Williamson Central Appraisal District Requests Detailed sales information (real estate, how much)

[austin_or_sd]

I received a letter from Williamson Central Appraisal District regarding the new house I purchased a few months ago. They request very detailed sales information. Should I volunteer the information? What's the benefit for giving the information to them?

[austin-steve]

Unless the current appraised value of the home is more than what you paid, and you want the value lowered to the purchase price, there is no upside to returning the form. They will use it to establish a higher value for your home, and thus your neighborhood, which will result in a higher tax bill for you and your neighbors.

Throw it away.
Steve

[austin_or_sd]

Thanks, Steve, for your input. I thought it was strange for them to request the info from me.

[bobbatoo]

Steve, how does one go about contesting an assessment on a newly built home? If the assessment is say less than the purchase price, but more than the assessment on equivalent homes built by the same builder about year earlier in the same development, does one stand a chance for a reduction strictly relying on the comparable homes?

[Trainwreck20]

No, probably not. If you show them your purchase price, I suppose they could even raise your assessment. In the end, a year earlier is a whole different assessment period and the assessments are supposed to take into account inflation/appreciation/anything that affects market values. In the end, they will probably eventaully raise the older homes assessed values, in part due to homes that were sold later.

As a caveat, if you spent money that is, for whatever reason, not reflected in market value, then you might have a case. E.g, you paid a 20% permium to convince someone who was not even thinking about selling that they should sell to you and move.

[austifornian]

It can be done but it is not always a straightforward process. There are companies that specialize this and they usually send out mailers this time of year. The process involves getting your house appraised by a certified appraiser and making your case at the county tax office.

The appraisal process does involve comparable homes but comps are based on sales price not assessed value. The problem with using the counties data as 'comps' is that you have no idea where these properties sit in the appraisal cycle, when they were last assessed, and what kind of exemptions they carry. It might not mean that they are assessed at a lower value than your property but are due for re-assessment to bring them in line with the actual current market values. Sometimes properties may go for 2-3 years between appraisals.

[HappyTexan]

Your assessment letter tells you what to do if you want to contest the assessment and they give a date by which to do it.

I did it with my home (Travis county). I protested and got an appointment with the appraiser. I brought my closing papers from the house and appraisal papers from when I purchased the land and we sat down and discussed it. It went rather well as they lowered my taxes that year

I was very happy with the process.

[austin_or_sd]

Originally Posted by austifornian

It can be done but it is not always a straightforward process. There are companies that specialize this and they usually send out mailers this time of year. The process involves getting your house appraised by a certified appraiser and making your case at the county tax office.

Who are these companies who can help you contest the apprail to lower your tax bill? How much do they charge?

[austifornian]

Real estate attorneys. Do a google on travis county property tax protest and you should come up with a lot of information. As far as the cost/benefit of utilizing such a service you would have to get a fairly major reduction to break even. Here is a good page that describes the process: http://www.poconnor.com/travis_count...l_district.asp