Fort Bend Country Appraisals (cul-de-sac, sale, real estate)

[ftjoe12]

They are out. Did everyone else get hosed? I got a 20% increase vs the price I paid last year with zero changes to the house. Houses listed at MUCH less per sq ft sit on the market for months, and HAR shows a clone of my house a block over selling for much less.

Any advice? I'm planning on fighting it myself.

[Cassino]

We bought a new construction last June and it was assessed at about $2,000 over what we paid for it. The value of the lot went up ~$10,000, which seems a little high to me. but the neighborhood but we live on a cul-de-sac and it was fully built out last year so perhaps that has something to do with it.

A couple of technical questions about the assessment for those in the know since I am brand new to this:

* Is the homestead exemption taken into account before the assessment is made or is it taken into account by each individual taxing entity after the fact? How much should we expect our taxable value to be reduced?

* Looking over the assessment, I see that the value for the house is broken into four parts. The main area, an attached garage, and two open porches. When a real estate listing states a square footage area of the house, my assumption is this is the equivalent of the square footage for the "main area" on the assessment?

* What is the easiest way to compare to other assessments in your same section?

[Liljo22]

My property value increased 10% which is crazy in the markets current state. You have two options to protest the value:

1. You can pull the sale on similar properties that sold around January 1st(talk to your realitor to get these). You can then meet with someone at your district to argue against the value. This is just a face to face with someone that can drop your value. If you still feel the value is too high, you can turn down their offer and ask for a hearing. At this time, you make your case in front of the appraisal district review board. The decision they make is final. If you take this route, I would do it sooner than later because the closer to May 31st you wait the longer the wait will be at the district.

2. Hire a company to protest your value. They will do all the work for you and meet with the district. Use this option if you do not have the means or time to protest the value. The cost is somewhere betweek 30%-50% of the tax savings they are able to get. I used a company last year that dropped the value on my property by $30,000. They charged a 40% rate so it cost me about $350 of the $700 tax savings. Sadly, it was a small firm that went out of business so I am looking for a new company. I will say not to use O'Conner and Associates. They say they were unable to drop my value two years ago but there was a report on the news that they get swamped and don't show up to protest. I think I fell into that category since the smaller company I used was able to drop the value $6,000 less than the value O'Conner was unable to do anything with. I am looking into appealpropertytax.com since they charge 33% rather than the standard 50%. Some will say you get what you paid for but it worked out really well last year.

[Liljo22]

Originally Posted by Cassino

We bought a new construction last June and it was assessed at about $2,000 over what we paid for it. The value of the lot went up ~$10,000, which seems a little high to me. but the neighborhood but we live on a cul-de-sac and it was fully built out last year so perhaps that has something to do with it.

A couple of technical questions about the assessment for those in the know since I am brand new to this:

* Is the homestead exemption taken into account before the assessment is made or is it taken into account by each individual taxing entity after the fact? How much should we expect our taxable value to be reduced?

* Looking over the assessment, I see that the value for the house is broken into four parts. The main area, an attached garage, and two open porches. When a real estate listing states a square footage area of the house, my assumption is this is the equivalent of the square footage for the "main area" on the assessment?

* What is the easiest way to compare to other assessments in your same section?

Homestead is not taken into account. Homestead is with the taxing entities and not with the appraisal district. I am not sure about your other questions.