Property Tax Appraisals (Austin: sales, condo, how much)

[asubram3]

We just got our home value Appraisal from Travis County, and am shocked at how much the appraised value increased compared to last year. Of course, the assessed value is capped to a 10% increase over last year by our Homestead exemption, but still the increase is a lot.

Is it just us, or did most people get large increases this year? Any options on protesting this increase? Do people protest on their own, or through a separate company such Five Stone?

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by asubram3

We just got our home value Appraisal from Travis County, and am shocked at how much the appraised value increased compared to last year. Of course, the assessed value is capped to a 10% increase over last year by our Homestead exemption, but still the increase is a lot.

Is it just us, or did most people get large increases this year? Any options on protesting this increase? Do people protest on their own, or through a separate company such Five Stone?

It's my 1st year in Austin (or TX even) and we are using Five Stone. Will report back on how it goes.

[CarnivalGal]

I have successfully protested my taxes on my own every year for the past 15 years, with the exception of last year, since Travis County didn't change assessed values from the year before.

No way will I be able to argue that my house is overvalued this year. Ours went up substantially, but it's still far less than market value. Usually I can dig up a few comps to make my case. No way I can do that this year. Every comp would just prove it's actually undervalued.

[austinnerd]

Yikes, just looked, and holy cow, that was a massive increase. Did the first several protests myself, but later switched to a company. It's not a massive amount of time to do it yourself, but it's enough that the cost/benefit swung in that direction.

[10scoachrick]

Good luck with your protests. A condo like ours just sold for $150K(~50%) over the appraisal value of our unit.
That's nothing compared to some of the sales prices of SFH in various parts of the metro.

[whereiend]

Ours went up by 30%

[riaelise]

Not wasting my time. What coukd I bring as documentation? Not much. When our home was appraised it aligned with Wilco’s valuation.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Not wasting my time. What coukd I bring as documentation? Not much. When our home was appraised it aligned with Wilco’s valuation.

the one thing that I have heard works is pictures of the condition. If the condition code of your house is higher than the current condition then that is a reasonable way to get a reduction.

Actual sold prices of related homes can help, but they need to be similar size. I had a neighbor house that was larger and valued at less. They refused to use it as a comp because it was larger.

I was like how can my smaller house be more than a larger house?

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Austin97

the one thing that I have heard works is pictures of the condition. If the condition code of your house is higher than the current condition then that is a reasonable way to get a reduction.

Actual sold prices of related homes can help, but they need to be similar size. I had a neighbor house that was larger and valued at less. They refused to use it as a comp because it was larger.

I was like how can my smaller house be more than a larger house?

There is no rhyme or reason to their initial decision during a protest. I went through a process some 12 years ago or so that felt like something out of 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' or something. The logical dysfunction was amazing! I think they were basically playing a game of chicken to see if you would force the issue to a hearing and they were trying to find out how little they could give before they you would escalate it.

But that was back in the last big recession when values were actually going down a bit. It is going to be very hard to get comps that help in any way, shape, or form this time around.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by austinnerd

Yikes, just looked, and holy cow, that was a massive increase. Did the first several protests myself, but later switched to a company. It's not a massive amount of time to do it yourself, but it's enough that the cost/benefit swung in that direction.

I hired a company one year, and they got it lowered by about $1,000. Every year I did it myself, I got it lowered by $10K+. It was a time investment, but it paid off.

Curious to see how TCAD is handling protests this year. Two years ago, they changed it so that everyone protesting had to go in person to argue their case in front of a panel. I'm sure that has nothing to do with them hoping less people would protest because they didn't want to or couldn't do that in the middle of a work day, but I digress. Wondering if COVID will prevent them from doing that this year.