Property Tax Question - Is an appraisal a "slam dunk" when protesting? (Dallas: comparable sales, sales)

[riaelise]

We're in the midst of protesting our Williamson County appraised value. Last year, the local market was flat and sales reflected that. Our home was appraised by a third party (for a refinance) for $80k less than the WCAD appraised value. We protested and WILCO sent us an automated settlement offer that was basically 20,000 less. We rejected that offer and now our protest will go before the ARB. My question is - is a third party appraisal solid evidence to get WCAD to lower the value further? We are seeking a 70k reduction in value. We also sent them 12 months of comps showing the actual sales prices of the homes, which are lower than the WCAD appraised values. Now the market has bounced back this year, but that's not the point. We don't want to pay taxes on phantom value.

Thanks,

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by riaelise

We're in the midst of protesting our Williamson County appraised value. Last year, the local market was flat and sales reflected that. Our home was appraised by a third party (for a refinance) for $80k less than the WCAD appraised value. We protested and WILCO sent us an automated settlement offer that was basically 20,000 less. We rejected that offer and now our protest will go before the ARB. My question is - is a third party appraisal solid evidence to get WCAD to lower the value further? We are seeking a 70k reduction in value. We also sent them 12 months of comps showing the actual sales prices of the homes, which are lower than the WCAD appraised values. Now the market has bounced back this year, but that's not the point. We don't want to pay taxes on phantom value.

Thanks,

The appraisal will carry very little weight, imho, but those comps are the key, especially those +/- 3months of Jan 1.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

The appraisal will carry very little weight, imho, but those comps are the key, especially those +/- 3months of Jan 1.

Appraisal carrying very little weight. Why is that? Is that because an appraisal is nothing more than an opinion of value and it's one opinion v. another opinion?

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Appraisal carrying very little weight. Why is that? Is that because an appraisal is nothing more than an opinion of value and it's one opinion v. another opinion?

Pretty much. Especially before 2008, you could get an appraisal to be just about whatever you wanted.

Now, if there is a good bit of support documentation for the appraisal, including comps, then it might have value.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by riaelise

We're in the midst of protesting our Williamson County appraised value. Last year, the local market was flat and sales reflected that. Our home was appraised by a third party (for a refinance) for $80k less than the WCAD appraised value. We protested and WILCO sent us an automated settlement offer that was basically 20,000 less. We rejected that offer and now our protest will go before the ARB. My question is - is a third party appraisal solid evidence to get WCAD to lower the value further? We are seeking a 70k reduction in value. We also sent them 12 months of comps showing the actual sales prices of the homes, which are lower than the WCAD appraised values. Now the market has bounced back this year, but that's not the point. We don't want to pay taxes on phantom value.

Thanks,

I've never tried to use a real estate appraisal as evidence, but I assume it's not a slam dunk else we'd all be peppered with postcards and mailings from Appraisers every year instead of the Tax Protest companies. Wouldn't it be nice to pay $350 for a slam dunk instead of 40% of your tax savings to the maggot protest companies who prey on property owners?

Also, unfortunately, Realtors are not the only profession infested with massively high numbers of dummkopfs. The Realtor forums are replete with tales of woe from incredibly incomprehensibly bad appraisals that kill transactions. One appraiser called me one day on a Steiner Ranch listing I was selling and needed clarification on whether "Steiner Ranch" was a city, or part of Austin. I asked where he was based out of, he said "Dallas". I was nice to him because I didn't want him to tank my appraisal, but what an idiot!

Let us know what you learn.

Steve

[atxcio]

It's not a slam dunk, I used one last year for a rental property I refinanced and they still valued it higher than the appraisal. However, I did get it down significantly more than their informal offer by going before the ARB with it.

The helpful thing about the appraisal are the comps that are contained within, as well as the photos/etc if there are any condition issues.

[Paradise 11]

Exorbitant increases in tax appraisals seems to be an issue run amok all over Texas at this time.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

I've never tried to use a real estate appraisal as evidence, but I assume it's not a slam dunk else we'd all be peppered with postcards and mailings from Appraisers every year instead of the Tax Protest companies. Wouldn't it be nice to pay $350 for a slam dunk instead of 40% of your tax savings to the maggot protest companies who prey on property owners?

Also, unfortunately, Realtors are not the only profession infested with massively high numbers of dummkopfs. The Realtor forums are replete with tales of woe from incredibly incomprehensibly bad appraisals that kill transactions. One appraiser called me one day on a Steiner Ranch listing I was selling and needed clarification on whether "Steiner Ranch" was a city, or part of Austin. I asked where he was based out of, he said "Dallas". I was nice to him because I didn't want him to tank my appraisal, but what an idiot!

Let us know what you learn.

Steve

LOL

Actually the appraisal we have can be classified as "incredibly incomprehensibly bad" and killed our transaction. It's very flawed and far too low, but that ended up being a real blessing in disguise though as ultimately we didn't need to refinance and just got caught up in the refinance hoopla that's been spamming my phone for months.

At the same time, the comps do show that the market was soft last year and definitely wasn't near the appraised value that WCAD came up with. We shouldn't be paying MORE in taxes when the values were DOWN last year. At least I want WCAD to tell me to my face that their numbers are not strictly determined by sales comps.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[riaelise]

thanks guys. looks like the comps are what really gives me argument some teeth. the crazy thing is, WCAD supplied me with their "market data" which actually had the sales prices of homes. (Did they get this info from the MLS????? Reminds me of the Travis brouhaha. I wonder if they purchased data from Corelogic?) Yet, somehow, they still offered me only a 20,000 reduction "based on comparable sales'. If that was so, then the comps supported my value. For example, the actual sale price of X house was 509,000. Yet the appraised value was 530,000. That just doesn't make any sense. If the actual sold price was 509, then it's 509,000.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by riaelise

thanks guys. looks like the comps are what really gives me argument some teeth. the crazy thing is, WCAD supplied me with their "market data" which actually had the sales prices of homes. (Did they get this info from the MLS????? Reminds me of the Travis brouhaha. I wonder if they purchased data from Corelogic?) Yet, somehow, they still offered me only a 20,000 reduction "based on comparable sales'. If that was so, then the comps supported my value. For example, the actual sale price of X house was 509,000. Yet the appraised value was 530,000. That just doesn't make any sense. If the actual sold price was 509, then it's 509,000.

I remember the old, old days when there was an unwritten rule at the AD to under-appraise but just a bit (10%ish) to avoid so many protests. Then at some point, I don't remember the exact context but it had to do with money getting tight, they started trying to hit the value right on the nose, which is obviously impossible and results in the vast numbers of protests every year now.