I just checked my preliminary appraisal by HCAD on their website and they appraised my house almost DOUBLE what it is actually worth!!!! I'm going to protest it of course. Anybody have any tips? I bought the house brand new last summer, and I have my sales contract for how much I paid...I also have a third party appraisal from when the mortgage company appraised it for the mortgage. The other houses in my section of neighborhood tend to be much bigger than mine AND much more expensive, which could explain the snafu if they just did an average or something, but I DO live in the cheapest, smallest house in the section and that was NOT reflected in my appraisal. Will these documents be enough to get it reduced? Anybody have good experience with this?
Good luck...I've been protesting ever since we built our house...The Sales contract is a good thing, so the most they can go up is 10% per year...For better support, do the research at HCAD as this is what they use to get market comparables...They typically base their appraisal on recently sold homes, not necessarily in the same neighborhood...
I've been in my house for about a year now and what should I assume to be an appraisal that is too high? Should I expect it to appraise for less than what I paid?
You should be able to get it adjusted to what you paid for it. I took my contract in last year and they adjusted it to the sales price. I might be screwed this year, because I can't get the homestead exemption yet and they aren't limited on how much they can raise it. You have to have the homestead exemption for them to be limited to raising it 10% per year. What bothers me about the whole thing is that even if they do adjust it back down, they still took an afternoon out of your life. There were hundreds of people there with me, all protesting an arbitrary evaluation and all of us wasting time that could have been spent doing something else.
Yeah, if you just bought within the year, they'll adjust it to the sales price as a matter of course. You may not need to do a hearing. When you go in to file your protest, bring your contract and tell them you're protesting because you just bought it and the value wasn't the sales price. They might adjust it for you that day. They almost did that for me, except that my purchase wasn't an open-market transaction. Otherwise, my advice is to be prepared. Read their material on what a basis is for setting a value. If you have to do a hearing, do your research and bring in the documentation.
Being a first time home buyer and a bit naive about the whole process, can someone explain to me what the heck you guys are talking about? Are you saying that if the house is appraised higher than you bought it, that that's how they set taxes? We had to have our house appraised by the bank before we bought it (part of the loan process) and it was valued higher than what we are paying for it. Does that mean next year's tax bill will high than what it was this year? What's HCAD? Can someone help me out here?
HCAD is the Harris County Appraisal District. The amount they appraise your house for determines how much property taxes you pay. It's not whether it's appraised for more than you pay for it....whatever amount they appraise it for is what your property tax amount is based on. I got lucky...I looked my 2004 property tax record up and they appraised my house for the same amount they did last year.
Dammit! I just went to HCAD because of this thread and found they jacked up my appraisal by over 50%. I missed the homestead exemption by 2 days, so I wasn't protected.
I see. So supermac is pissed because his property tax is going to be higher than what he thinks they should be. Got it! Is this appraisal an annual thing?
mc mark, I'd also mention that the bank appraisal will have little bearing. The county will set its own number according to some arcane logic. In your first year, your sales price (the market value) will rule, not the bank appraisal (which is a fantasy number). The bank appraisal might come in handy if the county argued it wasn't an open-market sale, but otherwise don't worry about that.
does it seem a lil goofy to anyone else that the county gets to set the value of the houses that the county will be taxing? It seems to be in their best interest to value it as high as they can. What kind of oversight is there on the HCAD ? I'm not a homeowner yet, hopefully in the next couple of years. So I am ignorant about most of this stuff.
Correct. They appraised my house $177,000 OVER what I bought it for last August. I will then have to pay approx. 3% in total taxes on that $177,000 OVER what it should be. If I could sell my house for that much I'd do it right this second and laugh all the way to the bank.
The people I go protest with are actually not HCAD...I forget what they are, but they are independent of HCAD and can set my appraisal accordingly.
Klien has expensive school tax. I'm forgetting my homestead exemtion...but yes, in total, property taxes in my area are almost 3%
The info is at http://www.hcad.org During mayor Brown's administration, he 'capped' over 250,000 homes in Houston. What that means is.... those homes are taxed at the maximum amount that is allowed by state law. Not only that, their taxes increase annually at the maximum rate allowed by state law. Houston homes' sales tax increased 73% between 1998 and 2003. AND... He also figured out that if he can't increase the taxes any more, he'll just increase the house value that the taxes are based on. ... And we re-elected him -- droxford
I just need to know what is best to take. My house was the last, worst lot on the street section I live it. There is a golf course in the subdivision, and I don't live on it, I back up to a street. I have my closing papers saying how much I paid for it in August 2003. I have a third party appraisal done by somebody who actually walked the house and checked out everything. The one problem I have is all the other houses on my street are much more expensive than mine, so its hard to compare. Will the closing papers be enough?
Look, don't go all angry villagers on HCAD. They're just doing their job. Pretty well, too. The state and city and school et al use property taxes. The voters have chosen that over sales tax or income tax to fund those things. A property tax system needs a fair valuation of the property to assess the tax each year. Presto - appraisal districts. Harris Co. is a big place. They don't know every thing about every property. The district uses a mass appraisal model to value most homes and commercial properties. They take an average value per square foot from the sales data they can verify and apply it to everything. Often, that's not accurate, but it's close enough when you have as many properties as they do. You can protest on two counts - 1. assessment does not reflect market value 2. assessment is not fair and equitable - you are not treated the same as your neighbors. IF you have good supporting data, like the thread starter, you're golden. Just attend the hearing and then go to the appraisal review board, if necessary. Should be no problem. The officer you meet at the hearing usually is not familiar with the property in question or the comps that are in the system for that market. He/She is reasonably good at reading the data. You need good support to show your cause. You can usually get superior information. IN some markets, it's certainly worthwhile to use a professional protest firm like Burr/Wolff or RETS and so on. They have superior data. I am an appraiser, but my Burr/Wolff agent - Richard Hurt - has gotten much better results that I could with his access to superior data; especially on fair and equitable case claims, as I had last year on some new construction. A good agent earns his fee. Personally, I think we should have mandatory reporting of sales contract terms - like they do in every other state. That would eliminate some of the guesswork. Texas still clings to the hide-it debtor mentality. Also, property tax isn't a really good solution all by itself to our revenue needs - esp with schools. I'd like to see some combination of sales tax and income tax to capture revenue from law and medicine and reduce homeowner burden.
On the question what do I take - sales contract or third party appraisal (less than 1 year old) - take both, but the third party appraisal will be more highly weighted. Sales don't always follow the market. The appraisal is supposed to accurately value the property based on the market, with at least 3 supporting comparables.
