Congrats. What did you put as your reasoning?

Thanks!

I argued "unequal appraisal" and shared several homes in my "HCAD neighborhood" that had similar HCAD characteristics regarding condition and had a lower improved price/sqft assessment.

I'm admittedly appraised pretty low compared to my true sales market value, so I've had to use unequal appraisal the past several years. It's just been a game of HCAD giving me low to medium increases and me knocking them down a bit each time.

I believe you're in my same zip code, or a neighboring one. I need to file my protest. I had excellent luck with it last year (with that same justification but no comps), but I'm worried that won't happen two years in a row. Guess there's nothing to do but go for it.

These are all online?

no harm in trying. I use the same argument every year and haven't had any trouble.

I feel like they throw of some kind of settlement to keep people from coming to the office.

are you not past the deadline though?

May 16. I keep putting it off because I hate dealing with this ****, but I know I need to.

Well in searching the streets around me, my house is valued the least. Can I just file and say "Eff You?"

I filed iSettle in mid-April with some recent sales comps and got the following response from HCAD:

"Dear Property Owner:

Thank you for signing up for our iSettle program. Unfortunately, after reviewing the information we have available, we cannot propose an online settlement for your 2022 protest. Since sales disclosure is not mandatory in Texas, we acknowledge that our market information may not be complete and that you may have evidence unique to your property that may support a reduction in your property's market value. To be sure you have an adequate opportunity to have it reviewed, we will be setting you up for appointments with one of our appraisers and for a hearing with the Appraisal Review Board. The Appraisal Review Board will set a hearing for your protest and notify you electronically or by mail of the time, date and place of the hearing by standard USPS mail."

This is the same thing I got last year so I guess I'm headed to a 1-on-1 with an appraiser. Sucks because I included my comps in my protest along with the MLS sales data so I'll just have to regurgitate the same thing to the appraiser and hope they aren't in a bad mood. Anyone else had this response?

I'm in 77008.

I just received my hearing evidence packet, even though I accepted the settlement.

It was eye opening for sure. I don't know how much they weight these things, but they used comps from Meyerland which are several miles away, which is silly.

The one thing that made me chuckle was the "monthly time adjustment". They used roughly 1.5% per month in Westbury. As much as I would love that to be the case, it just wasn't

MAS444 said:

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They jacked our home up almost 25% in 77009!!!

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So glad we sold a year ago in the 77009! Loved living there but couldn't afford to stay when evicted from the rat race (O&G).

Locked in a huge profit and left for a state with stupid low tax bills.

That'll be us one day...possibly sooner than later. Love it here now though.

Well I filed under the "This is bull****" clause. Thankfully I can take some photo's of the exterior of the home. It's on our list to line up a contractor to fix a bunch of issues. The home was built in '78 so there are some things I can use as 'proof' I'm over valued.

I seriously do not expect this to go anywhere so time for a hail mary.

Diggity said:

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I just received my hearing evidence packet, even though I accepted the settlement.

It was eye opening for sure. I don't know how much they weight these things, but they used comps from Meyerland which are several miles away, which is silly.

The one thing that made me chuckle was the "monthly time adjustment". They used roughly 1.5% per month in Westbury. As much as I would love that to be the case, it just wasn't

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I got my results today and FBCAD didn't reduce at all based on the monthly time adjustment BS too. Sales were significantly lower but then they increased it by $50-100k because of the time adjustment nonsense, but not sure if I can really fight much of that?

I'm not sure you can argue their assumptions there. McGibblets knows more about that I'm sure.

To me, this is all the more reason to use "unequal appraisal", since they can't bull the time adjustment BS on you.

I bought my house (montgomery county if that matters) last August, and they appraised it 15k higher than the purchase price! WTF! How is that even legal? We literally set the market value last year, how is it possible that they could appraise it higher than we paid? They even used the sale of my house as COMP 1 on the comp sheet, which i thought was hilarious. I disputed, and got a message back that simply said "your house is appropriately appraised"

The market climbed a lot between August 2021 and January 1, 2022. Any other year, you would have a valid argument. This year it will be a tough fight

Simple answer is the appraised value isn't what house was worth when you bought it but what house worth 1/1.

ChrisTheClassic said:

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I bought my house (montgomery county if that matters) last August, and they appraised it 15k higher than the purchase price! WTF! How is that even legal? We literally set the market value last year, how is it possible that they could appraise it higher than we paid? They even used the sale of my house as COMP 1 on the comp sheet, which i thought was hilarious. I disputed, and got a message back that simply said "your house is appropriately appraised"

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If im not mistaken, most (if not all) CADs have to accept your closing statement as value if you purchased the house in the last year. If you bought for less than their value they have to change their value to be equal to the closing price.

MAS444 said:

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Simple answer is the appraised value isn't what house was worth when you bought it but what house worth 1/1.

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Maybe but if you bought the house for $200k and 6 months later it is would sell for $175k they will make you stick with the closing price as your value for year 1.

I didn't say it was fair.

Huh, interesting. I always had been able to argue the sale value for the following year. Both my previous houses they tried to raise appraised value and I was able to get it lowered using that method. I always assumed that's how it worked.

For those that used sales comps for comparable market analysis, how many did you use? Jubally provided 5.

My dad has a really great case with 3 comps, but an okay case with 5.

HCAD will only accept your argument if you have atleast 3 sales comps to back your claim. I always try to present 4-5.

chjoak said:

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HCAD will only accept your argument if you have atleast 3 sales comps to back your claim. I always try to present 4-5.

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This was not my experience. I presented two (both of which were on my street). One house had a pool, so I excluded it in my argument. HCAD accepted my request based on the one comp.

Surprising. I've had an HCAD rep in an ARB hearing make the 3 comps claim.

In Isettle or at the informal?

AgLA06 said:

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In Isettle or at the informal?

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It was iSettle. I was just about to come here and edit my post to clarify. I figured that's what everyone is doing at this point in the process.

It may have helped that the comp was identical to my house, and I used that as part of the argument.

If you do Isettle you can't get an informal. That's why I'm asking.

chjoak said:

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ChrisTheClassic said:

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I bought my house (montgomery county if that matters) last August, and they appraised it 15k higher than the purchase price! WTF! How is that even legal? We literally set the market value last year, how is it possible that they could appraise it higher than we paid? They even used the sale of my house as COMP 1 on the comp sheet, which i thought was hilarious. I disputed, and got a message back that simply said "your house is appropriately appraised"

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If im not mistaken, most (if not all) CADs have to accept your closing statement as value if you purchased the house in the last year. If you bought for less than their value they have to change their value to be equal to the closing price.

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You are mistaken. Montgomery County refused to give me purchase price on a house closed on May 27th of the appraisal year. They told me to bring my closing statement the following year. I told them I closed closer to 1/1 of the appraisal year than the following year. They said too bad. Went all the way to the formal and they knocked a few thousand off, but still wouldn't give me my purchase price. It is ridiculous.

Just got my isettle. They came off the "market" value about 8% but that still left my "appraised" over the 10% cap. I declined and will see what I can do in person. this is 77079

screw em all over there.

stroodles said:

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Just got my isettle. They came off the "market" value about 8% but that still left my "appraised" over the 10% cap. I declined and will see what I can do in person. this is 77079

screw em all over there.

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I'm having a case of the Monday's like no one's business today, so I probably should just go home and go to bed.

I don't think it matters if one is above the 10% cap. The only one that matters is the lowest one. It's why we protest every year.

Diggity said:

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quick question for Montgomery County

have a former client whose land value for the whole neighborhood doubled, but they didn't really touch the improvement values.

I've always been told you won't have much luck fighting land increases if it's uniform. Are they just SOL or is there some strategy here

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Everyone in my neighborhood went up to $70,000 land value regardless of lot size, my previous land value was $25,600. Improvements stayed the same.

you still in the same spot?

I've heard this was a recurring thing in the Woodlands.

What they are doing is ridiculous! Texans are being ripped off.
Not allowing your purchase price is so terrible.

Also if people voted for bonds don't complain about taxes !
Enjoy them.