Tax appraisal protest specialists

[pb4uski]

Not sure if it is too late or not, but you may want to have an independent appraisal by a licensed appraiser done. Mine was $530 and took him a day and one visit. He found 8 comps (vs 5 by the county, one of which was our 2024 sale) and his were all within 1 mile (7 of 8 within a 1/2 mile) vs 2.1-2.8 miles away for the county comparables. Anyway, his comps were much more appropriate than the county's comps.

I'm not sure whether or not the result was influenced by the fact that I had an independent appraisal by a licensed appriaser or whether the guy was just looking to clear a case off his desk and $374k was good enough.

Your're property is different so I'm not sure home ma comparable sales there would be. Part of the reason that I engaged the licensed appraiser is that he has access to a treasure troe of sale information that I don't have access to.

The amount that was settled on was the time adjusted value of our sale. If we had ended ubefore the ARB one of my points was going to be that it was the "perfect" comp... no adjustments needed and only 10 months old.

 

[Cobra9777]

Yeah, probably too late for an independent appraisal. Plus, the agent has access to all the sales, comps, and market data trends. It's a very large company that works all of Texas and is spreading out to other states. Supposedly, they also have "proprietary algorithms" that help identify appropriate comps on the lower end of valuations.

Anyway, it's also a very different property and a different situation. No recent sale. No ready supply of obvious comps. Just lots of ambiguity that I hope to take advantage of in our "freeze year."

 

[Texas Proud]

^^^ 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.

Are you sure about freezing of taxes... for ALL taxes?

Here I think it is only school taxes that are frozen... county has a huge exemption so they are almost frozen... but we have a number of small local districts such as water, fire, ambulance and college that have very little exemptions and are not frozen...

The company that does my property is protesting mine again this year... not sure what they can do but I will gladly pay them 25% of whatever they save... and that is based on what I would owe vs what I will pay with all exemptions in place..

 

[pb4uski]

Are you sure about freezing of taxes... for ALL taxes?

Here I think it is only school taxes that are frozen... county has a huge exemption so they are almost frozen... but we have a number of small local districts such as water, fire, ambulance and college that have very little exemptions and are not frozen...

The company that does my property is protesting mine again this year... not sure what they can do but I will gladly pay them 25% of whatever they save... and that is based on what I would owe vs what I will pay with all exemptions in place..

Yes, I was surprised at that too. I had just expected school taxes to be frozen but I pulled the tax rate sheet and for each of the local taxes that we paid in 2024 it has the rate, which agrees to my 2024 tax bill, and next to each description it says "(Local Opt Frz)**" and the note says"**This taxing entity has adopted a local option freeze ceiling. Except in certain circumstances, taxes paid to this entity in the year you qualify for an Over-65 or Disabled Person exemption freeze and will not increase. ..."

So I'm thinking there is nothing to be gained by protesting in future years unless the value decreases. If one of these protest firms did it and got 25% of the savings they would get 25% of $0 since the taxes are frozen (I think).

 

[Cobra9777]

In our County, after 65, only school taxes are frozen, which is the biggie. The City freezes the appraised value, but taxes can still go up (or down) depending on the rate. The County doesn't freeze either (taxes or value). But the County 65+ exemption is quite large and the rate is minor compared to the City and school district. At 25%, I might continue to use our agent. But any savings they achieve will be extremely small.