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Wife and I went yesterday. What a damn Joke. I felt like I was being shaken down my Don Corleone. My wife spent 8 hours pulling comps...they refused to even look at them. Within 20 seconds the asshat said I don't have time to look at your comps, look at all these people waiting...we already did our comps. He took 4k off the appraised price of my house saving me $100 a year....only problem is MY TAX BILL WENT UP $1000 THIS YEAR, A FULL 10%!!!!
It's a scam and honestly disgusting.
For the love of gawd Texas needs a Prop 13. My property taxes have gone up 40% in 5 years and now are over $10k PER YEAR on a $390k house! The big lie is "how cheap" it is to live here. Maybe at one time, but not anymore.
Wife and I went yesterday. What a damn Joke. I felt like I was being shaken down my Don Corleone. My wife spent 8 hours pulling comps...they refused to even look at them. Within 20 seconds the asshat said I don't have time to look at your comps, look at all these people waiting...we already did our comps. He took 4k off the appraised price of my house saving me $100 a year....only problem is MY TAX BILL WENT UP $1000 THIS YEAR, A FULL 10%!!!!
It's a scam and honestly disgusting.
For the love of gawd Texas needs a Prop 13. My property taxes have gone up 40% in 5 years and now are over $10k PER YEAR on a $390k house! The big lie is "how cheap" it is to live here. Maybe at one time, but not anymore.
It took your wife 8 hours to pull comps? Next year, I'd recommend you pull your house up on tad.org then click on the "neighborhood code". You'll get comps for the entire neighborhood in one click and be done in a minute or two. I'd also try protesting earlier next year. The tax office is probably beat down by now, not that it makes it ok, but it is ran by human beings.
A handful of us on my street protested in April and we all got 30-40k wacked off our appraisal, so results vary.
Hoping others will share their story on dealing with the Tarrant County Appraisal District.
I went to TAD today and was unfortunate to get one of the not so nice employees ... very abrupt in his mannerisms and short with me.
He offered me a number, and I very politely pushed back showing how TAD had given considerable breaks to 7 of the properties on our street of only 38 homes. He refused to even look up the properties or do any comparison at all to my evidence. Instead, he just said "well I'm already offering you less than you paid for your home (1 year prior), are you saying you don't want it?" I very calmly pushed back and tried to get him to realize several of our properties received very large decreases. No matter what I said, he wouldn't acknowledge any of the information I gave him and kept coming back with his original offer (which was still an increase vs. last year).
This conversation lasted maybe 1-2 mins, then without any warning he said, "ok sir, since you aren't interested in our offer I'll go ahead and set it at your sale price" (which was $15k MORE than his first offer). I said, "wait, what? TAD just raised my value 15k in 1 minute because I'm asking questions? This process is absurd!" His response was "you denied our offer sir". I said "I haven't denied anything, I'm just asking you questions and asking for an explanation on why some properties got much bigger decreases." Again he ignored me and said "ok sir, so would you like to accept the offer I'm extending to you now at your sale price? it's still beneath the value we sent you on April 1. Again sir we're extending you an offer, do you want it?"
After back and forth with him about how ridiculous this whole "negotiating" process is, he said "ok sir, let me go talk to my supervisor and I'll see if I can get an override to bring your value back down from your sale price to the original offer I gave you". He then came back with his original offer and I signed it, thinking what I originally wanted wasn't too far off the mark, and I didn't want to lose the offer again.
I was not making a scene or being rude/obnoxious at all. I was simply trying to get him to look at my evidence. By insisting, he abruptly withdrew the offer. It felt like being "punished" for dare asking. Then there was a follow up show of getting an "override" to put the offer back to the original offer, as if to say "this is one more chance, you already saw what could happen!"
This whole process is so ridiculous! Can you imagine if our income taxes were "negotiated" like this? The upside, though, is I got the 8.3% increase they originally proposed on the original blue mailer down to a 0.7% increase. So I'm happy enough. It's still not as good as the 20-30k decreases several of my neighbors got (who have almost identical houses).
Happy to answer any questions anyone may have.
No offense but I just bolded the part where you 100% lost me. So you paid $XXX for your home 1 year ago and you want your evaluation to be under that number?
You literally set your market by paying what you paid. That "rude" employee and his manager should be fired for lowering your evaluation to the asking price instead of the price you actually paid. If your house wasn't worth what you paid, why did you pay it?
You robbed the system and made it harder for people that have seen the price they paid for their home years ago, just to see it increase 12+% every year since.
Personally, I call BS on the whole post. Nothing makes adds up.
For example, your home was listed at $300K. You paid $325K. Now Tarrant is going say "oops, our bad, your right, we should drop the evaluation to $300K no matter what you paid" because you argued?
No offense but I just bolded the part where you 100% lost me. So you paid $XXX for your home 1 year ago and you want your evaluation to be under that number?
You literally set your market by paying what you paid. That "rude" employee and his manager should be fired for lowering your evaluation to the asking price instead of the price you actually paid. If your house wasn't worth what you paid, why did you pay it?
You robbed the system and made it harder for people that have seen the price they paid for their home years ago, just to see it increase 12+% every year since.
Personally, I call BS on the whole post. Nothing makes adds up.
For example, your home was listed at $300K. You paid $325K. Now Tarrant is going say "oops, our bad, your right, we should drop the evaluation to $300K no matter what you paid" because you argued?
Yeah, that never happened.
Closed 9/12/17 for $369k - at this time, homes similar to mine were selling for $369-$375k.
Market value in 2018: $352k after protest (original blue value notice $355k) - I offered too high on the protest
Market value in 2019: $355k after protest (original blue value notice $382k)
Homes similar to mine currently selling for $380-390k
Call BS all you want, it doesn't change reality. Other folks on my street could easily sell for $400-410k and had theirs knocked down to $365k. I filed a legal protest which was approved by the tax assessor. That's not "robbing the system". Yes, I wanted equitable treatment as the others on my street received by protesting.
If you were incapable of achieving similar results via the same system, that's not my problem. "No offense."
I did the online automatic protest yesterday. I proposed 15% lower, they gave me 10%. I was pretty happy.
Yes, the automated protest was so convenient. I thought they'd send me to a hearing again, based on the value that I proposed. Instead, it was accepted with no questions.
No lines, no waiting, no hearings. It was terrific.
Protesting every year has netted me only a 12.4% increase since 2014. I can't argue that values haven't increased over the last five years. But you have to do it every year, or you'll get creamed.
I have a buddy who lives a block away who has never protested. He's hit the 10% cap on increases every year. His home and lot are considerably smaller than my home, but his property tax bill is considerably higher.
There has to be a better way to raise all of the revenue that we need. Property tax may (should) probably still play a role, but we should really look at alternative forms of revenue enhancement as well.
Yes, the automated protest was so convenient. I thought they'd send me to a hearing again, based on the value that I proposed. Instead, it was accepted with no questions.
No lines, no waiting, no hearings. It was terrific.
Protesting every year has netted me only a 12.4% increase since 2014. I can't argue that values haven't increased over the last five years. But you have to do it every year, or you'll get creamed.
I have a buddy who lives a block away who has never protested. He's hit the 10% cap on increases every year. His home and lot are considerably smaller than my home, but his property tax bill is considerably higher.
There has to be a better way to raise all of the revenue that we need. Property tax may (should) probably still play a role, but we should really look at alternative forms of revenue enhancement as well.
This was sortof the spirit of the original thread message. It seems unfair that those of us that take the time to protest get offered breaks and pay a somewhat drastic difference than those who just accept whatever Tarrant says. Furthermore, depending on who you talk to (if you go into the tad office), you may get significantly better breaks than others. The whole thing just seems so bizarre.
It seems to me that eventually, they are going to have to figure out another revenue stream because they are going to end up taxing people out of their homes, which isn't good for anyone. I am shocked at the increase in taxes on the home I am about to close on at the end of the month. 2019 proposed taxes are close to $3000 more than for 2018. I can understand reasonable incremental increases, but 3k is ridiculous. I would have reconsidered purchasing the property had I known that beforehand. It was only after the title insurance people sent the paper work that I became aware this could happen. I've owned homes in PA, NJ, & IL and have never experienced such a drastic increase in taxes in a single year anywhere. The largest was about $200 year over year.
It seems to me that eventually, they are going to have to figure out another revenue stream because they are going to end up taxing people out of their homes, which isn't good for anyone. I am shocked at the increase in value of the home I am about to close on at the end of the month. 2019 proposed taxes are about $3000 more than for 2018. I can understand reasonable incremental increases, but 3k is ridiculous. I would have reconsidered purchasing the property had I known that beforehand. It was only after the title insurance people sent the paper work that I became aware this could happen. I've owned homes in PA, NJ, & IL and have never experienced such a drastic increase in taxes in a single year anywhere. The largest was about $200 year over year.
Coupled with 10-15% (or more) annual increases in homeowner's insurance, and YES....something needs to be done.
It seems to me that eventually, they are going to have to figure out another revenue stream because they are going to end up taxing people out of their homes, which isn't good for anyone. I am shocked at the increase in taxes on the home I am about to close on at the end of the month. 2019 proposed taxes are close to $3000 more than for 2018. I can understand reasonable incremental increases, but 3k is ridiculous. I would have reconsidered purchasing the property had I known that beforehand. It was only after the title insurance people sent the paper work that I became aware this could happen. I've owned homes in PA, NJ, & IL and have never experienced such a drastic increase in taxes in a single year anywhere. The largest was about $200 year over year.
Escalating property taxes are definitely a reason we (on fixed incomes) are going to be compelled to sell our Travis Co. house in the next year and find someplace cheaper to live. FW has the same property tax problem, but the houses are (so far) selling for less money; so we may get a break for at least a few years. Maybe. I have no faith Texas legislators are going to give us any real tax relief, so we'e also looking out of state.
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