2019 HCAD values are out - Get ready to protest

A guy from work has used it, and showed me the report. It was pretty detailed. I have not used it yet. Tried doing it today, but says 2019 information isn't available just yet.

 

That's right. You pay $375, but you're still $375 richer yourself compared to doing nothing. And, assuming you have a homestead exemption that caps the increase the next year, you'll potentially get a further benefit in future years.

You can do it yourself. I protested mine once myself and won a consideration reduction ($40k, I think it was?). I think I did a good job of it because one of the members of the board hearing my appeal asked me if I was a lawyer when he saw my work. But, it was a pain in the ass. I had to learn the system and what mattered and what didn't, find the comps, take pictures of the comps so that I can see these were truly comparable and these others weren't really, etc. I'm sure a dedicated company could do the same thing with 10% of the effort I exerted because they have it down pat. And that's great. I'm glad to pay out of my tax savings to not have to do a protest myself again.

 

With the tax protest service companies just be sure to read the contract very carefully, many of them have "evergreen" clauses where they automatically renew every tax year unless you expressly cancel in writing. There are folks out there that were incurring charges years down the road without even knowing it until they got sued for collection. Be careful.

 

This is true. With O'Connor, they had a space where you can set an expiration date though they encourage you to leave it open-ended. I put an expiration date, but I'm getting mass-emails from them that implicitly assume they are still under contract when they aren't. I don't know how that'll work out, but I'd probably hire them again this year anyway.

It's been years since I did it. But, part of my argument was that some comps they listed weren't legit because they were "on the other side of the tracks" so to speak. Another part was that HCAD's description of my house was inaccurate (they said I had a fireplace when I didn't, etc). The third part was that the house had structural problems to be considered. I don't know which of those arguments landed.

 

I have done it myself.

http://hcad.org/hcad-online-services/ifile-protest/

I did it about two years ago. If you counter with a reasonable number and list comparable homes in your neighborhood (obviously the ones with lower values) then it should work. Also listing homes that are bigger and have the same tax value as you helps.

I did the efile and heard back like 6 weeks later. Took off like 6k. Which for me at the time was like a 33% off the increase.

 

such a coincidence that it went up exactly 10% this year. At least try to cover up your laziness and make it 9.45%

I'll be protesting by using quotes for a new roof (current one is about 20 yrs old) and replacement of old plumbing (old cast iron). Between those two items alone that's around $50K. One question though, the quotes are from 2018, would I need quotes from 2019?

 

I used jubally, and I was able to get exactly what they said I should. It was like a 16K reduction in market value. I don't know if this made a difference, but my market value was so high, that it still didn't go below my appraised value, but my goal was to make it to where I wouldn't have an automatic 10% increase next year. My difference between market and appraised is only about 3% now, so I'm hoping that will be my increase.

Jubally gave a pretty good presentation. I took it a step farther and included the comps that HCAD uses to show them guy that even their own comparables had my property slightly over-valued.

For $70 I thought it was worth it, to not have to do any research. When you plug in your property, it'll tell you what your value is before you have to actually purchase. You can decide from that if you think it is worth it.

Also - I only had to do the informal hearing. Supposed to be harder to get your informal to change the price, but it worked out for me (again, not sure if it was because we were only lowering market value to slightly above appraised).