Is My Property REALLY Valued At That??

It's that time again! The County Appraisal Districts are sending homeowners their Notice of Appraised Value For Property Tax Purposes. This is the notice which discloses the appraised value which the County Appraisal District has assigned to your property. The assigned market value, from the County Appraisal District, is then used to calculate the total amount you as a homeowner will owe in property taxes for that tax year. You may disagree with the assigned value and if so, there is something you can do about that.

If you don't believe that the County Appraisal District's assigned market value is accurate, you can file a protest. Most County Appraisal Districts will allow you to request your Protest via mail or on their website (ie. Harris County Appraisal District can be found online at www.hcad.org/ifile ). Check for the deadline to file a protest (ie. for Harris County it is May 17th). You will be asked to provide support to back your reason for the protest. If you have documentation that comparable properties around you have recently sold for lower, that information could be helpful. I have helped many of my clients in providing them with recent Sold Properties data and other supporting evidence. We also consider and discuss any other outside factors which could be contributing factors to a lower appraisal value for your property (ie. low performing schools, impeding construction, flooding nearby). If you recently purchased the home or refinanced, you can use your appraisal report from the purchase/refinance to support your protest, if value assigned is higher than the appraisal report value. So don't feel you must always accept and agree to the value which you receive in the mail from the County Appraisal District. Protest your tax value. I can help you through the process! It doesn't cost you anything but a little time and effort. Hey, if it would mean you could save money on your property taxes, I say it's worth a shot.