fighting prop. tax increase

This has come up before for TX. Do a search for Property tax.

 

Call the tax dept and ask them to send you the comps they used. These are the actual house sales in your neighborhood that they based your raise on.

Then you need to see how alike to your house they are, and get a friendly real estate agent to run a whole list of houses that sold in your neighborhood and do your own comparison. Hope this helps and yes, there was a thread about a month ago on this topic.

 

You can also go to the Dallas Central Appraisal District's website (www.dcad.org) and find comparison data for your neighborhood.

 

The real name of this state is Tax-Us! And I thought I was getting screwed in California; nothing like these thieves here! Anyway, the key is cost per square foot. The lazy appraisers count on apathy and the avoidance of conflict factors, as they do very little work other than what the computer models tell them. In most cases, they don't even drive by--too much work.

So, when you appeal and present to the committee, come in with three or four comps (no more) based on cost per square foot; its their only way to do a quick and dirty comparison in the 15 minutes they give you. Make sure you do apples-to-apples, i.e if you have a pool, view of water or a golf course, etc., as they will shoot you down real quick if you don't do an equal comparison. Good luck.

David

 

If your current valuation is less than the price you payed for the house, which is very common, then you may shoot yourself in the foot by bringing it to their attention by protesting. Many homes start out being valued less than the purchase price - DCAD can raise the rate up to 10% each year, no more than 30% over three years (if they decide not to raise your rates each year, they can do a one time catch up of up to the 30% at the end of 3 years).

I know of someone who put their house on the market and the valuation on DCAD was a lot less than the asking price. A prospective buyer took a copy of the listing to the tax office with questions about how the current valuation would apply to them if they purchased the home (would they also benefit by being undervalued.) Lo and behold, the homeowner received a revised tax bill that was reflective of their list price....and they hadn't sold it yet!

 

since you bought your home just last October, don't you have little room to challenge as you set the value of your home by the purchase price?
Unless the appraisal is higher than that.....

 

I tried to fight it one year. I had all my neighbor's appraisals in a spreadsheet and slice and diced the data to show I was paying more per square foot and on and on. I got blown out of the water when the appraiser said, “You just bought your house and determined the value by the purchase price”. Uh...oh yeah.
You have more a case after a while if you can show your house is appraised for more than similar homes. An FC lawyer might chime in with more insight into the property tax structure.

 

Unfortunately, you set the market value on your house by buying it. The taxing board can only increase it 10%/yr as mentioned above, but that doesn't apply during a sale. My house appraisal did the same when I bought it -- went up quite a bit over the prior valuation, but was still lower than my purchase price. Didn't give me a lot of room to fight it, and it sounds like you're in the same boat.

 

welcome to TX property ownership......

 

Still worth it.

 

don't know some times, I'm tired of paying a disproportionate share.