Protesting Your Property Taxes

Apr. 13. 2017

Hello Austin area residents/home owners!

Earlier this week I sent out an email to all my past clients about disputing their property taxes.I decided to go ahead and post the same note on the blog, given that, it’s some really helpful information.

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Option 1:

Log onto our website and if you don’t have an account, create one. From there, try to search your neighborhood by name or better, draw a polygon on the map of your area and homes similar to yours. If you have already verified your email on our site you should be able to see accurate SOLD pricing. If not, click the link next to the sold box on the status tab to “unlock sold pricing.”

From there, you will hopefully gain enough evidence that when you are arguing your value you can write in the box your counter offer and explain why. (ie other similar homes sold for $__ and are much newer/larger/in better condition etc) If your home has any sort of defects the county says those are big items they take into account, so compare it to others.

As an FYI–they ask you to submit evidence after you hit submit on the counter, however I have discovered they will counter back your offer before you have submitted any evidence, so do not feel the need to do that as soon as you submit your counter.

Option 2:

If your appraised value went up, you might consider hiring a professional like Texas ProtaxFive Stone Tax or O’Connor Associates to help you protest your taxes. They only charge a percentage of the money you save and are experts at dealing with the County Tax Assessors.

{My friend works for Five Stone Tax and she did say if they don’t end up saving you money, it will cost you nothing (so you have nothing to lose by giving this a shot)!}

Option 3:

If you would prefer to protest your taxes on your own, you can use our Home Valuation Tool to get a rough estimate of your home’s current market value using this tool as well and recent nearby sales.  

Reach out if you would like help finding recent sales to support your tax protest hearing. Don’t delay, as the deadline to file your tax protest electronically is May 24th, and May 31st if filing by paper.

**Also,if you purchased last year and taxes are above what you actually paid–you can show your closing statement to get the assessed value down to purchase price, however, remember– Tx is a non-disclosure state so you do NOT have to show what you paid for your home**

And if this is your primary residence, don’t forget to file your homestead exemption!

Hope you found this little post helpful and best of luck!

 

Ashley Brinkman

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