I’m Zac Lashway. We’re going to spend time talking about those stories throughout the hour. But first. >> If you own a home you might have recently received your property tax appraisal in the mail. And if you did it, you will very soon the value the appraisal district has assigned to your home directly impacts how much you owe in property taxes at the end of the year. So if you think it’s too high, you can and should protest it. You have until May 15th or 30 days from the day you received the notice too. File your protest here to explain what this means and how it works is Amy Davis. She has her own experience with protesting her appraisal. Amy has also helped Haley Hernandez and Anthony Yanez through the process. They’re joining us from Studio B. So before I toss it over to you, guys came out a few questions. I just want you to keep in mind as we move throughout this conversation. One, why should anyone want to say their home is worth less 2, if you want to sell what do you need to do and what you want the value on record to be as high as possible. I know where you’re going with that. But yeah, it’s like a common misconception that you guys heard this yet. Yes, like, oh, well, if the if the property tax office as your home is worth like $400,000 what do you want to argue that it’s worth only 3.60? >> Because then there’s this record of you saying it’s only worth that and say put it on the market for sale. So real estate agents will tell you that does not matter your value for the tax office, in fact, would be a selling point. But I can tell the buyer I’ve kept my appraisal solo. Your taxes are going to be lower. I already save you money of hard work ahead of time. Yeah, but it’s working. Got to do every single year and the market really determines what the value of your house is. So it’s not your property taxes. So if you live in a neighborhood where you have a lot of expensive homes, even low property tax. >> It’s going to sell based on the property values of the homes of the neighbors. Yeah. So last year, Anthony and I both got a tutorial from Amy and we all 3. >> When protested our property taxes. That’s why we’re here today to talk. >> Yeah. So we’ve done a lot of stories like over the years and there’s not a real great format for just sitting down and sharing all of it because it can be a lengthy process. I think we brought our family, brought her back like the packet that we took with us to the protest. But we just want to go over some basic things. I you are very lucky. Last year you had luck. >> I did have I did have a lot of luck and I will say the first most glaring thing is that you told me they’re really they’re not supposed to increase of more than 10% every year. >> If you have a homestead exemption, so make sure you do that. >> Yeah. And so right off the bat do mask because I did the math and they had increased it by 10 and a half right away. They were like, okay, like red flag, you know? And so then I got to make my argument about everything else. But I think that helped me going into it that like, hey, you guys are wrong off the start. You know, so did did the math. I don’t do math. My husband did it. But he told me have Fort Center and I did all that I can for my packet. But I I did the math. And you told me, hey, look at things in your house that big I big items. >> That you’re going to need to replace. And that sometimes will lower the property value. And our roof is the original roof. >> From 20 years ago. And so I know that’s coming. And then air conditioning units, those are old. And I know that’s coming in. Our fences are starting to fall down and that’s coming. So I got up praising the I got a estimates on all of And I said, here’s what you’re charging me. And I said it should be less based on these 3 major things that I’m going to have to do either next year or pretty darn soon. >> Yeah, because what I said is like things that you tell them. Hey, if I sold my home today because you’re arguing the market value, if I sold my home on the market say these are all things that I would need to fix or I’m not going to get getting as much for my property is I should because the new owner will want to fix them. >> So tell people to what you were explaining. You want to argue the market value because it they give you 2 values. But why it’s important argue the market. Well, they so they you argue either the market value or you can argue unequal appraisal. But so when you get a little notice in the mail, they’re going to be 2 figures. The appraised value and the market value in for most people. Most of the time, the appraisal district has put those values the same. And so when you argue the market value, you’re basically trying to get that appraised value down. And the reason being is because that’s what the tax you on is the appraised value. So, you know, months down the road when the city says, oh, this is a new tax rate than you’re basically applying that 17% rate to the value of your home. And that’s what you pay in taxes, But you’re that is what you are protesting. And that was one of the things that took the most time to actually figure out because they give you 5 different homes to look at. And so I had to drive around my neighborhood. Find yes. And then what was strange to me? >> Was that these homes did not match my house at all. There were 2 houses that were much nicer anyway, nicer, like million dollar homes. And then there were 2 homes that were like, wait, these are way throws out the I couldn’t get any information on the faces, taking a picture in the yard. And so I was like this is weird, right? And so I so trying to argue that was really difficult for me because I’m like, hey, I’m not worth ease. I kind of little bit. Yeah, he’s right. So that was really tough to go tonight. But it went in and still said, hey, you’re comparing me to these. This is what I found out. Why. And I looked at all their what they for example and say, hey, this is information that this is why all of them are nicer than mine. Except for this one that couldn’t get information. >> Well, the same thing happened to me. They were comparing me to homes that were not comparable. And we have pictures of what I what I did was the same thing is Anthony. But I went took pictures of the ones that I thought would be comparable in a year like my whole. Yeah. They were valued much lower than mine, but they were the same builder. Basically the same style. I’m guessing you can’t even tell these homes apart right now because they know to me I was like, hey, I should be compared to these. >> And I did. Yeah. And have a value closer to their right? Yeah. And what happened >> they they liked that to to tell you the truth. I think the thing that they they most found interest in, even though I did everything Amy told me and then my very last detail was that recently a huge apartment complex has gone up and it’s changed. it’s changed the appeal of the neighborhood because there’s a lot of traffic now and I use that and they were like, okay, well, let’s see that picture So they pulled it up on Google Maps and they’re like, wow, like this is this is massive like she’s she’s right. And they found him. They took more interest in that about like basically the appeal of the Then the what everything else. So they argued, which was that pay? Those houses look the same as mine. I should be valued at their app. So, yeah, so I brought some pictures in that. We have values last and just as we’re pulling those pictures up misses and they’re like, what are we looking at here? So this is inside my house. >> Where I have okay. Now this is the outside. When you’re talking about neighbor. >> I we share an ally with this restaurant that constantly has delivery truck. Drivers like parking in the alley, blocking your and your driveway. I might
look out terrible. My while but to start from the while but to start from the bottom. You’ll have a little thing that you might just disregard that comes in in your notice in the mail that basically tells you how you can start protesting in the first thing you should do is go online and in Harris County, you can do I settle or, you know, going there just say, like, hey, I don’t think about you could start there. Is that where you started yet? That’s the first step and you have to give them a value that you think it is worse. And it’s it’s an easier process. And then if they come back and they lowered a little bit, not enough, then you can say, OK, you know what? I’m still going to take my chances in go before the appraisal Review board, which is what we’re all now talking about, right where there’s 3 people in a room. You can do it by zoom or in person. >> Wheeled out in person. Right? And that’s what the evidence is for. No, I I didn’t do okay. And I will tell you that. I think you guys waited a lot longer for your appointment. And I mine started right on time. >> Yeah. And I had another friend who told me it’s like who knows that that? Yeah. The success of her zoom. What I said was what they want to see. You know, I feel like you can make better appeals. Yeah. And for me and sympathy, yeah person. But you you’re so successful and homeowner line was I was I felt like it was tough because I saw on the Fort Bend County so what was interesting to me is after I did all of this work and then they started talking. I felt this small. I felt so DOB. Yeah. What they talked about was nothing of what talked about. All the stories. Yeah. About hey improvements. Neighborhood comparisons. I went in there and that the first line they said was, well, we’re looking at your value is if we took a bulldozer and we bulldoze your house. What would it cost to Bree? Build your home and this is the value. This is the cost would be with everything. And so we believe this is the right amount. Yeah, which is odd because no, that’s not market value. That’s not what my house with self worth. And that was totally different. What was told to me was toy deferrals told to and I didn’t know it as the Fort Bend County thing or what big. But then I was like, wait, call. Yeah. Feel you know, some right. And then I felt like I did all this work for absolutely nothing because they’re saying this is this is the reason it’s not about rooms and fences and air conditioners or even the value. How nice your house is compared to this other house threats about if you didn’t have a house there, we had to rebuild that. This is what it would cause. >> You say it’s not for no reason. Every year you should be every year. You should be protesting. And we’re talking about again about your homestead. If you have that homestead in your home, they can only in Texas raised your appraisal, they can only raise your appraisal by 10%. They can raise or market value higher. >> And you’re arguing on the market value, which is why sometimes or market value may be way higher than your appraisal. And it stinks because I go in and argue that the market will use to hire like, okay, great will lower by, you percent. It’s like my praises down here. I need to lower that. So it makes a difference to how much and pay my taxes for. But if you if you protest every year at least online, then, you know, you know, you always made it a Chongqing it like so if they say no, they say no. But it’s a lower by only $10,000 or $1000. That’s something that almost issue. They’re going to raise it by 10%. >> And I just got mine this year and all the savings that I got last year, they did get a savings and of course, and the tax break. Also with that, the homestead exemption, everything put together. They did come in a little drop just because they think they felt sorry for me on us last year. Yeah, yeah. And so this year, all the amount that I argued in that they went down on. They went back up on this year. So I kind of want to discount and now it’s back up a cat. >> Well, I went in. And so whenever I got my mind in the mail on that’s not as much of an increase is I usually see every year. So I’m going back through my records to see like what would they have originally come back? And I believe now that I’m looking at it when I reached Ali, did the I settle online and said, hey, I think it’s worth this. They came back with a number that I said, oh, that’s not low enough. At the end of the day, when I look back, that number was actually lower than the number I ended up with at RB 3 panel review board that took a long time to prepare this package to I mean, look at this pass away at here. This is several paper order, but I keep it because there’s no real, no other place to go like want to protest. And they lowered to know originally what do they say? It was worth when they sent me that original. Yeah, you know thing each year. So I save all that sort of already argued. See what’s left. >> There’s no there’s no official documents from like 20 21, 2020, only the official that you can get online that shows like what it was valued at last year. Like the end, what you ended up with after protests and everything. So there’s a lot more. Yeah, a lot more information on click 2 Houston dot com. You can find that 30 Ask Amy with a tax protest. >> And by the way, this year I got a company. So I said, let’s see what you can do. Recommend those companies. Yeah, I mean, if you’re not going to yourself, you might as well use them. I mean, look at the fine print the most of the time. If they don’t get you anything off your time so that you don’t hurt me, don’t charge you anything. >> A lot of them are set that it’s a they take a percentage of what they do. Save you off of your tax bill. So if its nominal, it’s money that, you know, if they don’t do anything for you, then you don’t have to pay them anything. Yeah, and renters should also care about this. I mean, you know, they shun Karin that your property taxes are going to be most likely your landlord is not going for to keep yeah. There’s not a whole lot you can do if you’re a renter, but just, you know, encourage everybody to protests. It’s your right in Texas. >> Good advice. Amy, thank you so much for doing this with us every year. >> Helping us out. Yeah. Here we go again. Haha. >> All right, Zach, we’re going to send it back to you in studio. Yeah, here we go again, Amy, for president. >> I had less luck to both of you guys. Haha. Yeah. That was a lot of adulting really get in for >> Thank you all very much. We do appreciate it. Thank More information as Amy just said on steps to protest your
