Practical Tips to reduce property tax in HCAD
People are not always satisfied with their property assessment. In Harris County appraisal district, property assessed by computerized system is divergent. HCAD’s computerized and it evaluates the property value through some predefined values and it’s not practical. Here are some healthy tips that worked for many people during their property tax protest. Let’s start with the basics, 1. Filing the protest Filing your protest is very important and you should not leave it in the “Forget list”. For filing the property tax protest, you will just need visit the HCAD website to login yourself and you don’t even need a stamp to do it. Particularly, one should not forget filing or liberate the process as there is a sharp rise in values. This is the first step for reducing property tax. It’s just not enough to just filing a protest. You must appear promptly during the hearing.
2. You really need a professional’s help? The answer is ‘NO’. This is because, many people are getting positive result on their protest on property tax without hiring an agent. Thinking why?
Because, the homeowner is more motivated in reducing his own property tax assessment and he knows the positives and negatives of their properties and supporting documents better than the agents. So, instead of paying to professionals for the job, the owner can do it as he has in depth idea about his own property.
3. Take some time to explore the HCAD website This may sound a bit odd, but to reduce property tax, you can visit HCAD website that has sufficient information about what can be expected during the protest and the information that are considered by HCAD, and many other deep details to help property owners during the protest. Once you have filed your tax protest, the property owner will receive an informal hearing date and the website will show the attributes the computerized models uses to compare it with your property, and to be noted, these information will only be available in the site before 15-20 days prior to the hearing. You should seriously consider this because computerized model comparison will not be similar on most cases.
4. It’s not war, be nice Do not just think the process is just a “Property Tax Protest�. The aim is a property tax reduction and it is more about the discussion and the key points you deliver to justify the market value of the property you propose. You should give good reason to lower your property value assessment backed with relevant data through supporting documents. Also, the folks in the appraiser review board is also humans who have lot of control. So you must logically state your position with supporting proofs in a friendly manner and do not lose your temper.