thanks
Francisco

I live in a planned community in north Fort Worth, Tarrant County. All of the homes in the neighborhood are less than 5 years old and were constructed by two builders with similar lot sizes, exteriors, and finish.

My home was valued at a higher amount relative to recent sales that I have seen. However, when browsing through the 2010 TAD statements, it was comparable. Even so, I decided to protest based upon market value and unequal appraisal.

I found 10 comps that sold within the last 15 months, 9 of them were within the last 90 days, that made my case. The mean avg. of these properties was $10 less than what my property was valued at. I formatted these properties in a spreadsheet showing the following: address, year built, sell price, sqft, $/sqft, and value ration vs. my property. I summarized the values as a mean average, then weighted my property since I have a larger lot. I also presented a satellite map with all of these properties marked on the map along with photos of each property to show comparability. Additionally, I included a MLS print out from a realtor showing the selected properties that made my case. Finally, I included photos from my house showing a nearby gas well that was a visual and aural nuisance.

Even though I felt that I was prepared, I learned a great deal from the hearing. To begin with, the board was very professional and non-threatening. It consisted of 3 members (one of them the chairmen with whom I interacted with) along with a representative from TAD who sat at her computer and made her case when given the opportunity. When it was time to present my case, I reviewed the comps, made the case that age was a non-factor since all homes are comparable, and when asked provided a value that I was seeking for my home (it is critical to know this before going into the meeting). The TAD rep made their argument pointing out that most of my comps were not valid since the sales occurred after the first quarter of the year. She proceed to highlight a single property that was most like mine to make here case that my property value was fair and even lower than the closest comp.

Prior to my rebuttal, the chairman explained to me that only comps from the previous year and the first quarter of the current year are valid for consideration. Fortunately, I had two qualifying comps in my list. I proceeded to make the case then based upon my two remaining comps verses the comps TAD was using, and countered TAD’s argument that age of my house played a role. The 3 committee members worked on their calculators for a few minutes, discussed their finding among themselves, then offered me an adjusted value that was about 60% of the discount I was requesting. The chairman explained to me that this was based upon comps and that if I wanted to pursue unequal appraisal then I could do so, but with a warning. I provided 10 or so existing comps in the neighborhood with a lower value, but she told me that unequal appraisal would be based upon properties throughout the county and not just my neighborhood. Obviously, in my case I felt that this could harm my case rather than help. Therefore, I declined pursuing unequal appraisal and accepted there offer.

Overall, even though I didn’t get the full discount I was seeking, I was pleased. I feel that if I would have had age appropriate comps then I would have been even more satisfied with the results. On the bright side, however, I already have a great start when it comes to mounting evidence for next year’s protest!!!

I just feel like they are not giving me everything they used.

These new values won’t be in the HB 201 evidence packet, you’ll have to print them out individually from HCADs records on the public site.

Informally, the appraisers won’t reduce your value on unequal appraisal when you just purchased it (and rarely ever in Harris Co). You’ll most likely have to take your case in front of the board.

Finally, you are NEVER required to show what you paid for your house. Texas is a non-disclosure state and that is your business only unless you volunteer that info.

Also, am I legally bound to give them my settlement statement or tell them my purchase price? I’ve searched everywhere for that answer and can’t seem to find it. My neighbor went today to her informal and was told that they would not lower it below the purchase price because that was market value for that property. They also immediately requested her settlement statement.

The tax code states that the most recent value should be used. The District simply doesn’t want you to use the new lower values for your benefit.

Also, talk to your neighbors who already had a successful hearing and ask them how they got the reductions. That would be proof positive of how you should approach your hearing.