Any success fighting Shelby Co tax assessment? (sales, attorney)

[MadHaus]

Ever since we moved back to Shelby Co. I've been disputing our tax assessment on an annual basis. For the first two years the BOE's number was more than we paid for the house, despite the recession and dramatic decline in home prices. My meeting with the board was an exercise in futility. Those poor old folks could not concentrate on the matter at hand long enough to follow any logical discussion, but kept getting distracted by side topics and mental wanderings. Finally they adjusted the figure to something closer to reality, although last year's valuation was still high enough that I'd jump at an offer at that amount. (Our family circumstances have changed dramatically since we bought this house.)

I was just on the county's tax site and compared the 2011 valuation to the 2012 one under the "BOE" tab. I was stunned. The total value had been increased almost 20%. Once again, it's more than we paid for the property.

I've tracked every sale in our neighborhood, paying particular attention to houses on our street. I've also tracked sales of houses in the county priced within 20% +/- our assessed value. Despite negotiating a good deal on our purchase, today we'd be very lucky to get 80% of what we paid and would probably settle for less.

Until this morning, we were satisfied that we'd disputed the tax assessment well enough to get it down to a fairly reasonable number even though it still exceeded what we think would be market value. Now I am flabbergasted.

Has anyone hired an attorney to fight an unreasonable tax assessment? If so, did the cost of the legal fees exceed the savings on your RE taxes? Any suggestions, other than to keep pointing out that actual sales indicate the BOE is way off base?

Thanks.