Brother, Help Your Neighbor. Plus: HCAD using unreliable information on “renovation”
Protesting your property tax value is not a zero sum game. You can get a reduction in your value without having your reduction offset by a value increase for someone else. In fact, a value increase for someone else will eventually be used to justify a value increase for you. Don’t rat out your neighbors. You want them to have as low of a value as possible, because by law you have to be equally appraised. As a matter of fact, you should be helping your neighbors reduce their appraisal values. You may have neighbors on your street whose HCAD market values are through the roof because they haven’t protested in years. It might be because they are intimidated by the process, don’t know where to start. With older folks, it might be a combination of that and them not feeling the full impact of their increased market value because of their over 65 exemption. Start educating the people on your street, explain the impact their non protesting has on everyone else, remind them of the deadline, and offer to help them get started. This weekend I distributed letters to everyone on my street. My letter had every house’s HCAD market value, what Jubally thinks the market value should be, and the difference. It reminded them that the deadline is May 31, and offered them help preparing their protest. I also told them about Jubally’s great service that will do all the prep work for them for only $69. I told them that my interest in their property values is completely mercenary – I want their appraisal values to go down so mine will too.
Read more at HCADWallofShame.Wordpress.com