Mass Appraisal vs Mess Appraisal

You have an amazing chance to reduce your property taxes because of the way that the appraisal district values your property. They use a process they call mass appraisal. I think a better name for it is mess appraisal, because the results are a mess. The values are all over the board, half are high and half are low. The appraisal districts are not even within 3% for 90% of the properties.

A quarter of the properties are valued less than 90% and another quarter are valued more than 110%. The appraisal district doesn’t know if you’re high or low unless you come in and visit with them about your property’s condition, the record card and the sales in your area. To the extent that the appraisal district’s record card is overstating and overvaluing you, you can address those issues. And if they’re understating the value, you’re under no requirement to inform them of that.

But the real issue is looking at the sales. If you look at the sales and see that a reduction is appropriate, they will agree, and, in fact, that’s what happens at two out of three property tax protests. That’s why it kills me that only 7% home owners protest in the state of Texas. But two out of three protests are successful. Join the 7% that protest, reduce your property taxes two years out of three. If you want to see if your taxes are fairly assessed, go to the Texas fairness checker at CutMyTaxes.com.

To enroll in the Property Tax Protection Program, click here to get started now.