Home address: 153 Cr 3594

2021 Taxable Value: $90,360

Recent Sales Price: $60,000   – Over-taxed by 51%

Wise County property investors far too often pay excess property taxes. Most market value protests are successful, typically saving the owner hundreds or thousands of dollars. Unequal appraisal is a powerful tool to reduce property taxes, but many homeowners are not aware of it and don’t use it. It is difficult to persuade property owners to protest their property taxes.  But 60 to 80% of those who do are successful.

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. Mass appraisal models make it impossible for appraisal districts to accurately value most houses. Tax protests are resolved at the informal hearing since the result is within a “reasonable range of value”.  Appraisal is not an exact science and valuations are only an educated opinion of value, not a fact. Property taxes are the largest tax most Texans face.  But it is a stealth tax hidden in the mortgage payment, disguising the size of property taxes paid.