As my father used to say when I was growing up, a few things in this life are certain… among those are death and taxes. We, homeowners, are accustomed to seeing our assessed property values increase year after year, even when there are no improvements and even though our home suffers from the wear and tear associated with daily living.
Some of us simply resign to the valuation increases. Others file a protest online and, after being denied online, just accept the new assessment. What many do not know is that you can actually set a hearing to argue your case for lower values, and given the right data and preparation, you can actually win!
Such was the case for me this year. My home clocked a hefty 4% increase in assessed taxable value. I protected online, was promptly denied, and then scheduled a hearing. Fortunately, I had a home inspection performed by a third party the year before for my 1 year home builder warranty, so I brought it along with some comps I thought would help.
I made the argument that my home not only did not increase in value, but that it want down 0.8% or stayed the same. To my surprise, they immediately shot down my comps, comparing them to their own, which were admittedly more accurate. But when I broke out the home inspection, they took note of all of the professionally documented “defects” in my home. Using this, they were persuaded that my home had not increased as much as they initially assessed and I was able to lock in a 1.7% increase in assessed value - and that was on a new construction home. All homes have defects, and these defects can be properly documented in a report by a skilled professional home inspector.
If you would like to schedule an appointment for a home inspection, you can follow this link to our online scheduler https://www.texasvalor.com/schedule-an-inspection or feel free to call us at (512) 630-0611.
