2017 DFW County Appraisals & Assessments Thread (Dallas, Plano: low income, sale, renters)

[serger]

Originally Posted by stargirl007

And they immediately just scheduled a "formal" hearing with me. Not sure if it will be worth my time away from work and all of that. Is this typical?

My experience (Collin):

Protested the other day. Formal hearing assigned immediately (so it is automatic I assume), and then a day later I received a settlement offer. They include recent sales if any, and then comparable appraisals. Since in many neighborhoods you won't find houses that are exactly identical, they adjust for differences. In addition to adjustments for sq.ft. difference, pool, garage size, etc., they assign "effective" year built to the house (different from the real one) , that kind of reflects updates, improvements and such. So, this leads to differences in otherwise very similar houses. How exactly they come up with that I don't know.

[lepoisson]

Here's a question for the masses: It seems like property tax values increase drastically every year. But is this really the case if you tried to sell? Would your $250K home in 2016 be able to sell for 10% more in 2017?

[oldoak2000]

Originally Posted by stargirl007

And they immediately just scheduled a "formal" hearing with me. Not sure if it will be worth my time away from work and all of that. Is this typical?

Normal.
however, usually you can go to appraisal office BEFORE your scheduled hearing (without an appointment - just take a number in line) , and present all your docs to try to negotiate a lowered appraisal - I believe they actually will suggest this in a letter they send you; I Highly recommend you do this and DONT WAIT for the scheduled hearing, as they will be far less negotiable at a 'formal hearing'.
Kinda like 'pleading with the prosecutor' right before the 'trial'

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by serger

My experience (Collin):

Protested the other day. Formal hearing assigned immediately (so it is automatic I assume), and then a day later I received a settlement offer. They include recent sales if any, and then comparable appraisals. Since in many neighborhoods you won't find houses that are exactly identical, they adjust for differences. In addition to adjustments for sq.ft. difference, pool, garage size, etc., they assign "effective" year built to the house (different from the real one) , that kind of reflects updates, improvements and such. So, this leads to differences in otherwise very similar houses. How exactly they come up with that I don't know.

Hehe, in my case the "effective year built" is the same year the house was built. That's the case for every house on my street, updated or not.

[NP78]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Here's a question for the masses: It seems like property tax values increase drastically every year. But is this really the case if you tried to sell? Would your $250K home in 2016 be able to sell for 10% more in 2017?

In general, that is the home appreciation rate in DFW right now, so yes. If I listed my home today it would be at about 45% above the price I paid 5 years ago.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by NP78

In general, that is the home appreciation rate in DFW right now, so yes. If I listed my home today it would be at about 45% above the price I paid 5 years ago.

Prices in my Richardson neighborhood sure as heck didn't go up 32% since 2016.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Here's a question for the masses: It seems like property tax values increase drastically every year. But is this really the case if you tried to sell? Would your $250K home in 2016 be able to sell for 10% more in 2017?

I'll break down the answers to your questions/comments:

1. "It seems like property tax values increase drastically every year" -> historically, no, they did not. I owned a property in Uptown for 7 years and only in the last 2 years did the appraisal value climb. Historically, DFW values only increased 2-4% per year so there were not huge property tax increases. Only in the last 4ish years have values skyrocketed, taking tax appraisals up in tandem. There is no reason to believe it's going to be max increases every year forever. At some point the price increases WILL level off, whether due to normalizing interest rates or external economic forces.

2. "Would your $250k home in 2016 sell for 10% more in 2017?" In many parts of the metoplex, yes. See link for the latest NTREIS sales info. All of the areas shaded in blue or green had sales price increases of 11% or more last year. Many of the yellow shades areas saw increases in the 8-10% range. So, yes, the answer is the majority of homes in the metroplex would sell for 10% or even more than 10% higher than they would have last year.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/...ces-piece-d-fw

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by serger

My experience (Collin):

Protested the other day. Formal hearing assigned immediately (so it is automatic I assume), and then a day later I received a settlement offer. They include recent sales if any, and then comparable appraisals. Since in many neighborhoods you won't find houses that are exactly identical, they adjust for differences. In addition to adjustments for sq.ft. difference, pool, garage size, etc., they assign "effective" year built to the house (different from the real one) , that kind of reflects updates, improvements and such. So, this leads to differences in otherwise very similar houses. How exactly they come up with that I don't know.

I don't know how CoCo does it, but in Dallas Co, "effective year" is the year of the last remodel. So if your house was built in 1940 but had a huge renovation in 2012, the actual age is listed as 77 years but both the build date and effective build date are listed.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

I don't know how CoCo does it, but in Dallas Co, "effective year" is the year of the last remodel. So if your house was built in 1940 but had a huge renovation in 2012, the actual age is listed as 77 years but both the build date and effective build date are listed.

Odd...there are many houses near me that have been completely remodeled but their "effective year" is still the same year they were built....same as my house, which is valued per square foot at the same value as houses that have been gutted to the studs and remodeled. My house hasn't been remodeled since it was built 60 years ago.

[BLDSoon]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Odd...there are many houses near me that have been completely remodeled but their "effective year" is still the same year they were built....same as my house, which is valued per square foot at the same value as houses that have been gutted to the studs and remodeled. My house hasn't been remodeled since it was built 60 years ago.

And therein lies the problem?