2016 DFW County Appraisals & Assessments Thread (Dallas, Denton: home, neighborhood, live)

[ringwise]

We own 2 lots, one with our house (homesteaded) and one a vacant lot with a drainage easement running diagonally through it, that cannot be built on.

We just got the appraisal for the vacant lot: +950%. Yes, you read that right.

Sent in my appeal, and will fight with a hearing if I need to. There is no WAY a useless piece of land increases that much, no matter what the market.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by globe9

What info does a realtor need to pull comps? I've had someone offer to pull comps for me, but wants my address, pictures of inside of house, backyard, etc. I do not know this person other than a referral on a popular internet msg board.

They're going to need all of that info to pull comps. Comps are more than square feet and lot size- it's the quality & condition of finish out, age of roof / HVAC/ water heaters, floor plan, etc.

[octo]

Originally Posted by ringwise

We own 2 lots, one with our house (homesteaded) and one a vacant lot with a drainage easement running diagonally through it, that cannot be built on.

We just got the appraisal for the vacant lot: +950%. Yes, you read that right.

Sent in my appeal, and will fight with a hearing if I need to. There is no WAY a useless piece of land increases that much, no matter what the market.

If you go to a hearing be prepared with hard data (for example, hire a respected appraiser). Just saying "no WAY" will not get you anywhere at a hearing.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by KatoMom

I'm in Flower Mound and appraisal is 10.7% higher this year (capped at 10% due to homestead). The major factor for the increase seems to be related to our land- was around $74K for the last 7 years and all of the sudden it jumped to $99K for a lot of about 10,000 ft. The house itself only went up about $16K. If I decide to protest, do I just look for other houses with similarly sized lots and come up with some sort of price per foot for the lot?


We're considering selling this year. If I protest the increase, does it have an effect on selling our house? Do realtors and appraisers use tax appraisal when calculating market price or appraisal value? I don't want to protest to save a little bit of taxes and miss out on getting more when we sell.

The tax value of your home has no bearing on the market value/ list price. Protest away.

[brainofjjj]

I can't believe my market value moved so much. We've never protested before but we are this year.
Our house is near Welch / 635 near Hockaday.

Market Value
2013 - 368k
2014 - 400k
2015 - 439k
2016 - 531k !!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm capped at 483k this year but next year they will get me. We've been considering moving to Southlake instead of paying 50k per year for 2 kids in privates. At this rate the city will make my decision for me.

[Mirror45]

Has anyone protested their property taxes appraisal?
Does anyone have any advice or tips?

Thanks!

[stephwin]

Originally Posted by BayTexan

Experts - do you recommend protesting based on recent comps or unequal valuation?

If we go the unequal valuation route, what properties should I use for sample size? For example very close in sqft, with pool (can I include ones without pool?), in same community (or should I stick to same street)? Also I plan to take these properties and find average price per sqft and then take that value and multiply by my square footage to get a proposed value.

Any thoughts or insight is greatly appreciated!

This is similar to what I've done in the past. Be careful about year built. Mine was built in 2005 and some of my neighbor's were 2003 and Denton CAD told me I couldn't use those houses in my comparison because they were more than 10 years old (this was in 2014) and mine was not yet 10 years old. Apparently they don't appreciate them as much if they are over 10, or something like that.

I basically look for houses within 100 square feet of mine, with the same number of beds/baths. I do look at ones with pools, as the "value" of the pool is listed on the CAD's website and I just subtract that value. My neighborhood is a bit unusual in that it is on the smaller side and all of the houses were built by the same builder within 2.5 years. If your neighborhood has a mix of builders over a long time period, they could argue the quality of the builds isn't the same.

[RosieDC]

I was looking on Dallas CAD and a neighbor has a -15% market adjustment for their land. How did they get that? It says the pricing method is flat price and our unit price is the same although they have almost twice as much land.

I don't understand that at all?

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by octo

If you go to a hearing be prepared with hard data (for example, hire a respected appraiser). Just saying "no WAY" will not get you anywhere at a hearing.

I know. But I doubt it will get that far. Even in a hot market, that's a little extreme.

[jdallas]

Originally Posted by RosieDC

I was looking on Dallas CAD and a neighbor has a -15% market adjustment for their land. How did they get that?

It is my understanding that a negative adjustment is due to some negative feature of the property. It can be a commercial lot bordering the property or an easement through the property which prevents development.