Home address: 3614 Thompson St

2021 Tax Assessment: $654,988

Recent Sales Price: $440,000 – Over-taxed by 49%

While most Texas homeowners pay extra property taxes, there are several simple steps you can take to limit your tax bill. Protest market value, get a few comparable sales as evidence and you are very likely to 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. Winning a property tax protest is easy.  Getting property owners to appeal is hard. Only 10% of Texan homeowners appeal their property taxes.

Some homeowners do not appeal property taxes because they are not aware of this right.  You can and should protest both market value and unequal appraisal annually. 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. Appraisal districts are receptive to settling property tax protests for houses at the informal level because it has only a nominal impact on the total tax base. 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.