There was a thread a while back about this exact topic but I can't seem to find it. Does anyone have it bookmarked? If not, who is the best property tax dispute people for Harris County? I thought someone used to intern for one. Any help would be appreciated!
Well, I guess it isn't protesting the taxes, it's protesting the appraisal. We bought the house in May for $270k and they are not saying it is worth $290k.
I work at O'Connor & Associates and one of their major aspects of business is property tax reduction. They're good at what they do and reasonably priced. If you want, you can send an email through the board and I'll get you more info.
Ask a realtor what comps in your area are. You can go to places like zillow.com and *maybe* see what other houses around there have sold for. I guess you can also look at what other houses around you are getting appraised for as well by going to your appraisal district's website. I bought my house for $208k in 2004 and it was appraised over $250k for 2007. But that's what new houses and similar houses are going for around here, so I probably don't stand a chance of reducing the appraisal.
Yeah I was that intern. I don't know if it's too late to protest or not. Are you fighting for next December's taxes? If so, then you can go ahead and file the protest yourself. Since you just bought the house, you can easily get it appraised for what you paid for last May. It's going to be real difficult to get it below the $270k though. However, you actually have another alternative. Go to appraisal district and print out your house bill and see what the ISD ratio is. If it's in your favor (your % is higher than the ISD's), you'll be able to get it lowered to that amount. There's no point in looking at comparables, sales in the neighborhood, or even your neighbors $/sqft because of the recent purchase. The district won't budge. Regardless, the least amount of money you'll save is 600 bucks so definitely do it. DO NOT HIRE ANYONE FOR THIS AUTOMATIC REDUCTION!
same thing happened to me so i am sure you can do the same thing i did to reduce your appraisal. i paid 190k for my place but when i received the appraisal it was 30k more than what i paid. all you have to do is take your settlement statement to the appraisal office and show them how much you paid for the place. they should lower your appraisal to $270 since thats the actual cost of the house. it just sucks cause it wasted about 2 hours of my time and i spent about 15mins with the appraisal people.
I used O'Connor & Associates this past year and they got 12K knocked off my appraisal . My dad however got nothing taken off of his.
I have a little experience with this kind of stuff - but not vast enough to where you should take my recommendations as strong advice though. My dad owns a few rent houses here in Houston and I went with him to the Harris County Appraisal District main office to protest the property taxes (value of the homes). HCAD had over-valued our houses. What you need ahead of time is file a protest, I think there is a deadline to do so - check it out online. Once you do this they send you a letter giving you the case number / and date for when you are scheduled to go to HCAD. If you go online using your name/case number you can find all the information that HCAD has about your property. This is vital - print out everything you can - its all public access records. You want to have in your hands what HCAD has on their file - this is how you will build your case. In that packet they list some "comparable" properties in your district/zone. What we did was take extensive pictures of our properties (each house was an individual case number) as evidence. Build up your case ahead of time so you have reasoning as to why you feel the value is not correct - you must make a strong argument. Also be sure to take pictures of the houses that they are comparing your house in market value to. If the house is in better condition from the exterior than your house you could argue that the Appraisal District was at fault for appraising your house based on what other homes in your area are selling for- I believe there is a scale like Poor - Excellent condition for houses. A ton of people protest their property appraisals, so if you go prepare to wait. You will first meet with an arbitrator and present your case (there are a ton of cubicles and you get someone randomly) These people know their information / do this for a living and if you make a strong enough case and appeal to them you can get your appraisal knocked down (=lower taxes). It's like haggling for a new car though, its a give and take process for sure. If you are not satisfied with the result you can ask for an appeal and see the appeals board. It's a non-biased 3 member board that hears your case but the county's appraisal district is also present and gives their case / reasoning on your properties value. They make you take an oath stating you are telling the truth/record everything - its pretty serious. My overall experience was good, my old man got a like an average of $15,000 knocked down on each property from what i can remember (from $65k to $50k) so its definitely worth the time if you prepare your case/make a day out of it. Hope this was some help - Best of luck.
Sorry for the double post but here's a good website http://www.hcad.org/records/default.asp Its HCADs records database. You can look up any property in Harris County and see who owns it / how much its appraised for / what condition it is in / its 5 year value history / other valuable information. Per HCADs website: http://www.hcad.org/default.asp 2008 PROTEST DEADLINES For 2008, protest deadlines have changed. For homestead properties, the early protest deadline is April 30th or 30 days after the date the appraisal district sends a notice of appraised value, whichever is later. To accommodate this new protest deadline, HCAD will mail 2008 value notices for most residence homesteads earlier in the spring. In the case of other real property (land and buildings) the 2008 protest deadline is June 2. A later protest deadline may apply to you if HCAD mails your 2008 notice of appraised value after May 1. Later deadlines will also apply to business and industrial personal property accounts. In all cases where there is a later protest deadline, the date will be printed on the notice of appraised value. If you plan on filing a 2008 value protest, we recommend that you wait until you have received your notice of appraised value. This lets you know the value we are proposing, and also gives you the opportunity to file your protest electronically, using the district's online iFile system. Residential users of iFile may also be able to later settle their value online using iSettle. HCAD's iSettle system gives homeowners many advantages, including the ability to resolve their value dispute without the need to come to the appraisal district offices for a protest hearing. By handling your own protest, you also save the often substantial fee that you would owe if you used an outside tax consultant. Also here's a badass explanation of the protest process in PDF form from HCAD's site - PROTESTS EXPLAINED once again hope this was some help and good luck
