Received my real estate tax bill but it is too high

[trbstang]

Originally Posted by misterno

This is the law firm I chose
Appeal Property Tax l Houston & Harris County

They charge only 40% of my savings

So can someone tell me if I am doing the wrong thing here? I am scared to see they will come to my house and compare with the latest sales around and end up raising the tax value of the. House.

Maybe I should cancel the protest thru the law firm I mentioned above?

That is who I use and I don't have any complaints. They couldn't get it dropped last year, but hopefully they can this year. The chance of the appraisal being raised in the appeal process is slim to none, and they WILL NOT come to your house to look at it. They really have too many to deal with and all they can legally do is look at it from the outside to measure the sqft and gauge the quality and guess on the rooms, unless you are going to invite them in and volunteer information to them. Appeal Property Tax will gather all of the information and protest it based on the data they can get from the comps in the area. Did you provide Appeal with your HUD statement? They might be able to use that to drop it even if the research finds the value is more than what you paid. I would talk to them about your concerns.

Good luck!

[misterno]

Originally Posted by trbstang

That is who I use and I don't have any complaints. They couldn't get it dropped last year, but hopefully they can this year. The chance of the appraisal being raised in the appeal process is slim to none, and they WILL NOT come to your house to look at it. They really have too many to deal with and all they can legally do is look at it from the outside to measure the sqft and gauge the quality and guess on the rooms, unless you are going to invite them in and volunteer information to them. Appeal Property Tax will gather all of the information and protest it based on the data they can get from the comps in the area. Did you provide Appeal with your HUD statement? They might be able to use that to drop it even if the research finds the value is more than what you paid. I would talk to them about your concerns.

Good luck!

I thought they have access to all info they need online. I will provide to them.

Anything else I can do?

[JL]

They will not come out to your property to re-appraise your house. Someone is trying to use scare tactics here. Btw, i heard it will be difficult to get property taxes lowered if you live in Ft. Bend County this year.

[misterno]

Originally Posted by JL

They will not come out to your property to re-appraise your house. Someone is trying to use scare tactics here. Btw, i heard it will be difficult to get property taxes lowered if you live in Ft. Bend County this year.

Why will it be hard this year?

Do they have budget problems?

[Lowexpectations]

Originally Posted by misterno

This is the law firm I chose
Appeal Property Tax l Houston & Harris County

They charge only 40% of my savings

So can someone tell me if I am doing the wrong thing here? I am scared to see they will come to my house and compare with the latest sales around and end up raising the tax value of the. House.

Maybe I should cancel the protest thru the law firm I mentioned above?

It doesn't look like a law firm

[kadjenter]

And you can protest through Harris County Appraisal District online at Harris County Appraisal District. Look your property up using the search and file a protest there. But you need to give your opinion of your value which should be based on 2014 home sales in your market area of homes similar to yours. You should be able to get a list of comparable home sales from your real estate agent. I think the deadline to file is June 1.

[Spartacus713]

Here is some good information from HCAD on the property tax protest process:

HCAD: Protests Before the ARB of Harris County