Posted on 05/15/2015 6:49:23 PM PDT by WildHighlander57
Need info on how to successfully protest property tax increase.
I saw the article in the Dallas morning news last week about it; mentioned taking pictures and getting estimates of house fixups.
I had thought of doing that, and saying “in order to get x dollars that you say my house is worth, I have to spend y dollars, and since I haven’t, then it won’t sell for x dollars, so take the y dollars off the value you pegged it at”.
I have owned the house in town since 2012 and so far, haven’t seen any of the questions on the assessment sheet as being applicable to me...
such as “value is over the market value, value unequal compared to other properties, property should not be taxed in (location), failure to send required notice, exemption was denied, change in use appraised as agriculture land, ag-use denied, owner name wrong, property descriptiun wrong” etc.
Neither are the ones in the info sheet they send, such as “are you disabled for social security purposes, are you over 65, are you surviving spouse of owner over 65, are you disabled veteran, surviving spouse of disabled vet, etc”?
Many thanks, WildHighlander57
My property/school tax on 1600 SqFt 3BR brick on 20 AC is slowly creeping up to $1000.
I got mine rolled back to lowest in 7 years by finding a local property purchase made by a builder that was abnormally low.
you pay the lower of the appraised value or of a property comparable to you won.
My property taxes jumped up a lot last year. We recently received a notice of another increase. I went to the appraisers office and they explained the increase in building costs caused our value per square footage to increase.
I contacted my Realtor and asked her to run some comps (comparisons - homes that sold recently in my area). There were several similar homes nearby that held a lower square footage value. I took them to the appraiser and she lowered my tax bill.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3290385/posts?page=35#35
” If you are a disabled veteran with service connected disability your value for taxpurposes is zero. You will pay not taxes period”
Is this in Texas?
Yes, this is in Texas. I don’t know about other states. But it has to be SERVICE CONNECTED disability.
In Texas the city, county, school districts et al don’t set the value. It’s all done by the appraisal district. In Houston it’s the Harris County Appraisal District. www.hcad.org Your county probably has it online, too.
The value you’re trying to get lowered is the highest value listed. That should be the market value. You will try to show that your house won’t sell for that amount by comparing your house to prices that other houses in your area recently sold for.
” The kicker is this year... tax folks tacked on 10% of sellers 2012 asking price to the value.”
Only 10%? Consider yourself lucky.
We sold our house in Houston last year. The MV had gone from 290k(successfully challenged down to 260k) in 2011 to 360k in 2014. We sold for 380k. I looked at the 2015 MV on the county website and they had it at 460k. The new owners lost their challenge.
“You get a deduction from the Feds on the interest on your mortgage that initially just covers the property taxes “
?
You get deductions for both interest and property taxes.
You say that based on your review your house MV is similar to others in the neighborhood. If that is the case you have to show a reason it is worth less.
If you have a major repair then you can go to bat with that but as soon as you do the major repair your value will go back up.
Minor items won’t cut it. They won’t adjust unless you can show a major deviation. You haven’t mentioned any reason why your house should be valued less so far so I am guessing you will just have to pay the new MV.
what I meant by “city pegs...” was the value in the row across from ‘City’ in the assessment sheet.
The appraisal district in my county pegged the market value about $500 higher than the appraised value.
OK so my goal is to try to get market value lower than the taxable value that you mentioned in #36
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3290385/posts?page=36#36
but if house prices went up in my neighborhood, it may be tougher...
then again, my neighbor tried selling his house last year (had no success) for the amount they assessed him this year..
if I have one of his ad flyers and a screenshot of ‘not on market’ I might be able to add that to the bunch of pics I just took of my house...
I have pics from realtor ad from previous owner; I bought the house in 2012 & am putting them in a powerpoint presentation.
Plus I have pix of what needs fixing...
my point is going to be that there’s no change/upgrades from when I bought it and it needs fixing, so I would be lucky to get even the appraised value, much less the market value. (but then, the difference is $500)
regarding the value jumps in your post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3290385/posts?page=47#47
YEOW!!! that’s unreal! I guess I am lucky then...
I guess my point is, I didn’t do anything to make the house worth 20 grand more than last year; no upgrades/additional items, etc.
About the similar MV...
My house and the neighbor next to me are same size, and the others on the street are smaller.
Neighbor’s lot is slightly smaller but he has a small in-ground pool.
His value is pegged about 13k more than mine.
Re: major repairs vs minor repairs & why it should be valued less
I’m going on ‘can’t get the market value in this condition’:
there’s a roof leak,
hardwood floors are discolored,
bathroom window leaks,
fence facing street is rickety/rotting,
back door is beatup,
tree in front yard is 3/4 dead,
lawn went from grass to weeds,
3 doors go from fully open in winter to 1/3 closed in summer; foundation could have a problem in 1 spot
“I guess my point is, I didn’t do anything to make the house worth 20 grand more than last year; no upgrades/additional items, etc.”
I didn’t either. When the market goes up, your market value goes up and your taxes go up.
there’s a roof leak: Depends on the value. But you bette get it fixed.
Hardwood floors are discolored: They don’t appraise on interior floors.
bathroom window leaks: Normal repair
Fence facing street is rickety/rotting: Normal repair
back door is beatup: Normal Repair
tree in front yard is 3/4 dead: Not part of appraisal
lawn went from grass to weeds: Not part of appraisal
3 doors go from fully open in winter to 1/3 closed in summer: WTF?
foundation could have a problem in 1 spot: Get a repair estimate. If it affects the functionality of the house you can discount it but then you better get it fixed and then your value would go back up.
Bottom Line: Do your neighbors complain about your house?
Many thanks for the info on major vs minor repair.
What about what Jsanders mentioned about getting them to lower the value on account of needing repairs:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3290385/posts?page=11#11
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3290385/posts?page=32#32
What do the tax folks consider major?
Roof re-shingles and foundations only?
Adding pools?
I know I couldn’t get the market/assessed value (difference is only $500) for the place the way it is.
It was upgraded (paint, floors, tile, carpet, kitchen counters & cabinets) by the previous owner and then I bought it three years later & didn’t do any major upgrades like add decking, pool, etc...
“Roof re-shingles and foundations only?”
Normal degradation of shingles wouldn’t affect the appraised MV. Additionally, they usually won’t lower the MV unless you can show about 10% of the home value. They will deduct for a non-working AC but only if it is out on JAN 1, but your value will go back up the next time since
Adding pools? As you saw, your neighbor’s house with a pool was 13k more. Usually, the pool adds about 50% of the installation cost.
“It was upgraded (paint, floors, tile, carpet, kitchen counters & cabinets) by the previous owner” They don’t appraise based on these factors. It indirectly gets into the database since the price of your home (if they get the sales price) goes into their master database and increases their sq ft value for your type of home and neighborhood.
“two story homes will have comp rates slightly less than one story as one story is more desirable.”
They rate lower per sq ft because they are cheaper to build per sq ft.
“What taxable value do I use; there’s 3 different ones, depending on if its the city & college, county, or school district...”
Each has the same market value. You pay the tax on the tax value for each jurisdiction.
If you can get the county to lower your tax value, the others will come down automatically as they use the county appraised value.
I’ve never seen the market and taxable value that close. It’s usually quite a difference. That’s why it’s so hard to get them to lower it. If a house is at a market value of $200,000 and a taxable value at $180,000 even if they lowered the market value to $190,000 you’re still paying less in taxes than the market value shows. It’s a tough row to hoe.
My house is two story; neighbor with pool has one story. And my $/sq ft is a few dollars less than his.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3290385/posts?page=56#56
There’s a privacy rule about house sale prices, so I guess they gather info while the houses are listed...
Similar to us getting comps (I guess the realtors give ballpark figures?) and seeing if the tax was figured wrong...
Like Jsanders found they thought he had a pool.. but he didn’t...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3290385/posts?page=10#10
VSA,
I just got done checking the appraisal district web site for the houses on my street.
—All— of them, since at least 2011, have had the market value the same as the appraised value.
Only if there -are- exemptions applied is the taxable value less than the market & appraised values.
jsanders,
comments welcome; I always thought that market value was more than appraised value.
(and taxable value is appraised value less exemption amount)
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