Home address: 2209 Sea Palm Dr

2021 Taxable Value: $205,062

Recent Sales Price: $140,000 – Over-taxed by 46%

Texas property owners can avoid paying excess property taxes by taking several basic steps. One option to reduce your property taxes is to protest the market value. Property owners can appeal both market value and unequal appraisal. Winning a property tax protest is easy. Getting property owners to appeal is hard. Only 10% of Texan homeowners appeal their property taxes. 

Owners are sometimes reluctant to protest property taxes due to a concern their value might be raised. This can’t and does not happen. Since 2019, neither the appraisal district or the appraisal review board can increase a property tax assessment during a protest. Appraisal districts use mass appraisal to value property, basically a math model.  Overall results are OK. However, many homes are too high or low. Appraisal districts aggressively settle appeals since they have only 65 days to settle most of the appeals. Protesting your property taxes annually is analogous to regularly changing the oil in your car. Preventative maintenance avoids serious problems.