For those who know more than me when it comes to this stuff:

My 2014 Notice of Appraised Value shows about a $13,000 increase for "Market Value of Non Ag/Timber Land." What is this category, and is it something I can protest?

It's not the "structural & improvement market value" field; it's the next one on the form.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

i got the same thing. my land is appraised at $11,000 more than last year. of course you can protest it. it's very difficult to make them come down though. i protest my property taxes every year.

sorry i forgot to answer your question: you're not claiming an exemption for ag use and it's not land that is used for timber harvesting. so they're appraising your LAND as $13,000 higher than last year, not your structures (house, barn, etc.)

Gotcha-Thanks. Any recommendations for gathering data/evidence for my appeal or does such a thing not exist?

to be honest in the past i have hired a professional to protest my taxes but he's only doing commercial accounts now so i will have to either do it myself or hire someone else.

i know alot of people use "sale of like properties" information (which is public information) to assess the value of their property.

Yep same here. Dwelling remained the same, land/lot went up $13000. Wonderful. Wonder what their explanation is.

My appraisal went up a little over 10,000 dollars. The appraisaed value of the land is going up at an extremely fast pace. My Mom could always protest and win. I can't. She would show them every little flaw in the house.
BCS is getting to be a "hot" place to live. With that comes higher land and home values.

My appraisal in pebble creek when up exactly 10% all of the increase was on the land/lot.

Really don't know how they appraise the land. I live in an older neighborhood in Bryan. My land is appraised at a higher value per square foot than somebody I know that lives in a much newer neighborhood close to the Med.

I live in Castlegate and my Non Ag/Timberland went from.

2013 - 29,930
to
2014 - 61,310

Breaking it to the kids tonight they need to get summer jobs to make up the difference. Whose doing is this ? If I find House of Lannister had a hand in this I shall convene the other realms to plot our protest !

I have a rental that the dwelling went up over $40k!

I have some friends in Caldwell who, just for regrading and adding some cliche to their driveways have had to fight their county appraisals of "improvements".

Sounds like more and more the counties are trying to get as much of a money grab as they can.

Only thing you can do is fight it, and come election time vote in better people.

Pretty hard to fight the land value increases IMHO.

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Pretty hard to fight the land value increases IMHO.

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Our lot rate went up over $10k--I'm calling shenanigans on that. Its up to the appraisal district to prove that the lot value went up that much. I doubt they can point to similar properties (all built on) in the neighborhood that went up anything remotely close to that.

Good luck fighting land values.
All they have to say is, so how much are vacant lots going for in College Station neighborhoods? Answer: a lot more than the value of your lot.

I've tried to fight lot values, waste of time. They have the values down to the street and size of the homes that could be built on them.

We should have the nicest roads,parks and schools in Texas.
We do have nice fire stations though.



[This message has been edited by aggiepaintrain (edited 5/3/2014 9:01p).]

Let me get this straight:

The county comes out to Wellborn and sprays poison up and down our roads
The poison is to kill weeds, but also kills trees that are along the road (a bunch on my road)
The county decides to raise everybody's land values after ridding them of these unsightly weeds (and grass, and wildflowers, and trees)

Ain't that a kick in the pants.

Too bad Paramount Property Analysts went commercial properties only. Anybody know of another company that will help dispute appraisals in Brazos Co.?

I hope I can get that extra $12,000 that my house value increased when I put it up for sale...

Here's a site that helps you protest them on your own: www.jubally.com

I have a rental that went up 36% ($55,000) of which $52,000 is the lot value increase.

You folks keep in mind that your $10-12,000 increase is only a few hundred bucks more (in taxes) for the year. That 36% increase on my rental will cost over $100 extra per month!

Bettencourt Tax Advisors out of Houston will protest your taxes here in Brazos County. I used them last year but will probably go at myself this year.

jmazz, how much of that lot value increase do you think is due to the boom in rental housing in former single-family neighborhoods? I'm seeing lots of old houses get torn down & replaced w/ 4plexes for rent.

Our land value increased significantly last year, but our improvement values decreased a bit, so all -in-all, our total appraisal value remained about the same. Regardless, we gathered all of the information about sales of similar houses/lots in our neighborhood and protested...which we had never done before.

The person we worked with (at the appraisal office) said that "they" had hired a professional service to appraise the land values in the county and that land had been significantly undervalued...hence the rise. There was nothing they would do about the land appraisal value, but we did manage to get a bit more knocked off of our improvements value.

Jubally does not currently cover Brazos county.

bossy...I think the development around campus (both single family and multi-family/mixed used) is surely raising assessed values. I'm not sure there's much anyone can do about it.

SoTheySay...thanks. Didn't realize Jubally didn't cover Brazos. Still good info on the process though.

Jeez this is just robbery.

Improvements down $14k
Land up $12k
Net down $2k

We're filing a protest this year. The "value" of our dwelling, which was raised over $10,000 last year, suddenly drops by $11,000 but the value of the land goes up by $12,000. I'm not buying it. They are just playing with numbers to justify raising the overall value by $1,000.

We haven't done anything to improve the land, there has been no new construction in our neighborhood, and most of the houses on our street (deeded as single family dwelling) have been turned into rentals.

A handy guide: http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/2062.pdf

Down 4.5% and so is my neighbors.

I've long been fascinated by this process.

You know, when you are deciding where to live and how much house you can afford, you make decisions about neighborhoods, house size, schools, etc.

Then you pick and buy your house knowing that your mortgage will be a certain amount, and you can pay for it because you know your budget.

But then a couple years later, taxes go up for no reason at all.

Its akin to going to Koppe Bridge, ordering a burger that costs $9, and then we you go to pick it up, they say it will be $11.50

Crazy.

I think values should be reassessed on sale, so that while you own the house you're locked in to pay the same thing in taxes based on your purchase price.

It is highway robbery.

I fight every year. I've fought 4 years in a row. I'm tired of fighting. And I can't afford to pay anymore in mortgage. I budgeted a certain amount when we bought the house. That was the amount I could afford.

we need some kind of a protest.

[This message has been edited by SARATOGA (edited 5/5/2014 8:31a).]

My Southwood Valley lot jumped in value from $19,900 to $35,000; and the value of my house decreased $11,000. Net increase of $4,100. I would like to protest this, but how do you come up with comps for land? There is no new construction in SW Valley; the area is going rental as fast as it can.

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I think values should be reassessed on sale, so that while you own the house you're locked in to pay the same thing in taxes based on your purchase price.

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Mine went up too and I understand the desire to fix the situation with a better method. I used to think the above idea was a good way to go, then I found out that it was the method that is used in CA and was a big part of the reason for the size and scope of their mortgage/housing/economic crisis.

I can't remember exactly how it worked (my friends there explained it to me but it's been a while and beverages were involved), but it has something to do with people not wanting to sell their house b/c any new house they bought would be taxed at an updated valuation - higher. This led to fewer houses on the market, so the houses on the market were valued at an artificially higher level, so artificially higher mortgages and taxes.

Anyway, knowing it is a method they use in CA is enough for me not to want to use it.

Also, I have no alternate solution to suggest.

[This message has been edited by agrab86 (edited 5/5/2014 8:56a).]

My home value increased over $17,000. The lot increased by $1000. Last year, I simply called and discussed the assessed market value with one of the appraisers and he adjusted the value to what we agreed was more in line with the neighborhood...no formal protest. Not sure what we'll do this year, but $17,000 is a big jump.

Mine was about even. Went up 1,800

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This led to fewer houses on the market, so the houses on the market were valued at an artificially higher level, so artificially higher mortgages and taxes.

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Doesn't sound "artificial" - sounds like supply and demand. If they're are fewer houses available, then they would be priced higher.

This also might help us with our growth problem.

(I agree that California is stupid. But it seems that we could implement that system with a few modifications for lessons learned, perhaps just the land value being fixed or something)

There has got to be a better way.