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Alright, first off thanks for all the info I've received from this forum in the past. I've lurked for years but finally registered to post my HCAD property tax protest situation.
We moved last year into an older ranch style home in memorial. The appraised and market value of the home on HCAD were way below true market value at the time we purchased. This was the case with almost every house on our street and most every other house we'd looked at in the area.
We just got our proposed value for 2013, and sure enough, HCAD adjusted it up a huge amount, almost to our purchase price. Of the other 10 or so houses on our street, we are now the second highest appraised value, only behind a huge new construction. To top it off, we are the smallest house on our street, about 25% smaller than the median. The difference is just astronomical. On a per square foot basis, we are a solid 60% above the median. And, the houses on our street range from decent to very nice.
Here's my problem: if you look at sales price comps over the last year, we don't have much of an argument. In fact, we still think we got a deal on our house. The best comp we have seen recently supposedly had 18 offers and went for 100k over asking price (according to a friend involved as a potential buyer). And it was listing for more than we paid on top of that. I'm sure some of you are thinking I have nothing to complain about (agreed), but please set that aside for the sake of this discussion.
I am assuming HCAD knows what I paid for the house based on what I've read. My question is, will I have any chance at success if my argument is that my house is $200-300k above what it should be based on every house on our block, even if the current appraised value is almost equal to what we paid? Or is this a sure loser argument? Of course, I won't tell them what we paid. I'm just assuming they know.
Anyone had any success in a similar situation? I am planning on protesting myself at this point. Thanks in advance for any advice.
No. HCAD could, and should, appraise your house for the agreed upon purchase price. Sounds like you are actually coming out ahead with an appraisal below your purchase price. Property tax annual increases are capped if I'm not mistaken, and the big adjustment comes with transfer of ownership. Sorry.
We have a similar situation on a recently purchased condo in Seattle. We just received the property tax bill, it is triple what the former owners paid before the sale. And so it goes.
Texas law provides for two ways to protest, sales price and unequal appraisal. Usually the unequal appraisal is better since it is comparing your home's appraisal value to what the comps appraisal values are in the HCAD system. So basically you are arguing that your home is over appraised by price per sqft compared to all of the comps, and you are entitled to an "equal appraisal". I argued this myself a couple of times and ended up getting it reduced. Their comps were not even in my neighborhood - crazy since there are about 6 homes EXACTLY like my floor plan, with only minor differences in the lot and garage size. Now the comps really need to be within 150-200 sqft or so of your home, as larger homes tend to have a lower price per sqft and they deem them as not being comparable. Also they adjust for pools, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc sometimes to find comps if there are not a lot of good ones for your home. But one thing to consider for older neighborhoods is some homes have adjustments for damaged slabs, etc that will bring down a value.
As far as I know, HCAD does not know exactly what you paid for the house, unless you tell them on the "survey" form they send out. Texas is a non disclosure state where they don't have access to real estate sales records, unless that has changed. I tell people to trash that form, they don't have to reply.
I would look through HCAD in your neighborhood and find at least 4 or 5 homes that are close to yours in sqft, BR, BA, lot size, etc and see what their appraisal per sqft is and see how yours compares. It sure sounds like you can protest and I certainly would. You just need to decide if you want to do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. We've used a service, not the big O'Connor one, and they have kept our value right about the same for the past 5 years.
Property taxes are capped for current owners as I understand it, but the cap is up to 10% per year. The other houses on my street increased between 0.5%-2.5% this year. Every house on my street would need to be increased by the maximum 10% per year for roughly the next 5 years to be at the price per square foot that I'm at now (assuming no further increases for me). I don't know how they can say my neighbors are close to market value in that case, or that they're making any attempts to get them there.
trbstang, exactly what i was looking for. I apppreciate your response. I saw the check box for "unequal appraisal" and while it seemed to apply to my argument, i was wondering whether that argument was somehow "overruled" by a market value argument for a recently sold property. This gives me some hope. I'm going to adjust my comp search accordingly. Many thanks
Be happy you got away with it for a few years. There are tons of houses in Houston that hcad has not caught up with. Mainly, the richer neighborhoods like River Oaks and Memorial. I have no sympathy for you. I had a buddy who fought hcad once. They adjusted his house higher.
HCAD knows exactly the purchase price, this is public information. The realtor lobby has been successful in keeping this information from being aggregated and published online (in TX) by vendors such as Zillow, etc. but I can personally walk into the courthouse and see exactly what you paid for your home given an address. It is hard to argue that your home is worth less than what you paid when the sales price IS exactly the market value. After all, YOU paid it.
We protested our taxes when our next door neighbors sold their home for significantly less than our home was appraised for, the homes are very similar. DH is an attorney and went himself. They knocked $2K off the appraisal. DH said it absolutely wasn't worth his time.
Be happy you got away with it for a few years. There are tons of houses in Houston that hcad has not caught up with. Mainly, the richer neighborhoods like River Oaks and Memorial. I have no sympathy for you. I had a buddy who fought hcad once. They adjusted his house higher.
Hey Michael Schumacher, what did I get away with and where did I ask for your sympathy? Bought the house last year as explained above. Even went out of my way to research what HCAD could do and got inconsistent answers. I even spoke to a few real estate buddies who said there is no consistency with how HCAD approaches. I just pulled comps in our neighborhood going back about 18 months and compared to how HCAD treated the appraised values in the year following sale. Very inconsistent treatment. Several examples of adjustments that lagged sale price by up to 100k, and one example of 160k under sale price.
One other neat thing I noticed. HCAD marked my house and several other recent sales as "remodeled" in 2011. No evidence at all that supports this (in my house or the comps that I looked at myself). It is simply not true in my situation. My best guess is that someone at HCAD saw the pics on HAR and thought, this place looks nice, probably remodeled last year, let's put 2011 remodel. That is just criminal.
Maybe I'm in the minority of people here, but this is real money and I don't think our government should arbitrarily be making these determinations. We are being overtaxed as it is. It really is just disgusting. From the animals in Washington on down.
Any other examples of people succeeding by arguing the unequal appraisal issue would be greatly appreciated. I will be arguing this purely out of principle. Don't think there is much downside risk given my situation. Thanks again
HCAD knows exactly the purchase price, this is public information. The realtor lobby has been successful in keeping this information from being aggregated and published online (in TX) by vendors such as Zillow, etc. but I can personally walk into the courthouse and see exactly what you paid for your home given an address. It is hard to argue that your home is worth less than what you paid when the sales price IS exactly the market value. After all, YOU paid it.
We protested our taxes when our next door neighbors sold their home for significantly less than our home was appraised for, the homes are very similar. DH is an attorney and went himself. They knocked $2K off the appraisal. DH said it absolutely wasn't worth his time.
Good luck.
Actually, one site (Homesnap) has been publishing price history in TX... I think this is a fairly recent development, they get around it because they are also a realty company.
Hey brothers. Long time lurker, first time poster here. I seen HCAD came out with their values on some of the properties yesterday and people are mightily upset, and with good reason. I will address the topics from Schumacher, Turbo Stang, et. al.
I'd like to start out with a look at mikey schumacher's (AKA the class warrior) statement:
"There are tons of houses in Houston that hcad has not caught up with. Mainly, the richer neighborhoods like River Oaks and Memorial. I have no sympathy for you."
---Mike really jumps head first into the class war right here. A perfect example of how HCAD/Obama Followers think. Occupy Bro!!! Eat the rich!!!-------
1. Zillow and similar sites are garbage. Way off on every home in my neighborhood. The prices given for Zillow in 024, 063, 056, and 057 are not even in the same pecuniary realm as real world prices so to speak. Even on newly traded homes.
1.5 Purchase price isn't public information. The amount of debt you put on the property is. Only way the animals down at HCAD find out is if you are a dumb enough SOB to fill out that form. Treat them like mushrooms. Feed them shi* and keep them in the dark. They are here to F you.
2. I have had some experience protesting down at HCAD. Here are my thoughts. You initially meet with some bureaucrat that probably thinks you should be taxed more. They see the relatively high value of your home and think "What is a few thousand more bucks to this guy"? They could give two shi$$. Next up is Cyprus style confiscation. *See Mikey Schumacher's post above** HCAD's behavior, as the OP pointed out, is borderline criminal. I think HCAD has decided to raise everyone in desirable neighborhoods the 10% max and stonewall them on the appeals. Total trash.
3. This brings me to another problem in this fine city. Water bills. Another criminal enterprise....and they are going up 9% next month!!! I don't have a pool (no splish, no splash), but I know people that do. I basically pay 3k a year to spray water into the dirt and take some baths. There is no rhyme or reason to the water bills. I don't water some one month and my bill is higher than when I water a bunch. I've even made a data log. They are making this crap up. Another way to stick it to the man. Another tax.
4. And now the penultimate point in my diatribe of an appraisal nature. I think there is an effort by the government (at all levels, be it federal, state or local) to keep sticking it to people. Increase income taxes, increase property taxes, increase water bill, increase, increase, sales tax, obamacare tax, blah blah. When it comes down to it, you pay damn near 50-55 cents of every dollar you make to some sort of tax. Paying for the illegal, i mean undocumented workers, to come over here and get in DWIs, spit out kids, etc... Damn shame what has happened to this fair state. I soon as you stopped hearing mam and sir, the rest was soon to follow. This isn't Scandinavia. That usurper in the whitehouse would like to take 80% so his family could take some more vacations....you got a true "rags to riches on the backs of the american taxpayer" story there..but that is for another post.
5. Final point to OP - HCAD has you by the short n' curly. They don't care about you. They probably wish you paid more tax. They view you as the enemy.
Last edited by HCAD_ANIMALS; 03-27-2013 at 08:00 AM..
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