Home address: 200 Broken Bough Ln
2021 Taxable Value: $260,840
Recent Sales Price: $205,000 – Over-taxed by 27%
Montgomery County homeowners are often unaware of the factors that cause them to pay extra taxes. Either comparable sales or condition issues at your home are useful for a market value appeal of property taxes. Unequal appraisal is a powerful tool to reduce property taxes, but many homeowners are not aware of it and don’t use it. 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. It is difficult for appraisal districts to accurately value houses due to limited staff. Tax protests are resolved at the informal hearing since the result is within a “reasonable range of value”. Appraisal is not an exact science and valuations are only an educated opinion of value, not a fact. Property taxes are the largest tax most Texans face. But it is a stealth tax hidden in the mortgage payment, disguising the size of property taxes paid.