County property tax value assessments have been released! Any increase impacts your monthly payments and can possibly be lowered by protesting the value. What follows are Forza’s instructions for protesting tax value assessments online.
First, determine the amount by which your appraisal has increased:
Market value comparisons 2021 vs 2022
5130 Sesame St., Katy, TX 77494
2021 - 310,457 / 2622 sq ft = $118.40
2022 - 342,860 / 2622 sq ft = $130.76
Second, determine "How does my home's appraisal (price per square foot) compare with other homes in my neighborhood?" To find this out, first turn to google maps and visually identify neighboring properties that seem to have the same square footage, lot size, stories, and pool (if any.) Write down the addresses of several properties similar to yours, then go to your county appraisal website and click on property search. On the property search page, you can type the street name without numericals and get a list of all the homes on that street with their property's appraised value and more details.
County appraisal websites:
HARRIS COUNTY: https://hcad.org/hcad-online-services/ifile-protest/
FORT BEND COUNTY: https://www.fbcad.org/appeals/
MONTGOMERY COUNTY: https://onlineappeals.mcad-tx.org/User/Login?ReturnUrl=%2f
BRAZORIA COUNTY: https://www.brazoriacad.org/e-file.html
Using your county’s appraisal district website, gather data on all properties with the same square footage, lot size, stories, and pool (if any) as your own. Divide the appraised value by the building square footage to get a dollar amount per square foot. Identify three of these properties with a lower dollar amount per square foot than your own. Once you have these three properties, go to the online protest tool offered through your county’s appraisal district website. The protest form will ask the reason for your protest and you will choose “VALUE IS UNEQUAL COMPARED WITH OTHERS.”
Then, you will paste the data on the comparable properties you have identified as follows:
I looked up homes like mine on my street and here are 3 comparables
5114 Sesame St.
B-2538/L-6875/2017 built/1 story $311,984/$122.92
5215 Discovery St.
B-2800/L-10,548/2017 built/1 story $345,696/$123.45 (3000 sq sq ft bigger lot)
5223 History St.
B-2682/L-7901/2018 built/1 story $336,965/$125.64 (has custom 420 sq ft porch)
The average of these = $124.00 x 2622 sq ft = $325,128. That is my requested fair value for 2022. I appreciate your assistance.
When you file your protest- less is more when it comes to talking or writing to them. The more you talk or type- usually ends up talking you into an even higher value. Feel free to copy and paste the verbiage above into the protest box when filing and just edit with your data. Typically this will be resolved online if you file online but you can also do this in person by completing their mailed form and going to the county appraisal officer personally.