TCAD appraisal meetings (Austin, Howe: house, purchase, contractors)

[verybadgnome]

Looks like I have informal and formal hearings scheduled for the first and second weeks of June. Problem is I will be out of town for the former. Anyway to work with them to reschedule this or failing that to submits docs electronically beforehand?

[AustinSpartan]

And in a related question - what's the difference between the informal and formal?

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

Looks like I have informal and formal hearings scheduled for the first and second weeks of June. Problem is I will be out of town for the former. Anyway to work with them to reschedule this or failing that to submits docs electronically beforehand?

Call them, you are allowed an automatic rescheduling once (automatic in that you don't have to provide any proof/reason you can't make it). I do it all the time.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by AustinSpartan

And in a related question - what's the difference between the informal and formal?

Informal is you and a TCAD employee sitting at their cubicle, and you provide the evidence, and they may be able to adjust your value in certain straightforward situations.

If you can't get satisfaction there, the formal meeting is where you sit in front of the appraisal board (citizens), along with a TCAD employee, and you are sworn in and everything is recorded. You state your case, and they may ask some questions. The TCAD employee will weigh in with the comps/info behind the original appraiser's opinion. Then they discuss it, take a vote, and the results are final. I believe there is some court appeal allowed; I've never taken it that far, though.

[senormatt]

My property value still says 0 when I search for it. It's a new property and I closed last November. When should it be listed? This is the website to search Travis Central Appraisal District correct?

[AustinSpartan]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Informal is you and a TCAD employee sitting at their cubicle, and you provide the evidence, and they may be able to adjust your value in certain straightforward situations.

If you can't get satisfaction there, the formal meeting is where you sit in front of the appraisal board (citizens), along with a TCAD employee, and you are sworn in and everything is recorded. You state your case, and they may ask some questions. The TCAD employee will weigh in with the comps/info behind the original appraiser's opinion. Then they discuss it, take a vote, and the results are final. I believe there is some court appeal allowed; I've never taken it that far, though.

Purchase price was 14k < appraised value. Only question that I have is the seller incentive from the relo company. Will they use that against me? Sure as hell hope not!

[woodinvilleguy]

Originally Posted by AustinSpartan

Purchase price was 14k < appraised value. Only question that I have is the seller incentive from the relo company. Will they use that against me? Sure as hell hope not!

bring in your hud-1 statement and you'll be fine in the informal.

[AusParent]

The first time we filed a protest, we attended the informal meeting, the TCAD employee told us that we had no chance of succeeding. We proceeded to the formal meeting and succeeded. We no longer attend the informal meeting.

[Sharon X]

Does it help to pay for an appraisal from an private appraiser as one would get if they were getting ready to list the property AS IS? Mine needs a lot of cosmetic work (carpets, kitchen bath) compared to Just Solds.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by Sharon X

Does it help to pay for an appraisal from an private appraiser as one would get if they were getting ready to list the property AS IS? Mine needs a lot of cosmetic work (carpets, kitchen bath) compared to Just Solds.

The instructions that TCAD sends (green sheets of paper) says to come with evidence like "bids from contractors for repairs". It doesn't say anything about an appraisal, but it stands to reason that would be a strong piece of evidence (if it is in your favor). However, the big difference between that and contractor bids is that contractor bids are free -- an appraisal might cost you every bit of the $$ you would save in taxes that year if you get your adjustment down.

Having said, that... in my experience, the bids from contractors (or pictures of condition, etc) don't seem to work to well for protest hearings. At least I haven't had any success. The best thing seems to be realtor comps, or pointing out things about your house that are significantly different from the comps TCAD used (should have been supplied to you), so you can get them eliminated from the comparison.

This year turned out to be a great year to protest for me. 2009 had some crazy low comps I could use, and the TCAD office is a ghost town compared to previous years (very few protesters). I got to see an appraiser right at the appointment time (instead of 1hr+ wait last year), got everything done in the informal, and was out of there in like 15 minutes.