Home address: 822 Garrett St

2021 Tax Assessment: $74,610

Recent Sales Price: $54,900 – Over-taxed by 36%

McLennan County homeowners are often unaware of the factors that cause them to pay extra taxes. Market value property tax appeals save homeowners an average of $500, according to Texas Comptroller Glen Hager, for 2019. An unequal appraisal appeal is easy to prepare.  Just find neighborhood homes with a lower level of assessment (per square foot).  Summarize the data in a table. Winning a property tax protest is easy. Getting property owners to appeal is hard.  Only 10% of Texan homeowners appeal their property taxes.

Some property owners do not appeal due to a concern the appraisal district will want to inspect their house.  However, the appraisal district is MUCH too busy during the appeal season to even think about asking to inspect a property.  Assessors do not visit houses because of appeals. Appraisal districts use mass appraisal to value property, basically a math model. Overall results are OK. However, many homes are too high or low. Tax protests are resolved at the informal hearing since the result is within a “reasonable range of value”.  An appraisal is not an exact science and valuations are only an educated opinion of value, not a fact. Property owners have a duty and responsibility to appraisal property taxes annually.  It is not prudent or reasonable to rely on the appraisal district’s estimate.