Built a new home in 2021, so there was no cap on my increase. Got them to lower it by 19% just doing the online protest.

theoretically, your cap should be what you paid for it.

were you able to get it lower?

East or west side of Dairy Ashford?

East, closer to the Beltway

Gotcha. Thought we might be neighbors. I'll continue to hold down the dirty side

I will be in the same position this year, new build in 2021. How did you get them to lower it, any tips? Haven't gotten my appraisal yet so haven't submitted any papers to protest yet.

I'm a real estate broker, so I used quite a bit of data in the protest. Reach out if you'd like me to run comps (no charge) - Kurt
At
Oakstoryrealty
.
Com

Here's a discount code that can get anyone 10% of of a Jubally Solutions analysis package. I've used their package to protest every year my appraisal has gone up since 2014 and this will probably be the first year my house will actually be valued at or above what I paid for it in 2014.

DAH2DNI1

(Full disclosure, it gets me 10% off rebate as well).

Any realtors on here that can pull some comps for me? My prior contacts are either no longer in the business or aren't responding. Not super hopeful that I will get useful info but just wanna see the numbers. Please PM or email (in my profile) if you can help.

I'll run comps for you. PM or email me your address and I'll send Monday

Submitted my Ifile today. Guess we'll see.

Sales comps in my area were surprisingly helpful. Not gonna be able to knock down Appraised Value but have a valid argument to knock down Market Value by $25k.

Question... does anyone know the difference in 3 member vs single member ARB panel options other than the obvious number of people? This is a new option and honestly I'm not sure which would be better.

EDIT - found a reddit post in a Houston group the first reply was from someone that supposedly had been an ARB member in the past. They suggested a single member would be the better option if you had a compelling case but didn't explain why.

Hey, can we protest our tax values if there has been massive crime in the area, including sexual assaults, armed robberies and a drive by or two? Thinking of taking advantage of the new Heights turning back into the old Heights.

No. They will argue sales. In theory sales should be dropping based on crime but it will likely be sales this summer that are ultimately impacted.

The option for single member ARB may be HCADs way to deal with all the protests it expects. That may be reason enough not to waive a three person panel.

From what I have read, the single person ARB was an option passed by the TX Legislature back in Sept and is a new requirement for all CADs to offer. Haven't quite figured out why though. In fairness, I haven't spent much time researching it yet either.

Has anyone else gotten iSettle offers from HCAD? How have they been?

Quote:

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Question... does anyone know the difference in 3 member vs single member ARB panel options other than the obvious number of people? This is a new option and honestly I'm not sure which would be better.

EDIT - found a reddit post in a Houston group the first reply was from someone that supposedly had been an ARB member in the past. They suggested a single member would be the better option if you had a compelling case but didn't explain why.

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I chose a single member ARB because, in my experience, the 3 members of the board tend to conform to one another. Maybe 1 or 2 were going to side with me, but because of the initial member's determination, the other two fall in line (Asch paradigm).

A single member ARB will have the sole responsibility to reject my evidence. That's why you should never skip the informal meeting.

TAM85 said:

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Has anyone else gotten iSettle offers from HCAD? How have they been?

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Go back a couple of pages. I posted the first and a few others have chimed in.

They lowered my market value to a comp that sold last year. No change in appraised because I'm well below market thanks to years of protesting.

TXTransplant said:

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TAM85 said:

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Has anyone else gotten iSettle offers from HCAD? How have they been?

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Go back a couple of pages. I posted the first and a few others have chimed in.

They lowered my market value to a comp that sold last year. No change in appraised because I'm well below market thanks to years of protesting.

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Maybe it's just me. But the way you refer to market vs appraisal is confusing as hell and seemingly way over complicated.

Blame HCAD since those are the exact terms from their website. I agree that they are confusing. "Appraised" would make more sense as "Assessed" value.

htxag09 said:

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TXTransplant said:

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TAM85 said:

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Has anyone else gotten iSettle offers from HCAD? How have they been?

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Go back a couple of pages. I posted the first and a few others have chimed in.

They lowered my market value to a comp that sold last year. No change in appraised because I'm well below market thanks to years of protesting.

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Maybe it's just me. But the way you refer to market vs appraisal is confusing as hell and seemingly way over complicated.

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I don't get the confusion. There are two HCAD values. You may always be protesting the market value, but your appraised value may also go down, too, as part of the protest resolution. Sometimes HCAD will reduce market only; sometimes they will reduce market and appraised.

The appraised value is important because that's the basis for calculating your tax bill. It's also the value to which the 10% cap is applied. There is no cap on market value.

The market value is important because appraised can't exceed market, if your values aren't equal.

If you protest and don't understand the difference, you will be disappointed when they only lower market and not appraised.

It's important to know and understand the difference, because if you are happy with your appraised value but your market is too high, it will bite you in the butt the next year.

What is so confusing about this?

ceenAg05 said:

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Blame HCAD since those are the exact terms from their website. I agree that they are confusing. "Appraised" would make more sense as "Assessed" value.

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I agree. Assessed is a better term, since that's the number used to determine your tax bill. But HCAD uses appraised value.

Appraised Value is the value you are taxed on. That is the value that the CAD cannot raise more than 10% of the prior year's value per the Homestead Exemption. Appraised Value cannot be higher than the Market Value.

Market Value is the CAD's assessment of the value of your property. When you challenge your assessment you are challenging the Market Value. A challenge will only reduce Appraised Value if the reduction of Market makes it less than Appraised at which time the Appraised will be reduced to be equal to Market.

Market Value means the price at which the property would theoretically sell.

Appraised Value means the value of the property as determined by Chapter 23 of the tax code. One of the sections in 23 defines a limitation on the value increase of a residence homestead (ie the 10% increase rule). The appraised value of a farm or ranch land might be its productivity value rather than market if its in agricultural use, etc.

Assessed Value is the Appraised Value times the assessment ratio, which for all practical purposes is 1 so they become pretty much synonymously used.

Taxable Value is Assessed Value less any applicable exemptions and is what you pay tax on to each jurisdiction. Generally each taxing unit (City, County, ISD could have a different taxable value based on exemptions they grant and might apply to your property.

I mean the last 5 posts are exactly why I think you're overcomplicating it. For all intents and purposes, appraised value is simply market value but taxed at 10% of your previous value. Now, most people aren't seeing higher than 10% increases every single year, so it's more or less 10% of last year's value. Obviously, next year will be a different story....

But when you say things like this:

Quote:

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They lowered my market value to a comp that sold last year. No change in appraised because I'm well below market thanks to years of protesting.

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It is just overcomplicating it, IMO. You argued your market value, it was lowered but still higher than 10% so your appraised didn't change.

Edit: the only reason I even brought it up is this isn't the first time you referred to arguing market but not appraised as if they're different things.

Appraised and Market are different though. They can be equal, but they have unique definitions and often are different values in times of high market appreciation. You have to argue market value.

I am obviously a procrastinator but any recommendations for fighting MCAD - Montgomery?

Aggie71013 said:

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Appraised and Market are different though. They can be equal, but they unique definitions and often are different values in times of high market appreciation. You have to argue market value.

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This. We've been fortunate they've been mostly equal over the last few years. But they don't have to be. And, if they aren't, you may have to change your expectations when you protest.

Many people think that when they protest, they are protesting their appraised value - because that's the one used to determine the tax bill. I talked to someone just the other day who didn't even know the market value can change. There are posters on this board who think there is no point in protesting market value if your appraised is lower than market.

Companies that protest for you complicate this by charging a percentage of the savings to your tax bill. But you can "win" a protest and save $0.

htxag09 said:

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I mean the last 5 posts are exactly why I think you're overcomplicating it. For all intents and purposes, appraised value is simply market value but taxed at 10% of your previous value. Now, most people aren't seeing higher than 10% increases every single year, so it's more or less 10% of last year's value. Obviously, next year will be a different story....

But when you say things like this:

Quote:

---

They lowered my market value to a comp that sold last year. No change in appraised because I'm well below market thanks to years of protesting.

---

It is just overcomplicating it, IMO. You argued your market value, it was lowered but still higher than 10% so your appraised didn't change.

Edit: the only reason I even brought it up is this isn't the first time you referred to arguing market but not appraised as if they're different things.

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You may not technically argue/protest your appraised value, but that doesn't mean it can't be reduced when you protest.

I realize you are just protesting market, but there are plenty of people who EXPECT their appraised to go down, too. Depending on the gap between appraised and market, there may or may not be a case for that.

For me personally, some years I've protested expecting both values to go down. Others, like this year, I only expected market to go down. There may be differences in the evidence I present, too, depending on what I'm trying to accomplish (I'll typically put more effort in if I think it's going to reduce my appraised value).

Maybe I am over-complicating it, but there have been plenty of people IRL and on this board who don't understand the difference in the two values, or that a "win" may not change your appraised value at all.

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?

Yup

When did you file your protest? Wondering on the timeline for responses. I didn't I-settle but thought this year they would send out offers to all protestors similar to what they did last year.

I'm hoping earlier protestors get more favorable offers than those that wait to the last second (me in prior years). My logic was if more adjustments occurred before my informal, I had better comps

looks like March 27