Home address: 412 Meadow Mountain Dr

2021 Tax Assessment: $240,190

Recent Sales Price: $190,000 – Over-taxed by 26%

While most Texas homeowners pay extra property taxes, there are several simple steps you can take to limit your tax bill. Protesting the appraisal district’s market value with usually reduce your property taxes. 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. The Texas Comptroller reports 80% of 2019 property tax appeals by homeowners were successful.

Property owners are sometimes reluctant to protest their property taxes because the believe the appeal process is difficult. It is not difficult and 60 to 80% of owners who appeal are successful. One reason it is difficult for appraisal districts to correctly value homes is they are not homogenous. Some have been remodeled and some haven’t. 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. Not appealing your property taxes annually is the equivalent of volunteering to pay extra property taxes.