Texas Property Tax Protest Success

[Jason C.]

Hey there!

Is anyone in Texas having much luck with their property tax protests? If so, who do you use or do you handle the protest yourself?

When I say "much luck" I'll give a couple of examples of what I saw last year. I used a firm out of Houston that works in all TX counties. I am getting less than 1% reduction on my properties after protesting, and it seems like I should be getting better results.

Example 1-Bexar County, TX Appraised at 104,870, final value $104,000.

Example 2-Travis County, TX Appraised at $171,031, no reduction

Example 3-Bell County, TX Appraised at $92,635, final value $91,051

Example 4-Coryell County, TX Appraised at $48,850, final value $47,482

In most cases, I get a reduction but it's in the neighborhood of 1K so I'm saving like $20 and then I pay a fee for the protest work, so net I'm saving about $10-12. On some properties, I get nothing.

Anybody getting significantly better results?

Thanks!

[Bruce Lynn]

Pictures speak a thousand words.

Pull what the appraisal district calls the RUN sheet on your properties.  Figure out what all the little codes are.

Make sure they have the right information attached to your property if that favors you.  I've seen 1/2 baths counted as full...wrong sizes, wrong bedrooms, etc.

Then ask for their comps.....investigate those....make sure they are good comps.

A couple of years ago I got $40,000 or so off a $100,000 property because the appraisal district was ridiculous.

They were using brick homes with garages vs my home that had no garage and was siding.

They also had 3-4 year old pictures  that were beautiful and I had mine that showed not so nice.

I also chastised them for using a google street view image, when they had not purchased commercial use license.

Appraisal district was furious, but I think they don't fight fair....so I took up the challenge.

I felt like review board was fair and maybe embarrassed by the tactics of the appraisal district rep.