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Posted
On 7/29/2025 at 11:58 AM, bschoolprof said:

Yes, retirees with limited income should definitely be paying more tax on illiquid wealth.  

Get a fucking job and afford your taxes free loader. Why should I be subsidizing your ability to live in your expensive ass home just because you’ve lived on the earth longer than me?

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

On a serious note though, if you’re Bexar county then don’t pay anyone to do your protest. The informal appointment appraisers are such a push over that as long as your reduction is ~ 10% they’ll just agree to it with minimal evidence.

with Chat GPT, it’s now just too easy.

Playbook:

1.) Get appraisal

2.) Protest 

3.) Receive comps / evidence packet

4.) Request access to county data that literally has all properties in county (it’s a code to a Box.com account or something like that at least)

5.) Download CSV file

6.) Filter the 4-5 gig excel file down to your neighborhood / street / whatever window you think is fair or makes your house look way over priced 

7.) Save only that filtered data

8.) Ask Chat GPT to make a presentation / statically coherent arguement for X price.

9.) During informal present your # and show Chat’s hard work.

10.) Profit…. Well at least pay less than you would.

Posted (edited)
On 8/7/2025 at 3:24 PM, LCHorn said:

There are generally accepted rules the appraisal district must follow.  The problem is enforcement; between negotiating with the district, the ARB, and arbitration on a subjective value truly only known at the time of property conveyance there's a lot of wiggle room. 

FWIW, we appear to be down roughly 11% on our two investment properties in Austin after the hearings.   Selfishly I'm glad, but that's troubling from a "how do we fund AISD and city services" perspective if that's at all indicative of TCAD's broader value reductions.  

I am hoping you agree with me that the "value only known at the time of property conveyance" should be the appraised value because of the calendar wrt when appraisals are figured.  

 In my case, example:  if I buy a property for 190k and close on February 25, imo that should be the appraised value, because that is about the time appraisals are figured out.  Am I about correct there?  Maybe from then to the end of March? The lady on the phone did not have the expertise or experience to know exactly how they come up with an appraisal, so I am hoping to find some information so specific I can remove all doubt that the property should be appraised under 200k.  

Once I get the magical under 200k appraisal, the wife will be 64 years old at that time.  Once we file the homestead exemption correctly after closing, we would just need to wait until her October birthday to file for the 65+ exemption and at the same time the ISD taxes will be frozen at $0.  

In the meantime, I look at realtor.com about three or four times a week and prices are still going down because supply is up. 

Worst case scenario, if I were to purchase and have to protest, I know exactly how to protest to old men that are now my peers.  Pictures estimates, and the sales price.  In fact, going in to a protest I would look older and poorer than the old men.  My objective is to get an appraisal under 200k on a 190k purchase price without having to protest, but that may be too much to ask for. 

 

 

 

Edited by JGrayDBU
Posted
On 8/7/2025 at 8:51 PM, Dnaguy said:

On a serious note though, if you’re Bexar county then don’t pay anyone to do your protest. The informal appointment appraisers are such a push over that as long as your reduction is ~ 10% they’ll just agree to it with minimal evidence.

with Chat GPT, it’s now just too easy.

Playbook:

1.) Get appraisal

2.) Protest 

3.) Receive comps / evidence packet

4.) Request access to county data that literally has all properties in county (it’s a code to a Box.com account or something like that at least)

5.) Download CSV file

6.) Filter the 4-5 gig excel file down to your neighborhood / street / whatever window you think is fair or makes your house look way over priced 

7.) Save only that filtered data

8.) Ask Chat GPT to make a presentation / statically coherent arguement for X price.

9.) During informal present your # and show Chat’s hard work.

10.) Profit…. Well at least pay less than you would.

Thanks, but I would never pay someone to do it anyway.  It was a small summer job that one year when I was grinding so hard, and I honestly could have made some really good money had I started a protest business.   The real secret is that you don't have to grind hard every year, because of the 10% limit.  Just grind hard every other year, keep your eye on the ball, and be ready to move forward to the next step after meeting the old men.  I never tried to go further than the old men, but I found the procedures when I did my research.  

Posted (edited)
28 minutes ago, JGrayDBU said:

Thanks, but I would never pay someone to do it anyway.  It was a small summer job that one year when I was grinding so hard, and I honestly could have made some really good money had I started a protest business.   The real secret is that you don't have to grind hard every year, because of the 10% limit.  Just grind hard every other year, keep your eye on the ball, and be ready to move forward to the next step after meeting the old men.  I never tried to go further than the old men, but I found the procedures when I did my research.  

In Fort Bend I did go past the ARB. I had put together a nice analysis and they pretty much just asked the appraiser what he thought and when he said that they run all the numbers through their software, etc they ARB threw me a ‘bone’ and took like 5 grand off. That made me salty.

I requested arbitration.

You have to put down like 500 or 1000 bucks as an escrow depending on valuation of the property. If I remember correctly, if the arbiter goes with a number closer to yours then the county is on the hook for that # and you get your $ back. But if they rule closer to the county number you lose your $.

I can’t remember if they called me or I called them before the actual arbitration date. But I got another meeting with the county and they agreed to like 75% of what I was asking for in appraisal reduction. So I never actually got in front of the arbiter and was given my $ back 

Provably took too much of my time but it was a learning experience none the less.

Edited by Dnaguy
Posted
46 minutes ago, JGrayDBU said:

Am I about correct there?

Appraisal Districts asses a value as of 1/1 in the current calendar year.  There’s informal deference, at times, to purchases made in the previous year (they may ask for the settlement statement and use the purchase amount as the current value), or, like in 2021, they may make time adjustments.  

 

50 minutes ago, JGrayDBU said:

I know exactly how to protest to old men that are now my peers.

At least in Austin, they ARB hearing volunteers are mainly older females.  They tend to be unfairly deferential to the county but that’s kind of the nature of it.  

Posted
31 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

Appraisal Districts asses a value as of 1/1 in the current calendar year.  There’s informal deference, at times, to purchases made in the previous year (they may ask for the settlement statement and use the purchase amount as the current value), or, like in 2021, they may make time adjustments.  

 

At least in Austin, they ARB hearing volunteers are mainly older females.  They tend to be unfairly deferential to the county but that’s kind of the nature of it.  

1/1, so the airtight way to do it would be to close on 12/30.(avoid holidays) That is the question.  Especially on a home with a 40k difference, hypothetical 240k appraisal 01/01/2026 on sales price 199.9k vs an unknown appraisal on 01/01/2027, is it better to close on 12/30/2026 or 01/02/2027?    Right now there are houses listed 40k below appraisal in Bexar County.

 

Posted
1 hour ago, Dnaguy said:

In Fort Bend I did go past the ARB. I had put together a nice analysis and they pretty much just asked the appraiser what he thought and when he said that they run all the numbers through their software, etc they ARB threw me a ‘bone’ and took like 5 grand off. That made me salty.

I requested arbitration.

You have to put down like 500 or 1000 bucks as an escrow depending on valuation of the property. If I remember correctly, if the arbiter goes with a number closer to yours then the county is on the hook for that # and you get your $ back. But if they rule closer to the county number you lose your $.

I can’t remember if they called me or I called them before the actual arbitration date. But I got another meeting with the county and they agreed to like 75% of what I was asking for in appraisal reduction. So I never actually got in front of the arbiter and was given my $ back 

Provably took too much of my time but it was a learning experience none the less.

Wow! You earned your money!  I am almost certain the old men in Collin County gave me half of what I wanted.  I wonder what the escrow dollar amount would have been 15 years ago.  I probably didn't have it.  I was definitely a poor teacher back then.  Teacher salaries have come a long way.  

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