Tax increase driven by sale transaction

[Anderson Bigate Nogueira]

Hello BiggerPockets members ! would love to hear your experience on similar scenarios. I'm preparing an offer on a multifamily and I am expecting a big jump in taxes and want to factor this in my numbers. This is in Texas (non-disclosure state):

price: U$ 720,000 - No exemptions - published at MLS

2020 taxes: U$ 6,104 | 2020 assessed value: 256,677 | 2020 tax rate: 2.392%

2019 taxes: U$ 6,174 | 2019 assessed value: U$ 257,625 | 2019 Tax rate: 2.396%

QUESTION: If this house is bought hypothetically at U$ 720,000, would that possibly trigger a re-assessment by the county, then applying a tax rate (let’s assume stays around 2,39%) against the sold price U$ 720,000 turning taxes into U$ 17,208 (increasing from U$ 6,104 paid in 2020) how likely is this scenario ?

[Bruce Lynn]

Yes....and as far as I know in Texas the Assessor does not disclose how they create values...but they do have access to the MLS....so chances are you will get a jump in taxes.

If you do...one way to fight the taxes is unequal assessment.....so if there are other 4plex in the area with lower values, you may be able to keep or reduce the values back to near where their tax values are.