Have never protested before but we bought a house and closed December 1. We bought it for ~120k less than the 2020 appraised value. Just got my 2021 value and it only dropped 65k. I assume I just submit some of the closing documents with my protest and it should be pretty cut and dry right?

What county?
Y
I'd be wary if you're in a big county, you may need more than just that unfortunately.

A little surprised to hear that. Relatively small county an hour outside of major metro. What else could I provide? Nothing is more representative of fair market value of an asset than an arms length transaction.

I was in a similar situation. They said that wasn't indicative of the value less than a month later on Jan. 1. Then they said, just because I got a great deal it doesn't affect the appraised value. Had to go all the way to the board that then adjusted it to my purchase price. One year later, they hammered me.

I used my closing documents as proof of a lower value in Harris County and it worked with no issues at an informal protest. Like the other poster, they've hammered me with 15 - 20% increases every year since.

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Like the other poster, they've hammered me with 15 - 20% increases every year since.

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Yep. Me too. It seems to be SOP for these guys.

Props to OP for buying something for 120K less than appraised value. Now you can spend your savings on property taxes!

Aggie71013 said:

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I used my closing documents as proof of a lower value in Harris County and it worked with no issues at an informal protest. Like the other poster, they've hammered me with 15 - 20% increases every year since.

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I thought 10% was the max?

10% is the max for appraised that you will be taxed on, but market can go up more than that. If market is higher than appraised they'll just keep raising appraised every year until they match. If market keeps going up more than 10% appraised will go up 10% forever.

The 10% cap is only to prevent a massive hit in one year. You still get the massive hit, it just takes a little more time.

Question on this.. We just bought a house in October and the 2021 appraisal came in $100k higher than last year. It's less than what we paid (great) but much higher than I was hoping. Homestead 10% cap doesn't apply in this case since we are new owners, right? Only chance is to protest and hope for the best?

Yes, but you won't have much luck as they likely have your sales price.

Did you build the house? If so, last year the value was just a vacant lot. But that would probably be a lot more than a 100k jump.

You missed the deadline for apply for HS exemption but can file a delinquent exemption for up to two years.

You do not want to protest an appraised value that is less than purchase price. You certainly are not going to get it lowered and they may be able to raise (extremely rare).

Edited to Add: On our old house the square footage of the house was inexplicably lowered in year 3 of the 15 years we were in the house. House is 2495sf and even after we sold it is still at 2106. Advice from multiple people was to not let them know and use it as a selling point. We did provide an independent confirmation of the square footage to buyer.