OMG Property Taxes 🤯

If you’re like me or all the clients that we’ve been talking to this week, you got your property tax appraisal value this week and had a heart attack.

Let’s take action. First, make sure you have your homestead exemption in place. If you bought last year and haven’t applied, the deadline is coming up at the end of the month. You can do this online and it is free. Just go to your county’s website like traviscad.org or wcad.org. This is the single biggest protection you have against a sudden huge increase in taxes because once you are homesteaded, your tax bill cannot go up by more than 10% a year (and you get a discount on your taxes).

Second, you have to protest. You can do this yourself by going to the county site to register to protest, or you can hire a professional. If you choose to do it yourself, it’s free, but it can be difficult - especially in this environment where frankly, sales prices are pretty darn high. I have protested myself before with varying results, but I switched to using the professional companies 7 years ago. The way they work is they will protest on your behalf, and if they can save you taxes, they bill you a percentage of what they save you. Nowadays they do charge a per property fee, but you don’t pay any more unless they save you money.

Third, you need to protest every year. Don’t miss a year. If you sign up w/ a company, they will protest for you every year without you needing to do anything.

Finally, watch this video. I sat with an owner of a property tax protest startup company to shed some light on the protest process. We do get a little in the weeds, but it will help you understand how the tax game works. In the video, I mention a sign up link. If you choose to use them, you’ll get 50% off the per-house-fee, and you can sign up here. Note that if you protest on your own, you can’t do that then afterwards bring on a company to try again.