Travis County Appraisal District

Today I went to an informal hearing to protest the appraised value of my home. I've never done it before, and I didn't know what to expect.

The deadline to file the protest was end of May, but they didn't schedule my hearings until October. The informal one was scheduled while I still had my right arm immobile, and I couldn't quite do all the research, and spread out papers, and write down calculations as I would have liked, so I skipped the scheduled hearing. Luckily, one can go to these informal hearings any time up until two days before the formal hearing. My formal hearing was scheduled for next Monday, so I decided to go to the informal meeting today.

Last year, my appraised house value jumped from $182K to $204K, but because my neighbourhood has a homestead exemption, it was only allowed to increase by 10%, so the value was modified to $200K. Then for this year they appraised it for $202K, which in the district's eyes is a decrease from $204K but for me it's an increase from $200K.

I spent a few hours last weekend getting my evidence in order. I came up with five points, and ordered them in what I thought was the correct relevance: Refinancing appraisal and square footage, comparable sales in the neighbourhood in the second part of last year, adjusted market value of the two sale comps of larger homes that the county used, and a flayer with comparables from a company which represents individuals at these protests.

Since I refinanced the house in February, the appraisal done at that time was my main support material. The bank appraised it for $187.5, and that's the value I was going after. But, I decided I would be satisfied if they meet me somewhere in the middle, ~$195K. The square footage of the house in the county's records was also some 37 SqFt more than the refinancing appraiser measured, and the blue print showed, so correcting that would also help lower the appraised value. I also did some calculations to get adjusted value for the larger homes that sold, and printed some graphs that showed the sale prices went down in the second part of the year (because the county's comparables were from the first six months). I made two copies of all the documents, stapled papers for each evidence separately, and labeled with paper markers. The copy for the county went into a manila folder where I used to keep my music sheets for adoration. (the only folder I had) :)

I expected to be at the district's office for at least an hour, given that I didn't have an appointment, and they told me there is always a wait. As I was pulling in, I saw two other people with their folders walk in, so I figured it's going to be busy inside. After I signed in, no more than couple of minutes went by before the lady called my name. Actually, she called out the property address, because she couldn't pronounce my name. She seemed very pleasant as we chatted on the way to her desk.

Her first observation as she looked at my account on line was that it went down from last year, which, as I said before, I didn't see as decrease. I told her about the refinancing and how the size is smaller than what they have. She tried to explain how they measure from the outside, and round the numbers, but all their measurements were pretty much the same as what I had. So, she recalculated it, and it came down by some 51 square feet, which automatically brought the value down by some four thousands.

Then she wanted to look at the bank appraisal papers. She checked the page with appraisers credentials and company stamps and then glanced at the page with the three other properties compared and the appraised value of my home at $187.5K. Then she just asked if I wanted her to change the record to that value. Just like that! She didn't even look at my calculations, graphs, other comparables.....I didn't need to present any more arguments. It was all over before I even realized. I was in and out of that county building in less than half an hour.

Ah, small victories. :)