Protesting property taxes

17,362 Views | 94 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by techno-ag
jd1990
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I am looking for a company that can represent me in protesting my 2016 appraised value. I now live out of town (I so much wish I was still living in College Station.) I am doing a refi on the property I still own and now rent and the appraisal came back 10K under what I received in the mail from the tax office. So I am hoping it should be a pretty easy appeal. I would urge others to protest as well. It appears Brazos CAD really reached this year.
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jd1990
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How did you guess where I moved too? Yes Austin is worse. The home I bought in 2012 has gone up 60K in appraised value in past 4 years...uggg I wish I could sell but in a great neighborhood with great schools. I could not have afforded this house now.
InMyOpinion
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If you have a recent certified appraisal then protesting is easy. Just follow the steps to make an appt and bring it with you. Had a coworker do this a couple years ago and said it was very simple and easy.

I think it's tougher when you don't have supporting documents to help your cause
SoTheySay
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S
Jubally.com will be covering Brazos county Spon. Just go ahead and file an appeal.
fcag
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AG
A few years back I refi'd my house and about three months later I got my assessment (10% higher than the refi appraisal).

I just went in, put my name on the list, and was called back after about a 10 minute wait. It took less than five minutes from the time I showed them my appraisal to when I was walking out with the assessment lowered to match my refi appraisal.
SARATOGA
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Other states have instituted a cap on increases. Indiana's or somewhere mentioned in another thread is 1% per year.

Ours is 10% per year.

Personally I think they should be locked for the period of ownership, and reevaluated on resale.

What's it take to get this law changed/passed ?
taxpreparer
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AG
quote:

Personally I think they should be locked for the period of ownership, and reevaluated on resale.
Yes! I have been saying this for years. Of course, tax rates will be significantly higher, but the ones raising our taxes will be the one we vote on rather than someone we don't.

Also, I think the appraiser should have to justify the increase, rather that the property owner explain why they don't agree with it. After all, the appraiser is a professional and the property owner is not.
***It's your money, not theIRS! (At least for a little while longer.)
InMyOpinion
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quote:
Personally I think they should be locked for the period of ownership, and reevaluated on resale

how would this help?
Orlando Ayala Cant Read
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AG
i will say this..

if you think you're home value taxes are too high and have any doubt PLEASE PROTEST THEM.

last year they had jacked up my values big time (and again this year), and I went in to protest. i kid you not the guy at the protest's reason not to accept my argument was "well, to be honest nobody else in your neighborhood has protested their increases and we put a lot of weight into how much protest we get in an area so sorry at this time we can't do anything but go with the value we gave you"

i had no idea they put weight into this but apparently they do.

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rcannaday
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AG
Protest. And ignore all of their comments, it is almost like they get paid to push back as much as possible. Last year all I had to do was threaten to go to a hearing, and somehow the appraiser was able to see my point of view. If you look at BCAD you will notice allot of homes in your neighbourhood are all over the place. I say we fill up their offices.

Agree with the Tax Preparer, taxes should be fixed once you buy your home.

catfan
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Texas gets its revenue for property tax. If home values are fixed for tax purposes, where else should the state get its revenue? Maybe keep cutting higher ed or k to 12.

California only raises 2% per year. A friend made a killing by buying depressed real estate in the last recession.
taxpreparer
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AG
Localities get their taxes from property taxes (and sales taxes.) If valuations were fixed at each change of ownership, the localities would have to raise taxes honestly instead of relying on an unelected appraiser to do it for them.
***It's your money, not theIRS! (At least for a little while longer.)
RV Ag
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If you own a single property then by all means protest. If you own multiple properties and protest one and win the next year they will hit you with a large increase at another property. You win the battle but lose the war.
Rudybryan
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Those other states like California also have a state income tax.....trust me we don't want that
spike427
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AG
Mine has gone up 39% since I bought in 2010. And I protested successfully three years in a row. I didn't make it in last year and now I'm regretting it. It's ridiculous. I bought well within my budget but the taxes are going to price me out of a house I couldn't afford to purchase today, if it sold for what they say it could.
MightyDuck
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quote:
quote:
Personally I think they should be locked for the period of ownership, and reevaluated on resale

how would this help?
Anything else is a tax on speculation of unrealized gains (or losses)...
SARATOGA
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the new appraised value would be assessed to the new owners. Not the sellers.

Buy house for 100k. It is valued at 100k for the duration of ownership.

Sell house, appraisal district has access to the MLS, and they see what house sells for, and adjusts the appraisal for new owners for the duration of their ownership, and so on.

It is easier, people aren't taxed out of their homes, and can budget more properly, and it saves the effort of the appraisal district people having to do the appraisals and fight the protests each year.

And so many houses sell, that there would be constant adjustment up after resales, so I'm not even convinced that taxes would need to be raised. Thousands and Thousands of properties sell each year - those would all be adjusted up to be valued at the sale price it just sold for without all the legwork.
Carnwellag2
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quote:
the new appraised value would be assessed to the new owners. Not the sellers.

Buy house for 100k. It is valued at 100k for the duration of ownership.

Sell house, appraisal district has access to the MLS, and they see what house sells for, and adjusts the appraisal for new owners for the duration of their ownership, and so on.

It is easier, people aren't taxed out of their homes, and can budget more properly, and it saves the effort of the appraisal district people having to do the appraisals and fight the protests each year.

And so many houses sell, that there would be constant adjustment up after resales, so I'm not even convinced that taxes would need to be raised. Thousands and Thousands of properties sell each year - those would all be adjusted up to be valued at the sale price it just sold for without all the legwork.
i like this --> this actually makes a lot of sense.

Let's make this happen
Orlando Ayala Cant Read
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AG
quote:
the new appraised value would be assessed to the new owners. Not the sellers.

Buy house for 100k. It is valued at 100k for the duration of ownership.

Sell house, appraisal district has access to the MLS, and they see what house sells for, and adjusts the appraisal for new owners for the duration of their ownership, and so on.

It is easier, people aren't taxed out of their homes, and can budget more properly, and it saves the effort of the appraisal district people having to do the appraisals and fight the protests each year.

And so many houses sell, that there would be constant adjustment up after resales, so I'm not even convinced that taxes would need to be raised. Thousands and Thousands of properties sell each year - those would all be adjusted up to be valued at the sale price it just sold for without all the legwork.
Saratoga for Governor!
duffelpud
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AG
InMyOpinion
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quote:
the new appraised value would be assessed to the new owners. Not the sellers.

Buy house for 100k. It is valued at 100k for the duration of ownership.

Sell house, appraisal district has access to the MLS, and they see what house sells for, and adjusts the appraisal for new owners for the duration of their ownership, and so on.

It is easier, people aren't taxed out of their homes, and can budget more properly, and it saves the effort of the appraisal district people having to do the appraisals and fight the protests each year.

And so many houses sell, that there would be constant adjustment up after resales, so I'm not even convinced that taxes would need to be raised. Thousands and Thousands of properties sell each year - those would all be adjusted up to be valued at the sale price it just sold for without all the legwork.


So are you proposing the appraised value is fixed or the amount of taxes a home owner pays? If the market slows and not enough homes are being sold to be reassessed and taxing entities have to raise the tax rates - do home owners with fixed values pay the new rate?
taxpreparer
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AG
The valuation is fixed, not the tax rate. Those setting the rate answer to the voters. The obvious flaw is when corporations, partnerships, or trusts own property in near perpetruity.
***It's your money, not theIRS! (At least for a little while longer.)
SARATOGA
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quote:
If the market slows and not enough homes are being sold to be reassessed and taxing entities have to raise the tax rates - do home owners with fixed values pay the new rate?
The APPRAISED value would be fixed for the time of ownership on residential properties. Other states have done this as I've mentioned above. The tax rate could still go up, but that has to be approved by voters, so in theory they know what they're getting (new schools etc.)

And even in 2006 during the worst of the housing crisis mortgage meltdown houses were still appreciating in our area. We had zero deflation of prices or bubble bursting. All that happened here is that potential buyers were vetted better and you actually had to start putting money down rather than financing 100% - but we never had any price depreciation.

This market varies from strong to impossibly strong. Overpriced houses sell within hours with multiple offers. (Note I say overpriced from the perspective of building a house vs the market price; the market would argue that if you can find a willing buyer, then nothing is 'overpriced')

The point is that America and Americans are largely used to their largest asset being their house. And from the mortgage interest deduction and the vision of the american dream, most people buy the nicest house they can barely afford including Principle Interest Insurance and Taxes, but to have the taxes go up and cost people another 100 - 200 dollars per month is literally pricing people out of their homes.

And for those who say "you'll get it back when you sell" is little comfort. That is an unknown event, and at unknown time. Most folks need that couple hundred dollars a month now.
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FlyRod
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Interesting point, Slocum.

One of TAMU's strong suits in the past was an ability to recruit talent attracted to the reasonable cost of housing here. The university isn't likely to marshal salaries that are appropriate for purchasing $400,000 and up homes. I'd hate to see us move toward a situation many other colleges have of creating staff and faculty housing that are basically student apartments for professional adults.
InMyOpinion
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quote:
quote:
If the market slows and not enough homes are being sold to be reassessed and taxing entities have to raise the tax rates - do home owners with fixed values pay the new rate?
The APPRAISED value would be fixed for the time of ownership on residential properties. Other states have done this as I've mentioned above. The tax rate could still go up, but that has to be approved by voters, so in theory they know what they're getting (new schools etc.)

And even in 2006 during the worst of the housing crisis mortgage meltdown houses were still appreciating in our area. We had zero deflation of prices or bubble bursting. All that happened here is that potential buyers were vetted better and you actually had to start putting money down rather than financing 100% - but we never had any price depreciation.

This market varies from strong to impossibly strong. Overpriced houses sell within hours with multiple offers. (Note I say overpriced from the perspective of building a house vs the market price; the market would argue that if you can find a willing buyer, then nothing is 'overpriced')

The point is that America and Americans are largely used to their largest asset being their house. And from the mortgage interest deduction and the vision of the american dream, most people buy the nicest house they can barely afford including Principle Interest Insurance and Taxes, but to have the taxes go up and cost people another 100 - 200 dollars per month is literally pricing people out of their homes.

And for those who say "you'll get it back when you sell" is little comfort. That is an unknown event, and at unknown time. Most folks need that couple hundred dollars a month now.


I like the idea. I think it would work here, but since this would be a state wide issue not sure how it might effect other areas of the state. Things are good in Texas as a whole when it comes to real estate. I gues if things got bad like Florida / California from a few years ago then we got bigger problems.
SARATOGA
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The thing that nobody really talks about but everybody knows about the Texas economy booming is that we have an abundant supply of "labor" with little or no restrictions as to utilizing this labor from a tax perspective, so we can build the things of commerce and infrastructure for much cheaper than other states. We also have oil.

There is about a hundred reasons Texas is better than those other states and therefore isn't necessary comparable from an economic perspective.

However the comments above are valid. If the Presidents, VPs, Associate VPs, and Directors and all the professors and staff recruited to town are making the salaries to justify the 400k-800k housing market, then what about all the Admins, or Program Managers who MIGHT get a 4% raise on 40-50k salary, which after taxes is about 80 bucks a month in an annual 'merit' raise that doesn't keep up with inflation.....

halibut sinclair
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Mark Price, Chief Appraiser for the Brazos Central Appraisal District, provides an in-depth look at the process for assessing taxes and protesting those assessments in his visit with WTAW's Scott DeLucia on Tuesday, May 10.

http://wtaw.com/2016/05/10/chief-appraiser-mark-price-wtaw/
Carnwellag2
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quote:



So are you proposing the appraised value is fixed or the amount of taxes a home owner pays? If the market slows and not enough homes are being sold to be reassessed and taxing entities have to raise the tax rates - do home owners with fixed values pay the new rate?
yes - that's the beauty of it.

lawmakers would have to vote for a tax increase and explain it to their constituents.(as opposed to reducing expenses to balance budget).


SARATOGA
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I suggest answering the appraisal districts non-nonsensical statements/questions with other nonsensical questions....

"How much do you think you could sell your house for?"

"I'm not selling, so not sure that matters."

"We look at current building prices and it would cost more to build your house today than it did 10 years ago"

"Wait, are you going to destroy my house?"

"No sir"

"Then why are we talking about rebuilding it"


One significant problem is that there is no regulation among appraisers. Given a couple of months and a couple of internet classes and a test or two, you could be an appraiser. But after that it is completely subjective and the comps available could be used to justify widely varying opinions of a property....There is no consistency at all.

So it only makes sense to let the market decide the price of sale, and then the appraisal district use that price. Between sales price opinions are speculative, appraisers are inconsistent and crooked. (The above Flinstone cartoon is great)
taxpreparer
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AG

quote:
Mark Price, Chief Appraiser for the Brazos Central Appraisal District, provides an in-depth look at the process for assessing taxes and protesting those assessments in his visit with WTAW's Scott DeLucia on Tuesday, May 10.
There are two Mark Prices listed with property on Brazos CAD. It may be that neither are our Chief Appraiser, but I find it interesting that one has a home in Nantucket that has appreciated 6.68% since 2009, the other has home in Wheeler's Ridge that has appreciated 25.41% since 2009, and my home located between Walton and Westover has appreciated 61.88% in the same time period.

Nantucket homes have really only increased in value by 7% in 8 years compared to an older College Station home increasing by 62%?

Too many appraisals seem to go like:

Me: "Why has my property value increased so much?"
Appraiser: "Because your neighbors property did."
Me: "Why did my neighbor's property value increase so much?"
Appraiser: :Because your property did."
***It's your money, not theIRS! (At least for a little while longer.)
taxpreparer
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AG

quote:
but since this would be a state wide issue not sure how it might effect other areas of the state.

Is annual property tax valuation a state requirement, or can localities set their own rules. I know the state caps the amount a homestead can be raised each year. One problem I see is that there are three local taxing units; the county, the city, and the school district. Each would have to get on board for freezing valuations at time of purchase. Of course, if this happened, we could rescind the over 65 exemption.

I would freeze the valuations for all properties, but as I posted earlier, there may need to be special rules for corporations and trusts, due to possibility of perpetual ownership.
***It's your money, not theIRS! (At least for a little while longer.)
BCSMom
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So I am looking at the appraisals for the houses in my neighborhood and could use some help.

So if I protest I need to show them other comparable size houses in my neighborhood appraised at lower values?

ETA: If my house is 1679 sq feet....what size houses should I be looking at? Within how many sq feet of my house?
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