So Ben, we're back together again.
Seems like this is our annual date
as people people start getting these
property tax appraisals and it's it's
sticker shock in some years this year
feels different Ben and and I know
you're a lot closer to it than I am
because you're actually dealing with
people who are going through this.
But I've been hearing from a lot of people.
A lot of people are seeing some
huge increases.
Yeah, and you know we're we've
been hearing a lot about how the
market has just been, you know,
going nuts and you know,
for a lot of people year over year,
they're seeing 10 to 15% appreciation
every year, so that's great.
If you want to sell your house,
or if you're hoping that your
home is going to gain in value.
But where that's not fun is when
you have to pay that tax bill
every year and every year.
It just keeps going up. So
do you. Just based upon anecdotally what
you're seeing so far this year, though?
Because I've been looking through some of the
numbers from some of the central appraisal.
Districts, I haven't gotten
all of the the rundowns yet,
but from what I'm seeing in years past,
there used to be this chunk of people
whose value didn't go up at all.
It was unchanged.
It didn't go up.
It didn't go down,
and it was a good sized chunk of people
in some of these appraisal districts.
And then there was a decent chunk who you
know had value decreases in those years,
and that was a sizable chunk as well.
This year I'm not seeing that I'm seeing
that there's almost no one who didn't
get an increase or who stayed the same.
And it is enormous.
The number of people who saw big increases,
especially you know on the
heavier side of the scale there.
Yeah, and you know again, it's just.
It's a symptom of the market we're in,
and overall it's a great thing.
It means that there's a lot of demand.
It means there's a lot of people
coming here from all over the
country because they recognize how
great it is to live in Dallas.
It's it's getting harder and
harder to find a home in the Dallas
area in a desirable location.
Of course, that means values go up,
and you know, that's no secret,
and it has no escape.
The appraisal districts either.
So let me ask you this. Do you think?
Because I know that you've been helping
people in recent years to actually.
Protest their appraisals.
Do you think that we're going to
see a record number of protests
this year just because so many
people are seeing such increases?
She's not sure. Hope,
so I really think that you know this
is one of those things that you know
you should be doing it every year.
You know you don't need to protect
your property taxes every year,
but you should review them and you
should make sure that increase isn't
disproportionate to what the market's doing,
because even with this crazy
market that we've been seeing,
you know when we list homes they sit out
there for a day or two before they're sold.
And you know that market is something
that's really going to push those
property taxes up as well, so.
You know you're just it's so universal
right now and there's so much demand even
with the market doing what it's doing,
we're still seeing those appraisals
can be high.
We've had a lot of success in
protesting for people already this year,
so I always have this this yearly date
with you, and I have this yearly date
with Chandler Crouch out in Tarrant
County and he's you know, notorious.
For for offering the protests as well.
And and I know that you all know
each other and you've been doing
this for several years now.
For people who are newer here who maybe just
moved here in the last year or two years,
or for people who haven't felt the
need to protest their appraisal before
and and and hadn't thought to do this,
walk me through how it works with you.
How does? How does this work?
First of all, you guys expanded this year.
You're in Dallas County,
but then also you're going into
Rockwall and Collin County now.
Yeah, we've expanded Rockwall and Collin
County just because we know that there's
not a Chandler or a band out there.
And those in those counties doing this.
So we want to try and
help those folks as well.
And really, what we do is we review
the value or the appraised value
of the property and just make sure
that what the market value is is in
line with what the appraisal is for.
A lot of people,
we find that we can argue down your
property tax value just based on the fact
that they kind of went a little high.
They went a little aggressive.
Based on what the market is actually doing,
and So what
you're what you're doing in that
sense when you're comparing it to
what the markets actually doing is,
is what's called comps,
which what you're doing comparables.
Basically you know the houses around
you that have sold in those twelve
months that you were appraised for,
so all of 2021 the houses that sold
there and how that compares to you.
Know what your property is.
Is that right?
That's exactly it in a nutshell.
We're just looking at everybody
else that is sold nearby.
You we look at individual factors
like if you're a really busy St.
I think that can you know affect your value,
so we're just really looking
for anything that we can do
to make an argument to say,
hey, you know you've got
them appraised at this much.
We really think it needs to be
a little bit down here.
What can you do to kind of
get this adjusted properly?
OK, and so how does this work?
If I think gosh, OK,
I want Ben to help me out here.
First of all, you're not charging me.
I'm not paying you anything.
What do I do? Where do I go?
Yeah, so we make it super simple we go.
We want our clients to go to
dallastaxdispute.com like you
said there's no charge for this.
This is something that we do to try
and help people out and make sure that
nobody's paying more than their fair share.
From there, we're going to ask you for
just a little bit of basic information.
I process a lot of these.
I process them all personally so
it it takes me a little bit so
you'll get a confirmation email.
We have a couple of videos that would
give you tutorial and information on
how to go about doing this and then
within a couple of days we're going to.
Get back to you and give you a market
analysis and just tell you hey,
it's a great time to try and protect
your property taxes and you know,
in my experience this is what I
think you should be aiming for.
Or we'll just tell you that it's not
a great year to do this and you're
pretty well lined up that way.
We're not wasting your time,
and so if you tell me this is a
great year to do this, I think that
you've got a case to make here.
What happens after that?
We walk you through the
whole process and really,
you just go on to the Dallas County
website or where whichever country
you're in you you file your protest,
which takes you about 2 minutes.
We have you informally call an
appraiser and just make your case based
on the information that we provide.
The whole thing should take you
about 5 minutes from most of our
what we did an average of it,
and I think we talked about
40,000 off on the average person
that we disputed last year.
So we were saying that 40 bucks a month.
That's a big deal and.
And Ben, don't you think that
and and I hear this anecdotally
from people as well that a lot of
these get solved very informally.
It's not like you're having to go before
this official board and set this.
You know official presentation.
We are arguing back and forth.
A lot of this is done informally because,
you know, they realize the volume of of
protest they're going to get as well.
Yeah, and that's why we
advocate that you do it.
Give that appraiser an informal call.
They're gonna do their best to
come to an agreement with you.
And if it doesn't work out,
you don't like what they have to tell you.
You can always go to that
formal appraisal room.
There's a review board and they'll
give you a more definite answer,
but if you can do it with an informal
interview with that appraiser,
you never have to leave your house.
It's real simple,
and I wonder too. If you know.
Again, I keep hearing these
predictions that this,
you know could be a record year for
for property tax appraisal protest,
just because so many people are
seeing their values go up so much.
I wonder if that maybe does help
you a little bit if you're one of
those protesting because you know.
That's going to be a lot of work for
these official appraisal review boards.
You know they may be more inclined
in that informal process if you're
not asking for something crazy to go.
Hey, yeah, let's you know,
let's try to meet in the middle here,
right? And yeah,
they they need to clear the backs.
This has been happening for the
last couple of years for them,
they're just, you know,
over over demand and understaffed.
So there is that motivation for them to
just get it through and get it done.
They have a required timeline
that they need to get.
These all cleared out by so
you need to file your protest.
By May 15th,
if you're going to ask for our help,
we ask that you get out to Dallas
tax dispute.com by May 1st so that
we have time to get through those.
And you know,
clear out everything that we can do,
but in the meantime,
if you have questions or anything at all,
we're here to help you with that
stuff. Ben, if somebody is making their case,
and let's say you know maybe
they even go all the way to you,
know a formal hearing with
the Appraisal Review board.
What do you recommend for people as far
as the providing evidence you know, do they?
I mean, because the appraisal district
can only see the outside of your House,
you know they're they're making a judgment.
If if they you know have come by this year,
the outside of your house and
what the other houses in your
neighborhood might be selling for,
they don't know what's going on inside.
You know, if you've got some
flaws or some problems,
you got a document that.
Well, even further than that they don't.
They don't go driving by your house,
you know they're they're looking
at a geographic area and whatever
their boundaries are, they say, well,
this area went up X amount and so your house
went up X percent and that's what you do.
Appraisal is so the there are two ways
to really protest your property taxes.
We go after the appraisal amount
and we just make sure that you're
not being over assessed.
The other thing you can do
is attack your desirability,
which is essentially a condition or
the specific value of your home.
So if you're on a busy St.
Or you back up to a gas station
or the highway.
Maybe that's something that's
unique about your house.
That would make it less desirable
than your neighbor who's you know
not matching up to that highway
across the street.
You can also show things like if
your fence is falling over and
you've got deferred maintenance,
there's cracks inside or you can show
that maybe you've got windows that are
fogging up in the seals are broken.
Honestly give me a call about that
stuff too because I can refer you
contractors who can help you with it.
Or we can just show you how to
use that in order to lower your
desirability rating and get you a break.
Taxes.
I've even heard that you know it.
Let's say you have something you
know that you know that you should
have gotten to probably by now,
but maybe you didn't have the money or
the will to do it yet that you know,
let's say that you need something
that's kind of a more expensive fix
in the house that it's a good idea
to have a repair estimate saying.
Yeah, here's how much it would
cost you to make your roof right,
and you take that to the
appraisal district and go look.
My roof is in really bad shape.
I you know,
if I were to repair it and make it right,
it would cost me $10,000.
Yeah, that's a deferred maintenance
piece and you can take pictures of
anything that's wrong with that.
Obviously roots a little bit
tougher to take pictures of,
but if you got a fence this leaning in,
that's a really easy thing to take
a picture of those pictures. Help.
Contractor bids are always better,
so even if you're not planning on taking
care of it right now, get that bid.
Figure out what your roof is worth,
and then go back to that
room for when you're ready.
Ben, I want to ask you about
homesteads because you know,
we've talked a lot about this.
I I was really surprised because
I was talking with the folks at
the Dallas Central appraisal.
District I don't have the numbers
on this for for everywhere,
but at the Dallas Central Appraisal District,
I think that that's a good litmus
test because it's just it's such
a huge district they deal with so
many properties and I asked them
how many people have a homestead
exemption and they said about half.
So they've got about 600,000.
You know, residential properties.
They said about half of those have
a homestead exemption on them.
I was astounded by that number.
That seems really really low
considering how much a homestead
exemption can help you.
Yeah, and I would assume that those
are also including non owner occupant
properties so that number may be a
little bit inflated but I run into
people every single year who have
been living in their houses for a
long time who just never got around
to it or for whatever reason don't
have their home site exemption that
will take about 25 to 30% off your
taxes right off the top and it caps
your increase at about 10% every year.
It seems like a lot but for a lot
of people there are people who are.
There are properties that are,
you know, saving a lot of money.
Based on that 10% year over
year increase gap,
so you know that's the easiest
thing you can possibly do.
Everybody gets 1 homestead and
it's your primary residence.
You been living there since January 1.
You should have your homestead exemption
in place and there are other exemptions.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Sorry there are other exemptions
like the over 65 exemption,
so if you had a birthday and you
turned over 65, get that exemption.
There's also the disabled military
veteran exemption and those are
two really strong assumptions
that we end up seeing that most
people who deserve them don't get
that and and and a lot of these cases too.
It's not something where you have to
really kick yourself right now after
you've gotten this huge appraisal
because you can go in and do that
retroactively in a lot of cases,
so it's still not too late to do that.
What you got to do it?
You know, I'll, I'll tell you that the
appraisers that I've talked to down at
the Dallas Central Appraisal District
have always been really helpful.
So if you have questions about how to
retroactively and state an exemption,
especially a homestead where you can prove
that you been living there for however long,
give them a call and they'll be
happy to help you with that stuff.
I've found them to be extremely helpful, so
I think that's a very good point, too.
Ben, as we wrap this up here,
you know, we hear a lot of
people who kind of make it out.
Like the the appraisal.
District is, you know, full of the it's.
It's sort of the big bad monster you
know and you got to gear up and have this
big fight with them and all of that.
It really is. I mean,
you're going to find you know every now
and then you're going to have some.
Some hard times there,
but you're going to find some level heads
there and it really is a negotiation.
It's it's not a huge fight,
you just have to go in.
You know, with your argument.
Yeah, and that's really it.
They don't want to deal
with contentious people,
so when you're talking to them, be nice.
This is a human being.
He's got a stressful job right now.
This is a stressful time
to be a tax appraiser,
especially in Dallas County.
So just be nice to him and they're
gonna return the kindness.
I've never had a bad experience with them.
They've they've always been
very easy to deal with. So
Ben, you're helping people get
this process going and you're
doing it free of charge and you're
covering all of the Dallas Central
Appraisal district in this year.
You're spreading out.
The Collin and Rockwall counties, as well.
And I'm just curious,
do you have a number in your head as to
how many of these things you might end
up with before it's all said and done?
We did about 600 of them last year.
I'd love to do 1000 of them this
year just to see if we can get
there and see if we can do it.
So if you would like to get your property
taxes protested Dallas tax dispute.com,
please get it in before May 1st
and we're primarily focusing on
primary residences this year.
Well, I'm glad I caught you before
you really get into the thick of
things there because I don't think
you'll have a lot of time in these
weeks ahead for for interviews.
Thanks for doing this with us man.
Really appreciate it.
Hey thank you man. I was looking forward.