I am set to close on a house in late April..the house is listed at x number of square feet but turns out the square footage is actually 163 square feet less according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District. So that changes cost from $88.26 a square foot to $96.42 a square foot! How will this affect my taxes. What should I do?

Taxes will be based on whatever DCAD shows.

ok, but if they Reevaluate the property and turns out square footage is actaully higher than what they have listed, it would change my taxes? How often do they reevaluate?

what were they basing the listed square footage on?

who, my realtor or the DCAD?
I am trying to get ahold of my realtor to ask him where he got his information.

There is often a difference between the DCAD square footage and the actual house footage. The appraiser should have calculated the actual footage, which should also be more accurate than the DCAD footage. DCAD is either based on the exterior dimensions and an estimate, or builder plans from when the permit was pulled to build the house. Sometimes, things get changed slightly after that and the house is bigger or smaller than the plans turned in at time of build.

DCAD will most likely never change their sqft unless you request it, and will not change it just due to a change in ownership. However, if you are buying a property listed in the MLS, there is a near 100% chance your taxable value will increase to whatever you pay for the house. That would be the best time to try to get the DCAD to raise the sq ft to what you feel/can prove it really is, as they won't raise your appraisal to more than you just paid for the house even if your sq ft increases. You should expect a jump from current DCAD appraisal value to very near what you paid for the house either way.

The appraisal districts are often very wrong in the square footage they have listed for a given property.

Many listings will note that the home is bigger than what is listed in MLS and the tax records but will not be more specific than that. The reason they continue to use the information from the appraisal district is a CYA type reason.

Sometimes, a property will be listed and the source of the square footage will be an appraiser. It will look something like

SqFt: 1,520 / Appraiser or
SqFt: 1,520 / building plans or
SqFt: 1,520 / Other Documentation

Other reasons the appraisal districts are wrong could be screw-ups or typos, an addition to the house which was never properly documented, a post-construction completion of a "bonus room". Many times, the "bonus room" will be completed with the rest of the home, but the tax office just used the base model when it made it's initial assessment.

There are numerous ways or reasons a house may be listed incorrectly. Don't worry about it or fly off the handle, just get it measured to verify what it actually is.

Question: If I can prove that the appraisal district "measurement" of my house is high by about 20%, will the taxable value of my house be reduced by 20%?