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[sherri]

Have you ever fought your property tax apprasial and won? If you did did you do it yourself or use one of those companies? Any useful advice?

[jmdaniel]

1. Don't use any services. They are simply doing something you can easily do yourself. Keep the money in your pocket.
2. Find a friendly realtor, and get comps of recent sales in your area.
3. If this info looks like you have been overappraised, set up an appointment. Make it early in the day, before the person you will be talking to has already heard a ton of stories.
4. Make sure that what you hope to gain is worth your time.
5. Be nice. I hate the blood sucking vultures more than anyone, but hide the disdain.

And here is more info....

http://www.texas-property-taxes.com/protest.html

Good luck!

[JustinVTX]

The companies will want a fee or a percentage of the savings for their time.  We represented ouselves, and in less than 20 minutes with no arguments or edivence needed, our apprasial amount was dropped over 20K.  It is well worth the hassle for the end result.

[Gumbo]

1. Don't use any services. They are simply doing something you can easily do yourself. Keep the money in your pocket.
2. Find a friendly realtor, and get comps of recent sales in your area.
3. If this info looks like you have been overappraised, set up an appointment. Make it early in the day, before the person you will be talking to has already heard a ton of stories.
4. Make sure that what you hope to gain is worth your time.
5. Be nice. I hate the blood sucking vultures more than anyone, but hide the disdain.

And here is more info....

http://www.texas-property-taxes.com/protest.html

Good luck!

Good advice, this is exactly what we did, checked the prices of house selling in our area and went from there, worked well for us, good luck 

[matap]

Never have.  Ours has gone down for the third year in a row.  tax wise, I'm not complaining, but value wise, what the hell.  Anyways I don't plan on moving out anytime soon, sooo, probably not a big deal now. 

What I do know and agree with the rest is that your better off just fighting yourself instead of using some service.

[larry_357]

  We went and fought ours ourself and they were not raised.Also we fought the city of Alvin trying to annex us a few years ago and they have not bothered us since.

[RocknRoll]

We have done it both ways.  We have always been successful.  At the end to the process, we agreed that our time had value and when compared to the small cost of hiring it done, we decided to use a service to do all the work.  Only costs a small percentage of the savings.  No savings, no bill.  Both ways resulted in about the same percentage reduction.  Don't expect tens of thousands of dollars reduction no matter how you do it.  It happens, but it is rare. 

We use Chris Frank of Frank & Associates in Katy.  His phone is 281-829-6800.  Small operation and often remembers your name year after year.  Several of my friends had recommended him to us.  His charge is 10% of any reduction.

If you don't have anything else to do, do it yourself.  It is fun and success is very satisfying.  However, if you work and can't take off anytime you want for however long you want, well, that is the boat we are in.

Ride long and prosper!!

[Niterider]

I tried to answer your question, but my dumba$$ computer decided to close the page somewhere in the middle of my response.  So, let me try again.

You can file a protest online yourself, and that is what I would recommend.  It is highly unlikely that you will be asked for any more information or to appear in person before the appraisal board.  You will need to provide some sort of reason as to why the appraisal on your property is too high.  One approach that is very effective is to show that other homes with comparable floor space and ammenties in your neighborhood have been selling for less or that such homes have appraised at a lower value.  I have used the latter approach successfully on two different ocassions.

Home appraisal values are a matter of public record, and you can look them up for all the homes in your neighborhood at www.hcad.org.  If you mouse over the Record Search link near the top of the page, you will get a drop-down menu.  Select Real Advanced Search.  In the  "Select Criteria" column of the table that will appear, fill in the Property Street Name, Beginning Property Street Number and Ending Property Street Number cells.  Scroll down and hit the Search button that you will find near the bottom of the page.  That will bring up the appraised values for all the properties within the address range that you have provided.  You can then do another search for addresses on a neighboring street, etc.

It should only take a few minutes to do all this.

Good luck.

Mike

[jmdaniel]

hen all I have to do is finish the remodel, sell it, move to the Hill Country and live happily ever after.

Well, it's good that you'll have experience with ridiculous appraisals. You'll need it here.

[larry_357]

  How did Austin get so fcked up it is getting to be like Calif. in the way most of them think 

[jmdaniel]

  How did Austin get so fcked up it is getting to be like Calif. in the way most of them think 

Where do you think the CA transplants to Texas moved to?

[beaux43]

   Hence, the "Keep Austin Weird!" 

CA sell their homes for a half million and move to Austin; and, get the same home for 275,000 -300.

[hipshot]

 "you can look them up for all the homes in your neighborhood at www.hcad.org."

Good advice, Mike, except that Sherri will have to go to mcad rather than hcad. 

[Dusty]

As usual, Hardin County's site doesn't work by address or name. ggrrrrrrrrr

[hipshot]

As usual, Hardin County's site doesn't work by address or name. ggrrrrrrrrr

http://www.co.hardin.tx.us/ips/cms/countyoffices/taxAssessorCollector.html