Has anyone ever done this and been successful? I just got a huge increase on one of my properties in Missouri City, even though it's not in a booming area and I haven't made any upgrades to the property. They are on that BS.
My dad did this 2 weeks ago, he got the value of our house dropped around 20K...I will ask him for the details. I know that he went to the courthouse on a Saturday morning.
A good friend of mine protests every year and wins every year. But it requires you to do some homework and spend time farting around, which I never feel like bothering with. But another friend told me they also protest every year but they use a service to represent him and then they take a cut of whatever the savings are. I'm down with that. Since I probably won't ever bother to protest myself, letting them take a cut is better than what I would have received anyway.
Does anyone know if there is a law on the books the forbids you from selling your house X amount of months/years after you buy it? Or if there is a penalty you pay if you do? Someone tried to tell me this but I was pretty sure if there was it wasnt the 2 year wait they proclaimed. They claimed it was to deter people from flipping houses for profit. I could see 6 months but not 2 years. Anyone know anything about this?
Always protest. My info is a little old now, but it was the case that half the protesters in Harris County got a reduction in the taxable value. Use a service if you don't want to mess with it yourself. It isn't just about this year's taxes -- the increase this year will affect every subsequent year you own that property. As for restrictions on selling, a person might have prepayment penalties with the bank or perhaps a deed restriction issue. There is also the general wisdom that you need to own a house for several years to offset the large closing costs.
This is called seasoning. If the seller hasn't owned the property for a certain amount of time, the BUYER's loan might not get approved. There is no penalty to the seller (other than the prepayment that is rarely on a residential loan). The amount of time is usually 6 months.
If you haven't lived in a house for two years, then you'll need to pay capital gains tax assuming you made a profit.
I protested my property taxes earlier this year and got the valuation reduced significantly. Of course, since I only bought the place last summer, the main piece of evidence in my favor was my sales contract, and the County reduced my valuation to the price I paid last summer.
Always protest...Why pay more when you don't have too...Especially since property taxes for individuals are about to go down due to the Franchise Tax on business...Set you're benchmark as low as possible...
It's the same as stocks. If you don't hold on to a house for 12 months, you have to pay short-term capital gains tax on the profit, rather than the much lower long-term capital gains tax. If it is your primary residence, you are exempt up to $250K profit. Some discussion here: http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/Tax_Center/Investor_Guide/Beginner's_Guide/Articles/article/100463/Capital_Gains_Planning
