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.

 

[pb4uski]

Epilogue: As a reminder, we bought in March 2024 for $375k. Jan 1, 2024 appraisal was $397k and we protested and they reduced it to $375k fro 2024 property taxes. Jan 1, 2025 appraisal was $455k.

I bought an independent appraisal for $530 that indicated the Jan 1, 2025 value was $391k. I did an online protest and they offered to reduce it to $414k. Given the $391k appraisal, I rejected their offer and was scheduled to go before the Appraisal Review Board today.

The ARB process is that you can opt to have an informal meetng with the Appraisal District staff to negotiate a settlement immediately prior to the ARB meeting, which I did. I was gong to go for the $391k in the appraisal that I had done (that I had shared with them as part of the online protest) but DW and I had agreed that we could concede to $400k if need be.

We got in there, chatted for a couple minutes and the guy quickly offered to drop the appraisal from the $455k proposed to $374k. I was stunned, but managed to say "Done".

The $374k will now be the baseline for our future property taxes and from what the guy said, because we are over 65 our property tax bill will be frozen for the rest of our lives absent a major improvement to the property. From what I can find online, that appears to be the case.

Overall, a better than expected result and a savings of $1,536 annually from the $455k at our 1.9% property tax rate. A savings of $751 annually from $414k the offer that I rejected.

Might I have been able to cut the same deal without the independent appraisal? Not sure, but given the savings having spent $500 for ididn't bother me..

 

[REWahoo]

I had a similar experience many years ago protesting the appraised value of my TX home. I had no independent appraisal and went to the ARB meeting armed only with the appraisal value of comparable homes in the neighborhood.

Like you, I had an informal meeting with an ARB appraiser prior to the board meeting. As I sat down, I could hear a heated exchange coming from the room next to us - some homeowner was very unhappy with his appraisal and was letting someone from the ARB know it in no uncertain terms. I looked at the appraiser, shook my head and said "Life is too short to have to deal with that."

The appraiser looked at his computer screen and asked me what I thought my appraised value should be and I told him. He said "Sounds good to me" and we were done.

 

[pb4uski]

^^^ Interesting. The funny thing was that I was determined to make an effort to get this year's as low as reasonably possible since it freezes our taxes from her forward and it ended up a smidgeon lower than what we paid for the place a little more thna a year ago.

The thing that gets me is how seemingly arbitrary the process is and that he was perfectly happy with a result that was 82.2% of what they proposed on the notice. That said, I think where we ended up is much more reasonable.

 

[dixonge]

The $374k will now be the baseline for our future property taxes and from what the guy said, because we are over 65 our property tax bill will be frozen for the rest of our lives absent a major improvement to the property. From what I can find online, that appears to be the case.

Outstanding! Now, don't do any improvements! lol

Perfect timing with the lock-in as well.

 

[pb4uski]

Yeah, I'm still pinching myself at my good luck.

 

[Cobra9777]

Nice result. We're in a somewhat similar situation. DW turns 65 this year. We just got the over-65 exemption approved. But now we're focused on the valuation, which will be fixed going forward.

We've always used an agent. They get good results and it doesn't cost a lot. But it's mostly just on auto-pilot. Little-to-no interaction with me. They just cherry-pick a few comps on the low-end. The appraisal district cherry-picks a few comps on the high end. And they settle somewhere in the middle.

This time, I got involved early on. I questioned several of the basic parameters about the property and sent photos to support that. Also sent photos to hopefully warrant a lower valuation. Of course, I only took pictures of the bad stuff.

I've also had 2 or 3 phone calls to go over all this data with the agent. He had some good suggestions for additional back-up. Anyway, this is the most involvement I've had with them in over 10 years. They fully understand the importance related to the over-65 freeze. So hopefully we get a good result. No hearing scheduled yet.

The proposed valuation is high, but flat to last year, and not wildly out of line based on my quick analysis of sales in the area. But it's a very large custom property. And it's very old, with a barn, detached living space, a pond, and multiple easements. So lots of wiggle room for subjectivity and negotiation.

They only charge 25% for clients over 65. We had been paying 50%. But since the value is "mostly" fixed going forward, I'll probably stop using them after this year. The impact of their negotiations will be minimal.