Fort Bend County Central Appraisal District - 2014 (exemptions, price)

[Whyrallnamestaken]

How do I compare values with other houses in my neighborhood? I don't have any idea what other homes in my subdivision are appraised at? Where do you find this information?

[trbstang]

Originally Posted by NTexas2010

Purchased our new build in April 2013 for $325k. 2014 FBCAD came in at $381k. Is there any downside to filing an online protest and providing the HUD statement (i.e. the county now knows what I paid for the house for future reference)?

No, not really that I know of. I doubt they would drop the value to exactly what you paid since it was a year ago, but if they did, you could potentially save $1,680 in taxes based on a 3% tax rate. I'm convinced that the appraisers are high balling all the new accounts and resales with the hope that you will therefore disclose exactly what you paid for it in an attempt to get it lowered. It is a sneaky way to get the "facts" about the sales price, but I'm sure there will be a good percentage that will not protest and they will just rake in the extra taxes on those suckers.

[trbstang]

Originally Posted by Whyrallnamestaken

How do I compare values with other houses in my neighborhood? I don't have any idea what other homes in my subdivision are appraised at? Where do you find this information?

What county are you in? You can look your home and others up on the county appraisal district websites.

Harris county is www.hcad.org Mongomery county is Home Fort Bend is http://www.fbcad.org/Appraisal/PublicAccess/ You can search the Records on there by specific address, address range, neighborhood, street, owner, etc. depending on the available search criteria. You might have to drive around and pick out houses that look comparable to yours and then look them up, but at least that is a start.

[NTexas2010]

Originally Posted by trbstang

No, not really that I know of. I doubt they would drop the value to exactly what you paid since it was a year ago, but if they did, you could potentially save $1,680 in taxes based on a 3% tax rate. I'm convinced that the appraisers are high balling all the new accounts and resales with the hope that you will therefore disclose exactly what you paid for it in an attempt to get it lowered. It is a sneaky way to get the "facts" about the sales price, but I'm sure there will be a good percentage that will not protest and they will just rake in the extra taxes on those suckers.

Even more, given our rate of 3.5% (relatively new subdivision, Lakes of Bella Terra).

Sucks that they'll know, but if the alternative is being appraised 56k over purchase price in one year, that's just something I'll have to live with.

[Whyrallnamestaken]

Can I use a house that is two years older than mine for comparison? It is probably the same floor plan as mine.

[trbstang]

Originally Posted by Whyrallnamestaken

Can I use a house that is two years older than mine for comparison? It is probably the same floor plan as mine.

They don't care much about the age, unless it is a big difference like a new construction in an old neighborhood. 2-5 years older is just the same. If your homes are basically identical, they should be about the same value. Houses in my neighborhood were constructed from 93-99 and they are all valued the same way as comps. Now if an older one just had a new roof put on and was updated and yours needs a roof and work done, that is a plus in your favor for reducing it a bit.

[Kiovo]

So it seems everyone will be contesting their home appraisal lol

[DSL_PWR]

Ours is pending right now. We are waiting on them to get back to us with a settlement amount.

[NTexas2010]

It looks like they're doing some kind of overhaul on the FBCAD website - all the properties I'm pulling up are showing as "In Progress", and their datasheets have Market/Assessed values as "Unavailable".

Yesterday I was able to pull up addresses just fine.

[longhorn96]

Originally Posted by NTexas2010

It looks like they're doing some kind of overhaul on the FBCAD website - all the properties I'm pulling up are showing as "In Progress", and their datasheets have Market/Assessed values as "Unavailable".

Yesterday I was able to pull up addresses just fine.

Good news, perhaps. Maybe they are busy correcting the many errors that were present (at least in my neighborhood). We had several streets where they showed two different owners for the same house, some houses with no owner at all even though they are clearly completed and occupied since last year, and others that list a house number that doesn't even exist (mine).