Our appraisal (Willliamson County) went up $46,000 last year in a market that was basically flat. I've never protested my appraisal before but I'm sick of this ***** What a scam. What is the best route to take to protest? Is it best to hire one of those firms that will do it for you?

Did your market value go up or your tax value?

ReloadAg said:

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Is it best to hire one of those firms that will do it for you?

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IMO, yes. I did it myself once and don't think I've ever been angrier than I was after leaving the in-person protest with an "unbiased" jury. It was a huge crock of *****

Maybe it's better now with the isettle process (Harris county) but the convenience tax is worth it for me to just pay someone.

Honestly to answer this it's really going to depend on the property. The market was best last year on 1/1/2024 so a lot of mid-range suburban properties still increased in value, or you saw an increase on your assessed value because you had not hit your 10% cap on previous increases.

I have had hit or miss luck with how good the first iSettle offer tends to be. I took it to the full panel once and did better than the iSettle offer, but nowhere near what I wanted. Two other years the iSettle offer was $50,000-$60,000 off and much more in the range of what was acceptable.

As far as hiring a company, I wouldn't do it if you are a primary homesteaded owner with a 10% cap. Unless your property is a unicorn that truly has no like and kind comps, you will not beat the 10% cap. If you have rental properties, it's worth it because every dollar you save is direct off the taxes.

jopatura said:

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As far as hiring a company, I wouldn't do it if you are a primary homesteaded owner with a 10% cap. Unless your property is a unicorn that truly has no like and kind comps, you will not beat the 10% cap. If you have rental properties, it's worth it because every dollar you save is direct off the taxes.

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I disagree simply to keep the baseline for future years lower. If my market value went up 30% then, yes, you're correct that I will see $0 in tax savings if I pay for a company to protest. However, still worth it for me so it's not an automatic 10% increase in appraised value next year, even if market values are flat.....

And, as I said in my earlier post, the process angered me to the point I don't see myself every doing it again. I'll just pay for someone else to go through it who has more experience.

I tried to protest on my own one time and wasn't able to get a reduction. I felt that I had enough comps from my realtor, but I was not experienced with the process.

I've used a protest service ever since and have been pleased. Most years I get a reduction, even when it's under the 10% cap. My understanding is that they protest with legitimate comps when there are large dollars at stake (like on a second home without a homestead exemption) and when there are only small increases at dispute, they threaten to take a large portion of their portfolio through the dispute process, if they don't get some kind of for the portfolio. The CAD, wanting to avoid that much work, usually gives a reduction for the properties.