Up 50% in our primary residence

AgLiving06 said:

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10% in 77035.

I'm already getting mail saying they can reduce it by 9.9% haha

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O'Connor got back to me.

From initially 10% up to settling at 0.4% down.

Forgot to update here. Informal I went from 6% increase from last year to down 6% from last year.

Gonna get hammered with a renovation next year.

77096

Anyone had this outcome from iSettle? Can't wait to meet in person.

"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 2024 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.

We appreciate your interest in iSettle and hope that as we improve the process we will be better able to serve you in the future."

I am getting bent over.

Bought house in mid August. Jerks gave appraisal above sale price (best evidence of value). I protested and they said they don't care. Kicker is that they used sales from months before August (basically excluding my sale price) and sales in 2024. F those guys.

KW02 said:

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I am getting bent over.

Bought house in mid August. Jerks gave appraisal above sale price (best evidence of value). I protested and they said they don't care. Kicker is that they used sales from months before August (basically excluding my sale price) and sales in 2024. F those guys.

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Something not right with that. Was this via iSettle or the informal meeting?

KW02 said:

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I am getting bent over.

Bought house in mid August. Jerks gave appraisal above sale price (best evidence of value). I protested and they said they don't care. Kicker is that they used sales from months before August (basically excluding my sale price) and sales in 2024. F those guys.

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They aren't supposed to use sales from after Jan 1 (which is the date of your valuation). And they typically will ignore any comps you try to present from after that date for the same reason - they are not applicable to the value on Jan 1.

aTm_bomb said:

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Forgot to update here. Informal I went from 6% increase from last year to down 6% from last year.

Gonna get hammered with a renovation next year.

77096

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Only if they find out.

Yea… Permits had to be pulled. They came by the house and took a new picture in march which they used in their evidence pack. Even shows the foundation piers in the yard. They were even kind enough to look in the window and note the exposed studs and comment as a total reno in progress.

Haven't seen documented rules but I've seen HCAD use January comps plenty. Therefore I do as well. Jubally does the same and they have accepted it.

Incorrect statement. They can use sales through Feb 2024.

I can't remember what month the comp I used was from. Must not have been Jan or Feb because they wouldn't accept it.

Looked it up. It was from March and they wouldn't consider it, even though the house was on the market several months prior to Jan 1.

I suspect they are just as inconsistent on this as they are about every other comp.

Another question for the board since I clearly don't know as much as o thought I did:

My BF moved his primary residence to a revocable trust, and it appears HCAD removed his homestead exemption, as his appraised value is up by more than 10%.

I hired out my protest this year and gave him the info to do the same, but I don't think he did. And of course, I didn't look at it until today, and the deadline to protest was in May.

His market value actually went down from last year, so this isn't really a protest - more of a correction. Does this still have to be addressed by a protest and is he SOL? Or is there another way to prove homestead and get the value adjusted to just a 10% increase even though the protest deadline has passed?

Yeah, that's what I figured. The "new ownership" triggered the change.

Can this process happen outside of the protest procedure? Meaning he can file this at any time and it will be corrected?

Ok, I've farmed my protest out since I have been a homeowner but I moved out of the area. Anyone care to give a primer on best approach? I've got to get pictures that make the home look about as terrible as possible and need to find values of like properties to claim unequal value. Is that essentially it?

I assume needing something like 10 grand worth of tree work would go against the land value and not the improvements, correct?

You need to make sure you put the correct tax year on the application. A lot of people make the mistake of putting the current tax year as the year. You need to find the tax year where the appraised value was the lowest and put that as the tax year on the application. You will also need to write *RECAP* at the top so that they apply the cap to the correct year.

Last thing in regards to the trust. Have the first couple of pages and the signature page. The most important page is the one that states the person is living in the residence rent free. This is the key paragraph they are looking for with the trust documents.

Thanks. Just to confirm I am understanding this correctly-

He just made the change, so it's only his 2024 value that's affected. His 2023 value has the HE. But his 2023 appraised value was increased by 16% (instead of 10) for 2024.

So we would put 2023 Recap at the top of the form to make sure they recalculate the 2024 value based on the 2023 value?

That is correct. Put 2023 as the tax year and ReCap at the top. I usually star it and highlight it.

Appraised went up 20%, filed protest for 9% to stem the bleeding. We'll see.

After the iSettle online protest, they came back and gave me my proposed amount which was $1 more than 2023 values.

is it too late to try and protest?

pasquale said:

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is it too late to try and protest?

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Yes, unless you received your notice less than 30 days ago.

Success with my informal hearing today. Was able to adjust my market value down by 9%. Small victory that I will take.

User name checks out.

9% from the 2024 market value or 9% from last years value?

Congrats. I'd take either one.

2024 market value

77019

First isettle worth taking - lowered from 220k to 202k. Its worth 250ish so i am good with it.

First informal - the appraiser was AWESOME. I gave him my comps and he said "you need to go to formal b/c you are right about value and i cannot adjust above a certain percentage." HCAD at 400 and comps will bring it near 300. Its worth 360ish.


I have a few more to go. Mostly on land and not homes ... small land is usually very easy.

First time homeowner and filed our protest with HCAD but haven't heard anything back yet. Does it typically take weeks before hearing anything?

I filed my protest at the beginning of May and just got my iSettle offer today.

Someone want to give me a quick cliff notes on best way to protest? I am handling it myself for the first time.

I have several pictures of things that need to be repaired at my house that I will use to argue condition. I have sales prices of other homes in the area I can use but not sure if that is exactly the best way to go. We don't live in a neighborhood and our property doesn't have many like properties in the area so not going to really be able to bark up the unequal appraisal tree unless you ignore land and the like, but not sure how that works out.

I would greatly appreciate any insight and a quick rundown on what I should be looking to present.

Presented all of my evidence, and it was good, along with some better comps all to be negated by the damn seller who sent the closing documents to the CAD like an absolute *****. Was THIS close to getting the property condition dropped down as well, which would have given me a 9%+ reduction but instead got a 3% reduction for depreciation.

So pissed off at the seller right now.

Sea Speed said:

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Someone want to give me a quick cliff notes on best way to protest? I am handling it myself for the first time.

I have several pictures of things that need to be repaired at my house that I will use to argue condition. I have sales prices of other homes in the area I can use but not sure if that is exactly the best way to go. We don't live in a neighborhood and our property doesn't have many like properties in the area so not going to really be able to bark up the unequal appraisal tree unless you ignore land and the like, but not sure how that works out.

I would greatly appreciate any insight and a quick rundown on what I should be looking to present.

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Every time I have presented photos of things needing repair I get told they will not consider any of it unless it is accompanied by estimates from contractors showing the cost of the repairs. I'll pay more getting estimates than I will save in taxes.

Honestly my valuation would probably have been about 100k less now that I think about it had the seller not given that info. All of the comps were around 100k less, but there's nothing 1:1 out here. Very frustrating. Total boomer move.

Sea Speed said:

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Honestly my valuation would probably have been about 100k less now that I think about it had the seller not given that info. All of the comps were around 100k less, but there's nothing 1:1 out here. Very frustrating. Total boomer move.

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Were you protesting based on sales comps or U&E?