County Tax Hearing Help

[jerich9701]

I've got a hearing before the Hays Co tax board in two weeks and I need some help. They've appraised my house at $172k and in May I had to pay for an idependent appraisal for a refinance and his appraisal was $160k. The problem I have is that the idependent appraisal had a lot of information about market conditions, houses that have been sold, etc and I don't know what the county did. Did they just apply a standard rate increase or did they really look at my house hard like this other guy did.

What sort of arguments should I use in the hearing. I don't just want to go in there and say this guy doesn't know what he's doing because of a 12K difference.

What is the best I can hope for? 50/50 split of the difference or are boards more apt to side with someone willing to fight.

Thanks in advance.

 

[IslandTime]

I had a very similar situation with my appraisal here in Dallas Co. I had an independent appraisal from earlier in the year that was $8k lower than the county appraisal. I simply took in my appraisal and gave the hearing board a copy. They reduced my taxable appraised value to the amount on my independent appraisal. The county tax appraisers don't do the in depth work that your independent appraiser did. They don't have the manpower to individually appraise each home. They simply make an across the board raise in value and hope that enough people don't contest it to give them their increased tax base. It should be a slam dunk for you.