Thank you RM95, now I am not a home owner so this may sound a bit dumb; so why is it bad to have your house apprasied highly? Doesn't that mean it's worth more?
Not really. The HCAD value is what they use to assess the taxes on your place. So, you want your valuation to be as low as possible (or at least as accurate as possible) to lower your tax liability. Really, the only time you want your home to be worth a lot is when you're selling it. And that market value won't necessarily jibe with the HCAD assessment.
mrpaige touched on it, but also just because your house is "appraised" for a certain value doesn't mean you're going to get that value when you sell it. You don't know how much your house is worth until you try to sell it - that dictates its worth.
I purchased my first house so a lot of this is new to me (im not in TX). The appraisal that I get taxed on are based off of records 20 years ago, which is half of its value now. Great for me I suppose. How much are taxes in Harris County? 3%? Also, when it comes to equity, you can only go off a bank appraisal, correct?
Depends on which school district you are in and which Municipal Utility District. The Harris Country taxes aren't really all that bad...but I get nailed on the Klein School District Taxes.
The HCAD appraisal has no bearing at all on what you can sell your house for. It is an arbitrary guess at what your house may be worth in a perfect world. As a note, I noticed that on the HCAD website they got my square footage incorrect as well as my value...so I guess that's just one more piece of proof I have to lower my value.
Oh, man, you're going to kill with that! When I went to my hearing, the panel had HCAD read off the description of my house and it was screwed up badly -- they said it was concrete slab when it is pier and beam, that it was brick facade when it is wood, and that I had a fireplace, which I don't. Made HCAD look like idiots and they basically didn't have anything to say to back their claim after that. Square footage is very important because it is essentially the basis on which the value your home. If you want to be fiendish about it, you can rely on the sale value for this year and not correct their mistake, and then use it against them the next time they try to raise the price on you. As for rates, the city will also use HCAD's valuation. Between the city, county, school district and utility district, I pay something like 4.5%.
Well, I just took a really good look at my appraisal done in June of last year. It lists the house at a value that I would be happy with as well as 5 comparables in the subdivision that support the evidence. It WAS done for the mortgage company, but it is a 3rd party appraisal with 5 comparables...so it shouldn't matter, right?
