Tips for Tax Appraisal Appeal

propertytaxTen tips for protesting your Property Tax Appraisal

  1. File your appeal close to the deadline – the later your appeal is mailed the later your hearing. If your hearing is later other people have already done some of the work of getting their values lowered.
  2. Request the “Field Report Card” for your property and the Equity and Market comps. This information will help you build your case.
  3. Confirm “Feild Report” is correct – if the CAD you down for more sqft or other improvements that would increase your value provide evidence otherwise. If they don’t have your additional sqft best not to tell them that. :)
  4. Use the information packet the CAD sends and find comps that are similar but appraised for less
  5. Create a Reconciliation of similar equity or market comps (I can send you a template for this)
  6. Document things that might make your land less valuable than others appraised at the same rate – on a busy street, deed restrictions and so on
  7. Document issues with the buildings / improvements on your property – foundation , functional obsolesce – try to avoid cosmetic stuff
  8. Get “cost to cure” estimates from a contractor or engineer
  9. Attend the “Informal” hearing – your taxes can only go down at the informal
  10.  Pick your best 2 or 3 arguments about why your value should be lowered and save the rest for next year

If you’d like a CMA to use to help fight your taxes I’m happy to provide one for you free of charge.