Anybody fight their property tax appraisal increase this year?

5,808 Views | 23 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by nthomas99
aggiefan2002
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How'd it go? Headed in next week for mine. Cheers.
Orlando Ayala Cant Read
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AG
Also curious
SARATOGA
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You realize you can go in there anytime and talk to someone right ? if that fails, you set an appointment to go before the board. Is that what you're talking about ?
91_Aggie
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I'd like to, but when neighbors are selling their houses for $40,000-$60,000 more than mine is appraised at right now, I'm not sure what leg I would have to stand on. Currently my house appraised at (by county) at over twice what I paid for it new in 1998, but apparently I could sell it for $40,000 to $60,000 more than it is appraised at.
kraut
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91_Aggie said:

I'd like to, but when neighbors are selling their houses for $40,000-$60,000 more than mine is appraised at right now, I'm not sure what leg I would have to stand on.

Ditto.
ooshwa
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Staff
AG
I called in, discussed it, and was pleased with the result.
OlAg2001
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I went in right after we received our notice. We have a new build which was valued way over what we paid, and way over our neighbors' comparative homes (all new houses). They changed it using the appraisal from our closing, but I think this will be an annual battle since I can't figure out why our number was so different from everyone around us.
gunan01
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We have a new build that is not yet completed. However, the property tax board assigned a value to the "Improvements" section to the appraisal that is higher than what our builder has spent so far on the house. We may not even get a chance to live in the home this year depending on when it is completed.

Can the Appraisal District assign an arbitrary value like to "Improvements" even though we aren't even in the house yet? Is this worth protesting? We bought the lot in 2015 and have only paid taxes on the land to this point.
Koko Chingo
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AG
You can show the CAD your expenses and make your claim. It is pretty simple. They will make an adjustment for you.

The next year it will go up accordingly
nthomas99
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I bought a new home in February and due to a mixup from the title company, brazos cad is just now listing me as owner.

The CAD appraisal is less than I paid (not by a lot though), but looking at similar build quality homes on my street, it looks like my current appraisal is about 10%-15% or so higher than it should / could be. I know better than to tell them what I paid, but are the comparables sufficient to push down the appraised price?

If so, it it sufficient to just call and say "but what about my neighbor down the street?"

Thanks,
texstaf
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My wife went in as she got quite angry about it. She did lots of research , took pictures, etc. etc.and got the increase revoked.
TXTransplant
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OlAg2001 said:

I went in right after we received our notice. We have a new build which was valued way over what we paid, and way over our neighbors' comparative homes (all new houses). They changed it using the appraisal from our closing, but I think this will be an annual battle since I can't figure out why our number was so different from everyone around us.


They might have your house classified incorrectly. I had this issue a few years ago. It had to do with the class CD codes in the property improvement section of the assessment. When I went in and talked to an appraiser, he admitted it was a mistake and lowered my appraised value accordingly (I was significantly higher on a $ per square foot basis than other neighboring homes built by the same builder). It didn't matter what houses were selling for. We did an apples to apples comparison of the tax/assessed value of other new builds.
TXTransplant
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nthomas99 said:

I bought a new home in February and due to a mixup from the title company, brazos cad is just now listing me as owner.

The CAD appraisal is less than I paid (not by a lot though), but looking at similar build quality homes on my street, it looks like my current appraisal is about 10%-15% or so higher than it should / could be. I know better than to tell them what I paid, but are the comparables sufficient to push down the appraised price?

If so, it it sufficient to just call and say "but what about my neighbor down the street?"

Thanks,



Granted, it's been a while, but that's essentially what I did a few years ago. Except I had to go down in person. I also had new construction, and it was valued significantly less than what I paid (but so were all my neighbors' homes), but my orice per square foot was much higher than all my neighbors.

As I stated above, the improvements were mis-classified. The appraiser admitted the mistake, looked at the spreadsheet I had created of $ per square foot values of neighboring homes (that were very similar and built by the same builder) and adjusted my value accordingly. He did ask me if the house was valued less than what I paid, and I told him it was, but I did not tell him by how much. That shouldn't be relevant if your house is valued more than comparable homes that are also new construction (can't always say that on resales because of exemptions that long-time owners have in place).

One thing I had to correct for when I did the comps was lot value. All of the comps I used had exactly the same lot value, so I backed that out of the appraised value before doing the $ per square foot calculation.

Not sure what the stats are now, but when I went through this process a few years ago, most homes in my neighborhood were valued at roughly 90% of the purchase price (all new construction).
aggiepaintrain
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I waited 2 hours to meet with the ARB.
Cru
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S
Just a FYI, but Jubally.com now serves Brazos county, as well.
ontheedge
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aggiepaintrain said:

I waited 2 hours to meet with the ARB.

What a charade. 11:30 appointment then told it's first come first served? Will soon be 2 hrs waiting and counting.
MarineBQ04
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nthomas99
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I had an informal meeting at CAD, cordial and informative but I didn't get much of anywhere.

The problem I'm facing is that I'm in an area with homes mainly built around 2008 or so, whereas mine was one of the few undeveloped lots that persisted until it was developed last year. So even though I think they probably have the improvements on my house fairly rated, they're depreciating all my neighbors houses at 10%+. I definitely did *not* pay that premium in sales price when I purchased.

So even though their valuation is in the right ballpark on a FMV basis, my neighbors have much higher discounts to FMV in their CAD valuation than I do due to what appears to be a pretty aggressive depreciation model (at least in the current market).

He offered me a 1.5% reduction, and I'm inclined to take it -- I doubt I'll get anywhere in the formal hearing, unless anyone has an angle I'm missing. Oh well, it's enough for a nice meal
woodometer
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So I clearly made the mistake of protesting online. I specifically spelled out in my protest that I was only protesting the land value. I have a town home that is on a very small lot. In fact the smallest lot in my entire neighborhood or any of the neighborhoods surrounding me. Yet all of the lots are appraised the same regardless of size. This is not hard to understand. Got my reply today. They cherry picked all of the houses and lots that are exactly the same as mine and used those as comps and offered me no change. I am so mad at the process I'm not sure I should even try to go before the board because it feels like the system is fixed.
Stucco
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woodometer said:

So I clearly made the mistake of protesting online. I specifically spelled out in my protest that I was only protesting the land value. I have a town home that is on a very small lot. In fact the smallest lot in my entire neighborhood or any of the neighborhoods surrounding me. Yet all of the lots are appraised the same regardless of size. This is not hard to understand. Got my reply today. They cherry picked all of the houses and lots that are exactly the same as mine and used those as comps and offered me no change. I am so mad at the process I'm not sure I should even try to go before the board because it feels like the system is fixed.
You are not legally allowed to protest land and improvement values independently before the ARB. Of course you can argue anything you want with the appraisal office.

The reply you received was a settlement offer made by the appraisal office. You are free to continue your protest to the ARB and make your case. But there you are not able to argue the values independently, only the combined value.

Unusability of the land (risk of flooding) or damage to improvements (foundation) can reduce the value by the amount of repairs, even related to those properties around you. Get an estimate!

Once in the ARB, the burden of proof to overcome your assessment of value is on the appraiser and requires a standard of clear and convincing evidence.

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TX/htm/TX.23.htm#23.0101
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TX/htm/TX.41.htm#41.41
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TX/htm/TX.41.htm#41.43
woodometer
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Stucco, Thanks for the info. Very helpful.

I never really gave much thought about the whole property tax thing before I became a homeowner. I knew it was screwed up but it really didnt affect me directly. Now it is one of the most frustrating things that I deal with.
runawaytrain
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Stucco
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I used Jubally this time around. I'll let you know how it goes.
Cru
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nthomas99
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I tried to use it, but I get "It looks like your property is a little unusual..."

Just curious will the coverage continue to grow? Would love to use, I'm in development south of town with pretty standard acre lots.
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