property like major additions, demolitions, rebuilding, etc. They gather statistics on the ratio of sales value to appraised value for property sales and do town wide reappraisals when that ratio gets too far out of whack. When they do the town wide reappraisals they tend to be consistently low compared to market to discourage protests.

The property tax on my vacation rental in VT went up $1500 .... ouch. But the appraised value is 30% lower than the neighboring house sold for 2 years ago. Tough to fight this appraisal.

 

[pb4uski]

Yeah, for many of them the easier fight is that your appraisal is too high compared to similar properties in the immediate area rather than that it's higher than market value.