Lowering your tax payments on a new house???

[UTeric32]

I am a first time home buyer...

I am interested in a house in Houston that has been appraised at $250,000. At this rate, the previous owners had to pay a little over $6,000 a year on taxes.

My question is, if I were to buy the house for $200,000, would I be able to lower the tax rate and pay just on $200K instead of $250K?

Does this even make sense?? I apologize if there is a similar thread that I did not see.

 

[mishatx]

Maybe.

You'd have to buy it for that amount, get the property tax appraisal in may, protest it using your sales contract as proof that the property is only worth $200,000 and miraculously have them believe you.

They will then jack up the rate the next year anyway and you'll have to repeat the process.

 

[busterbrown16]

In Dallas, the appraisal district will accept the contract price on your home for 2 years and then they will jack it up to where it was before (or where they had it appraised at). I imagine they will be seeing a lot more of this with the price on houses going down quite substantially. It is certainly a savings on your part and worth a contest, if you have the time and inclination.

 

[UTeric32]

hmm, interesting that they will just shoot it back up. But I guess you have to expect that from them.

Well it is something I am def. going to look into to.

 

[Bernard]

Here's the real deal. If you live in Houston, there is a 100% chance of lowering the value to your purchase price. All you have to do is show HCAD a copy of your closing statement. That's exactly what I did when I bought my house. I know others that have done the same thing as well.

The appraisal district re-appraises every house in Harris County every year. They use a computerized appraisal system that takes a bunch of sales comps data that they buy from the Houston Association of Realtors and compares certain atributes of your house (age, square footage, # of bedrooms, land size, etc) to the sales comps in your neighborhood. This is VERY imperfect system for valuing real estate, especially in areas where homes are older or otherwise not homogenic.

Here's the real question. Why did the appraisal district value your house at $250k when the market value is really $200k? In most cases, HCAD values are lower that actual market values, so something may be amiss. Often, HCAD's data base is simply wrong. They may have the wrong land size for your house, they may have the wrong # of bedrooms, etc. Maybe there's some other aspect to your home that HCAD is not considering. Maybe you're at the edge of your neighborhood and close to commerical property making your house less valuable that others in the area.

When you sit down with HCAD, have the person go over with you the entire file that they have one your home. Explain your sitation and tell them that you are very curious about your value could be so out of whack to begin with. I have found them to be very helpful in my dealings with them.

Bernard

 

[wolfman]

I lowered the tax value of my home in Dallas county by challanging the appraisal value when it was valuated in the springtime. One other thing to consider. Have you homesteaded your home? It can effectivly drop the tax value as well.

 

[Bernard]

Separately, $6,000 seems like a lot of tax on a home valued at $250k. Is this house in some sort of MUD district or subject to some other other special tax? HCAD has my house at $296,560 and my 2007 taxes were $5853.

Bernard

 

[netslave]

I work for a company called O'Connor and Associates and that's a lot of what we do. We'll get comparable house values to make a case as to why your taxes should be lowered.

Visit The Link for more details.

 

[Bernard]

I know and like Pat O'Connor, but there's no reason to pay a tax consultant a portion of your tax savings when all you have to do is walk into HCAD's office, hand them a copy of your closing statement and get your assessed value lowered to your purchase price.

Bernard