Does anyone have any recommendations for a good company to fight my increase? I tried last year myself and got railroaded. I'm in a 2,000 sqft house that has gone up $60k+ in the last 2 years.


Forgive my ignorance as well but arent these firms fees typically half what they save you?

My improvements went up 60% from last year in 77546

I just hired Bettancourt Tax

https://www.btanow.com/

I have used a few other services when I lived in Harris County (O'connor and Novotony) and they were 50% of savings

BTA is $75 per year and 40% of savings

That is good to hear. I guess I read it wrong

Quote:

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For residential protests, there is a onetime administrative fee of $75 per property. At the completion of your protest, we charge a contingency fee of 40% of your TOTAL PROPERTY TAX SAVINGS. (Total Property Tax Savings is based on the reduction in your appraised value.) For three or more properties contact the office CustomerService@btanow.com. Unlike our competitors, Bettencourt Tax Advisors does not bill you on homestead exemption amounts or frozen amounts on school or city taxes.

CAPPED ACCOUNTS - If your property's initial market value is greater than its appraised value, you will be charged the greater of the standard contingency fee or $2.50 per $1000 reduction on the initial market value.

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Im very dumb when it comes to this stuff so I appreciate you guys giving info.


So for clarification, I they save me 500 bucks on what I pay in taxes they only charge 200? Plus a one time 75 dollar fee?

yes

i've used Advaloremtax the last few years, they are pretty easy to work with, i believe they are based out of Kemah/Seabrook. no fixed fee and they take 35% of savings i think.

advaloremtax

Have you had pretty good success with them

I am interested in this topic as well. I used to fight the yearly appraisals all the time with success when I lived in Harris County. Brought in comps of sold properties, similar houses with widely different HCAD values, etc, etc. I found them receptive and easy to deal with.

Totally opposite experiences w/ Galveston County. They're a total pain in the ass to work with, don't listen or even hardly review the data you present. WIthout luck on my own for several years, I tried presenting Jubally data a few years ago without any success either (even though their data/reasoning is valid). I tried the appraisal review board three separate years without luck too. They consist of 100 year old uneducated fossils that cannot hear or reason. Twice I had one member sit through the meeting with their eyes closed.

I found I was just wasting a LOT my time even preparing anything for Galveston County. So for those of y'all that had luck with any company there, please share!! I'll put you down as a referral if there is anything in it for you!

bmet said:

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I am interested in this topic as well. I used to fight the yearly appraisals all the time with success when I lived in Harris County. Brought in comps of sold properties, similar houses with widely different HCAD values, etc, etc. I found them receptive and easy to deal with.

Totally opposite experiences w/ Galveston County. They're a total pain in the ass to work with, don't listen or even hardly review the data you present. WIthout luck on my own for several years, I tried presenting Jubally data a few years ago without any success either (even though their data/reasoning is valid). I tried the appraisal review board three separate years without luck too. They consist of 100 year old uneducated fossils that cannot hear or reason. Twice I had one member sit through the meeting with their eyes closed.

I found I was just wasting a LOT my time even preparing anything for Galveston County. So for those of y'all that had luck with any company there, please share!! I'll put you down as a referral if there is anything in it for you!

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I couldnt have typed this any better. This is my EXACT same experience coming from Harris to here and same experience with the old mofos

Yes, they have reduced mine each Year since I went with them, maybe 2-3 years now
I usually write them a check for a little over a hundred bucks I think
So not huge but they knock it down a bit and create savings
The first year was the largest as I recall.

Has anyone had luck appealing this themselves? If so, any helpful hints? I just received comps from a local realtor. What I got from GCAD looks totally inflated.

Jak981 said:

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Has anyone had luck appealing this themselves? If so, any helpful hints? I just received comps from a local realtor. What I got from GCAD looks totally inflated.

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I went last year with comps, I had a slam dunk on paper and it made zero difference. I was baffled then realized who paid the panel..... The people I was fighting. No conflict of interest there.

i went two times in Galveston county in person before i hired advaloremtax, first time i got a reduction but it was based on them assessing me on incorrect data. They had assessed me for about 500 extra square feet on my house, they showed me what they had based their assessment on for those measurements and it was some B.S. hand written sheet with hand written notes on room dimensions.
i went because i had noticed a same floor plan home in our neighborhood that was under about 800 square feet below the actual measurement. when they pulled that support document, it was missing about 1/2 of the second floor of the home.

they are a real **** show down there.

The second time i went i had comp sales from a realtor, i think they knocked off about a $1,000 of assessed value which was not much and was not fair compared to the comps, that was when i decided to hire someone to protest them in the future.

Trying to decide between Bettancourt and Advelorum.

Fought last year myself with comps and data and they didn't move at all.

third coast.. said:

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I used oconnor last year and got about 50% of the increase knocked off.

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This is who i went with

2nd for Ad Valorum in Galveston.
Theyve been successful 4 str8 years with us.

Has anyone elses property value gone way down? Ours went down $150,000 from last year. Not planning on selling anytime soon so definitely not going to protest and be happy with the tax savings for a year, just worried about an over-correction next year if they messed it up.

JAggie2007 said:

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Has anyone elses property value gone way down? Ours went down $150,000 from last year. Not planning on selling anytime soon so definitely not going to protest and be happy with the tax savings for a year, just worried about an over-correction next year if they messed it up.

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You in bacliff behind the Double Shoe or something???

Cedar Lawn on the island.