2016 HCAD values are out (loans, home sales, purchase)

[Memorialite]

We recently had an appraisal done on our home in order to refinance. They used all comps from Oct-Dec 2015. They valued our house at $20k less than the tax appraisal (& also 150 sq ft smaller than the tax records). Is this effective evidence for a protest? Has anyone used an appraisal to lower their tax value?

[museumdad]

Originally Posted by kreeyax

Because there's always that chance they can RAISE your appraised value if you protest. Not worth the risk, IMO. I thought about protesting my square footage. HCAD has it around 3,440. According to my builder, I'm in a 3,395 sq. ft. house. However, the appraisal when I closed says 3,490. If I protested the square footage, and HCAD got ahold of that appraisal, couldn't they actually increase it from 3,440 to 3,490?

Yes, we once had an increase occur after a protest. We were able to get it down eventually, but that required litigation (which then meant that we needed to hire a company).

[trbstang]

Originally Posted by kreeyax

Because there's always that chance they can RAISE your appraised value if you protest. Not worth the risk, IMO. I thought about protesting my square footage. HCAD has it around 3,440. According to my builder, I'm in a 3,395 sq. ft. house. However, the appraisal when I closed says 3,490. If I protested the square footage, and HCAD got ahold of that appraisal, couldn't they actually increase it from 3,440 to 3,490?

That close of an amount, I would not bother about it. HCAD does not worry about 5% differences since they use outside measurements and that would include some extra area. But you could double check to make sure they have the correct floor plan for your house at the appraisal district office. I know when ours first came out it was at about 3,250 sqft, and I just figured it was close enough on a 3,000 sqft plan where we floored over the 2 story entry. But when I saw the floor plan had an extra room above our kitchen that did not exist, I figured out that was why they came up with the 250 extra sqft. I pulled their floor plans on record of the other houses in the neighborhood with the same plan, and they were all around 2,970 - 3,040 sqft without the phantom room over the kitchen, so they changed it to the average of all of the houses and dropped my value accordingly.

FWIW, the difference has to be larger than mine, like over 20%, for them to go back and adjust prior year values. But at least I got it corrected for the years going forward.

[MichelleL66]

15% increase on my property in West Houston.

[trbstang]

My boss that bought in Katy (Lakes at Grand Harbor) in December only had her appraisal raised up the the market value from 2015, which would be expected when a property is sold. She got lucky this year since she paid about 10% more.

[Hangster]

Originally Posted by kreeyax

Because there's always that chance they can RAISE your appraised value if you protest. Not worth the risk, IMO. I thought about protesting my square footage. HCAD has it around 3,440. According to my builder, I'm in a 3,395 sq. ft. house. However, the appraisal when I closed says 3,490. If I protested the square footage, and HCAD got ahold of that appraisal, couldn't they actually increase it from 3,440 to 3,490?

Texas is a non disclosure state. There is no way HCAD could get a hold of that appraisal unless you give it to them.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by Memorialite

We recently had an appraisal done on our home in order to refinance. They used all comps from Oct-Dec 2015. They valued our house at $20k less than the tax appraisal (& also 150 sq ft smaller than the tax records). Is this effective evidence for a protest? Has anyone used an appraisal to lower their tax value?

We tried that, and they said our appraisal didn't count because it was done by the bank doing our loan, and therefore was not objective. Something like that. Grrrrrrrrr.

[NTexas2010]

Originally Posted by txdemo

You are taxed on the appraised value which can only go up maximum of 10% per year. You can protest the appraisal and sometimes it will be cut down to a lower percentage. That said if your appraisal value goes up the maximum 10% every year then your taxes will double every 7 years.

Fair warning - the 10% cap is only after you have applied for a homestead exemption for the property, and that only takes effect the 2nd year of ownership. For that first year you own it, the 10% rule does not apply.

From the HCAD website, although the same is applicable regardless of county:

I bought my home during 2016 and it already had a homestead exemption on it. Will the cap apply to my 2016 value?No. The base year used to calculate a capped value is the first year in which you as the individual property owner qualify for a homestead exemption. Thus, although you may have benefited from the prior owner's homestead exemption and capped value, the property will be appraised at market value for the year in which you first qualify the property as your primary homestead. The cap takes effect in the second year you qualify for an exemption in your own name.

[NTexas2010]

Originally Posted by Hangster

Texas is a non disclosure state. There is no way HCAD could get a hold of that appraisal unless you give it to them.

Texas is a non-disclosure state, but that doesn't mean they can't find out what you paid for the house. They have realtors on their boards and access to information a la Redfin. While they cannot legally state "we know you paid "X" for this house, pay up", what they can do is over-appraise your home. Then, when you go to protest, they'll say "produce your HUD-1 from closing and we'll see what we can do."

Fort Bend CAD did this to us after we purchased a new build in 2013. It's a nice work around for the CAD.

[Hangster]

Originally Posted by NTexas2010

Texas is a non-disclosure state, but that doesn't mean they can't find out what you paid for the house. They have realtors on their boards and access to information a la Redfin. While they cannot legally state "we know you paid "X" for this house, pay up", what they can do is over-appraise your home. Then, when you go to protest, they'll say "produce your HUD-1 from closing and we'll see what we can do."

Fort Bend CAD did this to us after we purchased a new build in 2013. It's a nice work around for the CAD.

That is a possibility, but I am not sure how often that happens and if they have the resources to do that given the number of home sales that occur every year. Case in point, I have purchased 3 homes and on all of them, the initial appraised value from HCAD has always been considerably lower than what I have paid for them, as are the HCAD appraised values of the neighbors as well. Also, each time I protest, I was also able to get the appraised value lowered as well. It does help to have access to all the recent sales info to use as comps.