Does anyone have any advice or a resource on how to get started to protest property taxes? Williamson County if that helps.

I am interested in this as well. My property went up 95%. Luckily HS exemption is keeping it down to 10% but I am in the process of building a new house and using the HS on the new place and converting the current to rental. I am not even sure how a place doubles in value over a 1 year period.

In general, it is a system that is 100% rigged against the homeowner.

In Texas, it sure would be nice if the AG would give the CAD's some flexibility due to C19. That hasn't happened so values going out now are reflective of Jan 1 values - which is my area means an average of 15% increases across the board.

Get one of the legal services that specialize in protesting. They will take 50% of what they save you on the first year reduction. You don't have to do anything. They will fight it for you.

O'Connor is one that I have used in the past.

yeah property taxes are absurd now. however, i have zero faith of anything changing, if fact we will just pay more.

I also use them. I figure everyone needs to protest values every year.

I protest every year. I take pictures of everything and send it in and tell them that my house would not sell for the price listed because of _____,______,______. I also use comp prices if it helps my case. If it does not, then I don't submit that part.

I always get a settlement offer of at least 10,000 off of my property and if I am not satisfied then I will go in and talk with them instead of settling.

Contact the county appraisal district and talk to an appraiser we'll before the protest deadline. Be prepared. Have a value you propose and a well thought explanation as to how you get there. Take pictures, view the values of homes in your neighborhood, get purchase prices of recently sold homes for your neighbors if you can.

Not all appraisers are great, but some are reasonable and knowledgeable and willing to help if reductions are warranted. Once they have certified the value they and the appraisal review board are generally much less inclined to make deductions. You can always talk with appraisers multiple times and still file a protest if you don't get what you want.

You can always try talking to them yourself and then hire a service to protest if you need to. KEA is one based in DFW, but they work all over Texas and in many other states.

Vernada said:

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In general, it is a system that is 100% rigged against the homeowner.

In Texas, it sure would be nice if the AG would give the CAD's some flexibility due to C19. That hasn't happened so values going out now are reflective of Jan 1 values - which is my area means an average of 15% increases across the board.

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and the protest hearing is staffed with people who are getting paid for 10-12hrs torture every day...They are miserable just sitting, listening and saying yah, yah, yah, NO.

Next year I'm bringing a nice charcuterie board.

O'Conner is probably the worst firm in the industry. Try to find someone else that knows what they are doing. There are firms that specialize in residential protests, and 50% sounds high.

The appraisal districts were not asking the Attorney General to freeze values. They were fighting to raise them and got what they wanted. Most districts are raising values.

Do you have any names? I'd love to find someone better. In fact, I'm not sure if they've ever been successful for me.

You could look up Myron Weidenbach with KEA to see if he could help you. He's Ag class of '87 and been arguing property values for over 20 years. I worked with him back in another life and he was a good guy and good at what he does.

I worked for SWBC doing this, its definitely hit or miss. When you use blanket appraisal methods (the appraisal district) because there are so many properties to appraise in a small amount of time, some people will win but most likely more will lose. You're best strategy is to compile a list of comps in your area, based on sqft, improvements, age and so forth but don't get your hopes up. Also the appraisal district can basically say nope, and there isn't anything you can do about it. Which was the most frustrating part of the whole job, whether it be commercial or residential, I could put a lot of hours into a property, great comps, pictures and all the information you could dream of and it wouldn't work. It would get so heated at times, owners of property tax abatement companies would be thrown out of the appraisal district because they would lose their mind/temper/grip on reality due to no changes that made no sense.

Pop Hutcheson is taking on new clients, they're a solid company and closer to Williamson County than SWBC. Call and ask for James, I went to grad school with him and hes as solid as they come.

CADs compensation is directly tied to the value of property in the district. Please tell me why they would ever lobby to reduce values.

Mule_lx said:

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Does anyone have any advice or a resource on how to get started to protest property taxes? Williamson County if that helps.

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In Williamson county your best bet is to protest on equity. Housing values were still very strong as of 1/1 so your market value may not be too high.

Look at the other appraised values for houses like yours and try to make an argument that your house is being set at a higher value than the others and they need to reduce your value.

In Texas the appraisal district is tasked with appraising property as of 1/1 at 100% of market value and in a fair and equitable manner (meaning everyone's property is assessed at 100%). If your neighbors are on at 95% the theory is you should be on at 95% as well.

It is more difficult for the appraiser to defend against equity and all of the information that you need to protest equity is publicly available (on the CADs website)

Williamson is a tough county to get relief in. If you do wind up going before the appraisal board it wouldn't hurt to play a sympathy card or two as well. They are human and on rare occasions can be sympathetic.

Expect there to be little settling on property taxes/values.

State and local governments are taking hits to income and revenue streams (decreased sales taxes, liquor taxes, speeding tickets, etc.).

Which means, there will be directives to keep up other revenue streams like....property taxes. They will be using 1/1/2020 "valuations" arguments when they jack up your assessed value and then they will be even tougher to argue and get knocked down. Gonna be a load of BS so be ready and encourage neighbors to protest to get group benefits.

I really feel bad for all of you. I don't live in Texas, haven't in ten years. But even back in 2009 (when I moved from Texas), property taxes were out of control. When I hear what my daughters are paying today, I'm more than shocked. Something has got to give...but who the heck knows what that is.

SociallyConditionedAg said:

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Do you have any names? I'd love to find someone better. In fact, I'm not sure if they've ever been successful for me.

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What part of the state are you in? Commercial or residential property?

Orange County, residential.

SociallyConditionedAg said:

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Orange County, residential.

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My friend in Houston recommended the following. Not sure if they are active in Orange County.

Urban Tax
or
advaloremtax.net

You may be able to do just as well on your own, although its my understanding O"conner may already have you under contract unless you let them know by 12/31/2019.

I would go try to talk to someone first, file the appeal while you are there, then come back with additional information showing reasons why your property would not sell for what they think it is worth. They lose sight of the fact that you may have to fix slab, roof, fence, paint, etc. to get a house ready to put on the market, so you may have 20-40k in repairs just to get it comparable to what they are comparing you to.