Harris County - had a streak of getting value reduced about 15 years in a row. Last 2 years, even with providing photos of work that needs to be done, depreciation, etc. , house has gone up max 10% and protest failed. Is this what everyone is seeing - should I use a different company to protest?

The CAD and County are about to be operating differently.

The CAD is supposed to give accurate values. For years they have understated values. This was okay b/c the values created a normalized amount of property tax dollars.


2022 - INCREASE the eff out of everyone's value ... will increase property tax dollars to a point to where tax rates need to go down or there will be a mass exodus.



So to answer your questions - the CAD has decided to stand on their mountain. You will continue to win small battles over yearly tax value...but you will lose the war until property tax rates lower.

I haven't gotten the result of my protest yet. My inlaws live in the same neighborhood. They had zero actual sales data. They would only discuss their appraised values of other homes and how they compared to theirs. When my father-in-law asked if his "value" would be used to justify the other homes "value" they said yes. It was all circular logic.

The worst part is they asked him when he arrived if he would want an informal or formal hearing. He said informal which after waiting 4 hours was a meeting with a staff appraiser. It ended with him disagreeing with the value. He asked what the process would be for requesting a formal hearing. They told him that he waived his right to a formal hearing by taking an informal.

That's the value of tax service companies - they actually have sales comps to use to argue with the appraisal district.

Quote:

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That's the value of tax service companies - they actually have sales comps to use to argue with the appraisal district.

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Not always. Some of the large companies that submit for multiple people provide nothing. That's right, nothing. No comps - only their OPINION of value. I don't know how those people make money. They do no research. None. No back-up at all for their "value". I've found that tax payers do better going in themselves.

No, I don't work for an appraisal district but have experience with one of the big companies - they got nothing because they didn't provide any information to refute what the appraisers had + it's only an affidavit - not human contact for questions, etc. Sure, it didn't cost me anything but I did much better on my own with pictures.

A tax on unrealized value. Pretty unamerican.

You know my boss (if I had a boss) thought about giving me $20mil raise, the IRS should increase my tax liability on that $20mil.

We bought last may in comal county. They tacked 20% on our closing price and wouldn't budge. The board agreed so a house we bought in the mid 500s in may is now locked in at 650+ And since we are uncapped this year, I get to enjoy all of it.

It's their world, we just live in it.

Red Pear DFW Luke said:

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It's painful trying to rationalize staring at a property tax bill that is almost half of what a yearly mortgage amount is.

Add on top of that increased electric and water/heating bills and it's not looking too good..

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****, I wish. Our tax bill is 85% of our mortgage. Tack on insurance and it's 100%.

Dallas County baby.

I reduced ours almost 30%. I went in myself. Granted they put a ridiculous 78% increase on our rental so it still went up 48%. I'd rather have an income tax at this point.

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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We bought last may in comal county. They tacked 20% on our closing price and wouldn't budge. The board agreed so a house we bought in the mid 500s in may is now locked in at 650+ And since we are uncapped this year, I get to enjoy all of it.

It's their world, we just live in it.

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Wait, you brought your closing statement/doc and they just disregarded it?

Was this the formal or informal?

evan_aggie said:

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JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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We bought last may in comal county. They tacked 20% on our closing price and wouldn't budge. The board agreed so a house we bought in the mid 500s in may is now locked in at 650+ And since we are uncapped this year, I get to enjoy all of it.

It's their world, we just live in it.

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Wait, you brought your closing statement/doc and they just disregarded it?

Was this the formal or informal?

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Yes, and it was both. We had closing appraisal, market reports and the reports I generated.

I got every house in our ~100 home neighborhood - there any good comps outside of our neighborhood. I showed that our value from 2021 went up 125%, while the average went up 85% (only one other went up over 100%).

Informal - the guy agreed I was hosed, but (per his claim) the machine wouldn't let him put in the value he and I discussed, because it wanted to add something like a 2.5% month over month change).

Formal - the district employee said my data was wrong, using assessed vs appraised (which made no sense - how would that show an average of 87% if most people are capped at 10%), so the board dismissed my evidence. The took my value in May and applied a 2.5% (roughly) month over month change and locked me in $10k higher than the informal offering (which I now could not accept).

I got home, verified my data was correct and called and complained and asked what recourse I had, as the board had SEVERAL times said "since your data used the wrong numbers and is artificially lowering the comparison values we're disregarding it"). They listened to the recording and agreed the district mis-spoke, but all 3 board members signed a form saying it wouldn't have mattered either way, so no new hearing for me.

There were like 30 properties in our neighborhood that went from being appraised over me (some by as much as 75k in 2021) to being appraised below us in 2022. But again, the district said it was wrong (only to later agree it wasn't wrong and they mis-spoke), so the board basically dismissed it out of hand.


Most livid I've ever been at one of these. I need to dig into the docs they sent to see what my next level of recourse is, but I'm guessing it will cost more to fight beyond this point than the savings.

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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evan_aggie said:

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JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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We bought last may in comal county. They tacked 20% on our closing price and wouldn't budge. The board agreed so a house we bought in the mid 500s in may is now locked in at 650+ And since we are uncapped this year, I get to enjoy all of it.

It's their world, we just live in it.

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Wait, you brought your closing statement/doc and they just disregarded it?

Was this the formal or informal?

---

Yes, and it was both. We had closing appraisal, market reports and the reports I generated.

I got every house in our ~100 home neighborhood - there any good comps outside of our neighborhood. I showed that our value from 2021 went up 125%, while the average went up 85% (only one other went up over 100%).

Informal - the guy agreed I was hosed, but (per his claim) the machine wouldn't let him put in the value he and I discussed, because it wanted to add something like a 2.5% month over month change).

Formal - the district employee said my data was wrong, using assessed vs appraised (which made no sense - how would that show an average of 87% if most people are capped at 10%), so the board dismissed my evidence. The took my value in May and applied a 2.5% (roughly) month over month change and locked me in $10k higher than the informal offering (which I now could not accept).

I got home, verified my data was correct and called and complained and asked what recourse I had, as the board had SEVERAL times said "since your data used the wrong numbers and is artificially lowering the comparison values we're disregarding it"). They listened to the recording and agreed the district mis-spoke, but all 3 board members signed a form saying it wouldn't have mattered either way, so no new hearing for me.

There were like 30 properties in our neighborhood that went from being appraised over me (some by as much as 75k in 2021) to being appraised below us in 2022. But again, the district said it was wrong (only to later agree it wasn't wrong and they mis-spoke), so the board basically dismissed it out of hand.


Most livid I've ever been at one of these. I need to dig into the docs they sent to see what my next level of recourse is, but I'm guessing it will cost more to fight beyond this point than the savings.

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when you mention values going up north of 100%, I assume they were valued as land or partially complete construction last year? I don't know that you can really argue % increase in that case because those homes were all presumably in different stages of construction last year.

As far as using your contract price, I believe they're within their right to do a time value adjustment in your case. That would piss me off too but don't think there is anything you can argue there.

Every home in our neighborhood was built in the 70s or 80s. There's been no construction (in that sense) in decades.

They just severely under valued for several years, then caught up this one year, which I believe totally hosed their month over month valuations. I've got no issue saying the house went up some, but I think it probably went up about 50% of what they claimed it did from May-January

wow! that's a serious bump for existing homes. I've never heard of CAD's getting that far behind. What area is this?

as you mentioned, it's doubly obnoxious for you as you bought this year and don't get the advantage of the cap.

New Braunfels. Average increase in the neighborhood was something like 87% (keeping mine out). I know the market was hot, but 85+% is just insane to me.

I will say that I have no confidence we could actually sell for where we're valued (and couldn't have in January either - not just saying that cause of recent interest hikes). I just think it totally threw their month over month numbers off.

Have family in NB with a neighbor in the 400k taxable value in 2020. The neighbor pulled a permit to do a remodel that slightly (less than 100sf) change the house. Jan 1, 2022 taxable value went over 1mm.


The county is out for blood!

Red Pear DFW Luke said:

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It's painful trying to rationalize staring at a property tax bill that is almost half of what a yearly mortgage amount is.

Add on top of that increased electric and water/heating bills and it's not looking too good..

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Yep.

My tax bill is now bigger than my P&I. It's stupid.

Add to that every utility going through the roof, and insurance going through the roof...I routinely find myself asking why I live where I live. I'd love to simply put all that needless spending into a savings account over the next decade.

Yesterday said:

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I reduced ours almost 30%. I went in myself. Granted they put a ridiculous 78% increase on our rental so it still went up 48%. I'd rather have an income tax at this point.

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And yet the school bond elections still pass almost every time.

Yesterday said:

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I reduced ours almost 30%. I went in myself. Granted they put a ridiculous 78% increase on our rental so it still went up 48%. I'd rather have an income tax at this point.

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Me, too - but the voters made sure that wasn't going to happen a few years ago when they amended the state constitution to prevent an income tax. I know many say "well if they had an income tax they'd just add it to our already high property tax". Maybe, but we'll never know now - and we're stuck with this ridiculous property based tax system where some rando bureaucrats get to decide half the formula for calculating your taxes.