I'm protesting HCAD's Value of my home

[musicman]

Not at all, they can share, they all sit at a square table in a small conference room.

Bring a jacket, it is usually cold!

I just found where i need to bring an original and four copies. 2 yrs ago when i went i only brought three copies and they were pissed.

[mpbro]

Yeah. It has some issues. It appears that it is missing Shepherd Forest Section 1.

Its also kinda funny to advertise RE values as real time. The RE market moves pretty slow (compared to say equities trading), information once a day should be more than plenty.

For tax protest, current market value isn't so important. Sure, HCAD will try to inflate everyone's assessed value as market values move up. You basically have to justify that your assessed value, relative to those in your subdivision, are overvalued. Actually, I've seen that voxproperty site before and it's got some nice features (but a bit hard to find).

They have a funny property tax "primer" which seems to make sense. They also have a decent comparison tool, which is probably exactly what you'd want for an HCAD protest (Example).

Glad to see some interesting discussion of tax protest. I meant to do it this year but missed the deadline.

[Sleepy Owl]

Not at all, they can share, they all sit at a square table in a small conference room.

Bring a jacket, it is usually cold!

The 5 copies are only needed if you can't work it out with the appraiser in the "informal" meeting, which is just you and the appraiser. If it's not too much trouble I would make the 5 copies, just so they can't get you on a technicality.

[musicman]

The 5 copies are only needed if you can't work it out with the appraiser in the "informal" meeting, which is just you and the appraiser. If it's not too much trouble I would make the 5 copies, just so they can't get you on a technicality.

i ended up making the copies. BTW i won my protest. this was the easiest i've EVER had it. Normally i have to go before the board. I will say that this appraiser did look up all my data to confirm them.

[mpbro]

BTW i won my protest. this was the easiest i've EVER had it. Normally i have to go before the board.

When you say you won, how much were you able to reduce your assessed value? Congrats!

[musicman]

When you say you won, how much were you able to reduce your assessed value? Congrats!

They wanted to raise it 10% but i kept it to less than 2%. i basically used home sales in the past 9 months and calculated the price/sq ft. then used this multiplied by the sq ft of my home. luckily the numbers were on myside. I ended up getting 61.81/sq ft. my surrounding neighbors are 83/116/88/67/70 per sq ft so I was happy

[rippedoff]

2 sites to help you. The second site is a must see.

www.cutmytaxes.com

http://www.hcadtea.org/About_us.htm

[jm1fd]

2 sites to help you. The second site is a must see.

http://www.hcadtea.org/About_us.htm

Good garden seed. That site should be nomiated for the worst of the web, it hurts my eyes!

[rippedoff]

Good garden seed. That site should be nomiated for the worst of the web, it hurts my eyes!

Good garden seed maybe but the site is somewhat more subdued then it was. Obviously it caught your attention and I guess that is the purpose. The fact is it has some incredible info on it.

[mpbro]

They wanted to raise it 10% but i kept it to less than 2%. i basically used home sales in the past 9 months and calculated the price/sq ft.

Excellent! That's got to feel good. It's interesting that they responded to local sales data. I always thought all they cared about was other 2006 assessed values. Or did you just get your PSF value from the sales and not tell HCAD your source?

My house is on a larger-than-average lot, so I would get screwed by your approach. I'll probably just find local comparable structures and try to argue that the structure, which hasn't been remodeled (with a permit, that is ;-), is valued more richly than my neighbors. It's interesting, but quite a few neighbors have structure values of $0, although they've happily been living in the house for ages. I think they get some documentation saying the structure has intractable foundation/termite/whatever problems.

Thanks again for sharing...

[musicman]

Excellent! That's got to feel good. It's interesting that they responded to local sales data. I always thought all they cared about was other 2006 assessed values. Or did you just get your PSF value from the sales and not tell HCAD your source?

My house is on a larger-than-average lot, so I would get screwed by your approach. I'll probably just find local comparable structures and try to argue that the structure, which hasn't been remodeled (with a permit, that is ;-), is valued more richly than my neighbors. It's interesting, but quite a few neighbors have structure values of $0, although they've happily been living in the house for ages. I think they get some documentation saying the structure has intractable foundation/termite/whatever problems.

Thanks again for sharing...

no i had supporting data from mls. the guy even looked up three properties to see whether i made up data. the larger than average lot didn't affect the way i did it. because all i compared was price per sq ft of structure (no property size data). out of the 7 i compared it to, all but 1 have garages but theirs are 1 car while mine is 2.5, with the .5 being a large laundry area.

if you have any cracks in sheetrock...take some zoomed in pics to make crack look large. if any flaws outside, do the same. pics of ANY flaws zoomed in make them look worse.

i think you're method will work as well if you're neighbors are comparable to yours yet priced less. you can say that yours is overvalued.

[jm1fd]

Good garden seed maybe but the site is somewhat more subdued then it was. Obviously it caught your attention and I guess that is the purpose. The fact is it has some incredible info on it.

The awful-ness caught my attention, not the content...I didn't suffer through the layout horror long enough to suffer through the content.

[rippedoff]

The awful-ness caught my attention, not the content...I didn't suffer through the layout horror long enough to suffer through the content.

Too bad. I happened to be at a meeting on how to protest your taxes when the site was brought up by some in attendance. There were well over 100 people and the site was quite the talk.

If others can take something from it and it helps them great. If not, or one does not like the "awful-ness" well that's what makes the little on, off button so great.

[karlpopper]

My property taxes, like most of yours - I'm sure, have skyrocketed. In the past 5 years my tax value has increased 61%. This is suppose to be based on market value. I wish my market value was up 61%, but since I had my house on the market 2 years ago, I can assure that it not near what HCAD says it is.

I'm scheduled for a hearing on June 15. I need to get all my ducks in a row. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

When I requested the protest hearing, the reason I gave was that my Kitchen is not updated. My meaning is that I do not have new cabinets or granite countertops or pricey appliances. The last time my kitchen had a remodel job was 1970. This was a big draw back when trying to sell the house. Don't get me wrong, my kitchen is not "ugly" it's just not new like a lot of kitchens around me are.

I also noticed that my appraisal shows I have 4 bedrooms. I only have 3. I'm not sure where they got their information. I wonder if they are counting what use to be a bedroom, that now is the bathroom attached to the master bedroom.

I have a converted attic space which they show as approx 750 sq ft living space. Another argument I want to bring up is that attic space is not 100% living space. The ceilings are very slanted and there is only a hall wide (ok- wide hall wide) size walk way down the middle of the space where you can stand up. There are two very small bedrooms (no more than 10 x 10) a bathroom and this small space in the middle (no bigger than the bedrooms) that we call the game room. Trust me no room to play games. This was another draw back when trying to sell the house is that the upstairs is too small.

I have been doing comparions on other houses in the 3 block radius of my house and I think I am way over valued. What else do I need to be looking at or thinking about?

Thanks, Martha

Hi Martha,

read the last FAQ question/answer one the web page below. this is one of the few sites that allow the average homeowner to get direct access to the "AVM" for their home. This is the method that most banks use.

http://www.realdata.net/realdata/asp/FaqQuest.asp?Quest=8

[mpbro]

I'm curious: has anyone used RDI's AVM (Automatic Valuation Model)? At $10, it's pretty cheap. I imagine it is quite good.

HCAD uses an AVM as well, which explains why an appraiser never (rarely?) visits your house. I have no doubt that a professional appraiser can do a better job, but doesn't it seem just a little funny that at sale time, houses always appraise for...oh, 1% more than the sale price?