Homeowners in North Texas often receive their Notice of Appraised Value from their respective County in mid to late April, and they may want to protest their taxable amount. As a courtesy to these clients, our OnDemand Realtors offer a free CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) to assist OnDemand Realty clients when protesting their taxes. A CMA will provide an accurate estimate of the home's market value, which is one of the four techniques used to protest taxes. If the taxable value is lower than the market value, no action needs to be taken. If the taxable value is equal to the market value, no action needs to be taken. However, if the taxable value is higher than the market value, action must be taken and the taxes must be protested. Therefore, a comprehensive market analysis is essential for determining the market value of a property and making an informed decision about whether or not to protest the property's taxes.
If you think your property's assessed value is too high, your initial recourse should be to visit your County Tax Assessor's website to discover how to dispute your property taxes. Each County varies in their process, with some offering online protests while others may require you to mail in your protest or set up an ARB (Appraisal Review Board) meeting.
Regardless of the protest method, it's crucial to gather evidence to support your claim that the appraised value is excessive or that there's an inequality in comparison to your neighbors' appraised values.
Find Your County Appraisal District Below:
METHODS OF RESIDENTIAL HOME VALUATION
COMPARATIVE MARKET ANALYSIS
A Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is a document typically produced by a REALTOR®. REALTORs typically have access to the multiple listing service data which shows all the sales data in your area. This document is part science and part art form. It contains recently sold homes, pending sales data and homes currently for sale similar to your. This is the industry standard for showing the current value of a home.
REPLACEMENT COST
When you are trying to establish the value of a home, calculating the replacement cost at current labor and material prices can be very effective. You will need to leverage home estimating software typically used by home builders. This is usually not an effective method when attempting to lower the appraised value, since it is typically more expensive to rebuild a home at current prices.
PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT
Establishing a valid price per square foot for the subject property is relatively straight forward. Finding comparable properties to use in your comparison is much more difficult. New homes will typically be much more expensive than your home. Existing homes will be more difficult to compare against due to a variety of reasons. The strongest reason for to avoid this techniques is the inconsistent calculation of a square foot price.
This is quite possibly the simplest and most effective technique to use if you have closed on your home within a year or so. Texas is a non-disclosure state for real estate sales prices.
Know that the cost per square foot does not take into consideration a number of other factors that affect the value of your property. Some of those factors are age, condition, location, quality of construction, size of your land, etc. Many property owners get relief through this process.
