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Fresh out of Harvard Business School in the early 1980s, Pat O’Connor came back to Houston to work with his father as a  commercial real estate  broker. But the self-described technology geek quickly realized a sales job wasn’t for him. Having noticed many of the names atop the Fortune 500 list were in publishing, O’Connor shifted his focus from selling apartments to investors – to tracking down data for them instead. Today, Houston-based O’Connor & Associates provides real estate research and data, appraisals, property tax appeals and cost segregation services to real estate professionals and consumers. Revenue in 2016 is expected to be upward of $20 million, mostly from the property tax appeals business. O’Connor lately has been spending much of his time building up the data side of the business, a company called Enriched Data, which he hopes one day could help save the country from another financial collapse. For example, it would give more data about residentia...

Texas property taxesare insignificant to some and can be extremely burdensome for others.Texas has one of the  highest average property tax rates  in the country, with only thirteen states levying higher property taxes. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average American household spends $2,149 on property taxes for their homes and residents of the 27 states spends $402 for their vehicle property taxes each year. Property taxes paid directly or indirectly cause an impact on the rent we pay as well as the finance of state and local governments. WalletHub analyzed the 50 states and the Districts of Columbia in terms of vehicle and real estate property taxes. Analysts then compare the public idea and the data on the real structure of tax systems in all 50 states. SURVEY ANALYSIS PROCEDURES: Keeping in mind the end goal to decide the states with the lowest property taxes and highest property taxes by county, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the Distric...

Whether a homeowner, business owner, disabled veteran or taxpayer, it’s important to know your Property Taxes rights and exemption for  tax relief information  concerning the Texas tax laws: Exemptions for disabled veterans— Partial exemptions for any property owned by veterans who are disabled, surviving spouses and surviving children of deceased disabled veterans, including homesteads donated to disabled veterans and their surviving spouses by charitable organizations at no cost. The exemption is determined according to percentage of service-connected disability. Also, the law provides a 100% homestead exemption for 100% disabled veterans and U.S. armed service members killed in action and their surviving spouses. Exemptions for Nonprofit organizations—Organizations that meet statutory requirements may seek property tax exemptions. Businesses that receive tax abatements granted by taxing units; ship inventory out of Texas that may be eligible for the Freeport exemption;...

First , make sure you have any exemptions that apply. There are many exemptions available to property owners, but two main exemptions include homestead and over-65. A regular homestead exemption is the easiest way to reduce your property taxes for your house if it is your primary residence. There are only two requirements for getting a homestead exemption: you must own the house on January 1 and, it must be your primary residence on January 1. There is no cost to obtain a homestead exemption and you can do it yourself; you do not need to pay someone a fee. Just complete a simple form and sent it with a copy of your driver’s license. To qualify for the over-65 exemption, the owner of the house must be age 65 or older and live in the house. The over-65 homestead exemption has multiple benefits. One benefit is that it freezes the amount you pay for school property taxes forever, unless you renovate or enlarge your house. Most cities and counties also offer larger homestead exe...

Appraisal District  officials mailed out property tax appraisals recently, it is estimated that taxable values went up again. Homeowners can challenge their appraisals; the deadline for filing a protest for most homeowners is May 31, but technically it is 30 days after receiving a notice in the mail. Don’t panic, though there are few things to remember about the appraisal process; THIS IS JUST A NOTICE! While the notice includes an estimated property tax amount that you owe, this may not be what you ultimately end up paying.  Appraisal Districts  are required to include the estimate, based on tax rates established last fall. But some taxing entities have since reduced their tax rates. CONSIDER PROTESTING ONLINE Before making a decision to protest your home’s value, it’s suggested that by using the PIN number on the notice, homeowners can review comparable home sales in their area to see how Appraisal Districts came up with their value. Just follow the prom...

Property tax appeals  are an opportunity to challenge the appraisal district’s estimated value of your property. Since appraisal districts are required to value property at 100 percent of value, about half of the 1.8 million parcels in Harris County are over-taxed. Appraisal districts use mass appraisal to value property and are not able to inspect every property. In Harris County, most inspections are done using Pictometry, an aerial photography service. The appraisal districts are immensely understaffed relative to valuing Texas properties. The 254 appraisal districts have about 2,400 full-time appraisers to value the almost 19 million properties in Texas, based on Texas Comptroller 2015 data. This equates to 8,000 appraisals per year per appraiser, or 30 appraisals per day. APPEAL MARKET VALUE, UNEQUAL APPRAISAL Taxpayers can protest on market value (excessive value) and unequal appraisal. Appraisal districts and appraisal review boards will only consider matters prote...

This is a great question, and you may be surprised that I suggest either option will work well.  Well prepared home owners can do an excellent job of presenting their case and getting a favorable reduction.  There are two issues to consider: 1) will you protest and show up for the hearing each and every year and 2) do you want to spend the time to prepare for and attend the protest?  Most of our clients hire us because of the convenience factor. In any given year, either the tax consultant or the property owner can appeal.  There is voluminous do-it-yourself information for handling your property tax appeal at  www.poconnor.com The primary benefit of a tax consultant is we appeal every year (or many tax consultants do).  O’Connor does appeal every property every year.  The annual appeals generate about a 13% reduction, based on an analysis of 43,000 HCAD residential accounts who had appealed for 5 or more years. I would encourage to try appeali...

Property taxes are a burden for seniors in Texas. Fortunately, Texas seniors have many options to limit the impact of property taxes, including a freeze on school taxes, generous exemptions and the ability to defer paying property taxes for their residence. Homestead exemptions are available for all Texas homeowners to reduce their property taxes, with a superior exemption available to those over 65 years of age. The over-65 homestead exemption permanently freezes the amount paid for school property taxes. School property taxes will never increase after obtaining an over-65 exemption, unless the property is renovated or the owner moves to a more valuable home. Renovations include upgrading a kitchen or bathroom, but replacing expensive items, such as a roof or an HVAC unit, are not renovations and will not increase property taxes. The over-65 homestead exemption is portable within Texas. The new home will be taxed at the same market value as the previous home. For example, if the...

Number 11  – Guesstimates of assessed value are established by computers, and we all know computers are  ALWAYS  correct. Number 10  – If I protest, they may send people in black helicopters after me. (There is a real concern that if people protest, the appraisal district will come and inspect their house. However, this simply is not true.) Number 9  – If I protest my property taxes, doesn’t that mean my house is worth less? This simply is not true, the market value of a house is determined by recent sales in the area, not by the appraisal district’s value. Number 8  – If I protest my assessed value, can’t they raise the value? At the informal hearing, the only way the property taxes can be increased is if you agree to an increase. It is very unusual for the assessed value to be increased at the appraisal review board hearing. Perhaps only one in 5,000 values are raised at the appraisal review board. Those are pretty good odds. Number 7  – WH...

Property tax reform has been on the minds of Texas property owners for years and this year is no exception. In fact, a special session of the Texas Legislature is scheduled to begin on July 18, 2017 and property tax is one of the items on their agenda. The expectations for property tax reform prior to the 2017 legislative session were the highest since the year 2000. That was the last time meaningful property tax legislation was passed as a package. There were four major objectives:  1) to slow the growth of property taxes 2) to implement changes to effect impartial appraisal review board hearings 3) to provide property owners easier access to information 4) to provide more oversight of appraisal districts However, due to a seemingly intractable dispute between the house and the senate, most of the proposed legislation was not passed. A list of exemptions that  did pass  in their last session include the following: 1) Total homestead exemption from property ta...

Areas of preparation There are four main types of data to be compiled for the hearing: • Pictures of the subject property • Income analysis for commercial property • Comparable sales data • Assessment comparables Pictures of the subject property should show: • The quality and condition of improvements on the property • Any lack of maintenance, documented with pictures and bids An income analysis for protesting commercial properties • Income analysis should have a profit and loss statement for the previous year, and a rent roll as of January 1 of the current tax year. The counties in Texas use January 1 as the effective date for assessment. • The analysis should also provide a detailed market rent value, market vacancy and market expenses in order to arrive at the net operating income for the property. • If your property has above-market occupancy or rental rates, or below-market operating expenses, you should make adjustments when calculating the net operating income. • If you op...

The special legislative session began on July 18, 2017 and will conclude in 30 days. Property tax reform is not a new concept and many Texans are calling for anywhere from slight reform to an all-out elimination of property taxes. Wherever you stand on the issue, there are currently 4 items on the agenda in the property tax bill for the special legislative session this year. They are: Slowing the growth of property tax increases; Removing bias Appraisal Review Board (ARB) members; Making information more easily accessible to property owners; Creating an advisory board to the Texas Comptroller Property Tax Growth Limitation This provision will require tax entities to limit revenue growth from existing property to five percent annually, unless they hold an election and ask for a higher tax rate.  There is currently a disconnect between the growth in real estate values and the growth in household income.  Property values for homes in Texas are generally growing at 8 t...

German Autohaus business has down turned over the last three years pursuing the fall of oil prices, but the taxes it has to pay were still at its alp. This happened because of the  Texas property tax , not income as it’s located on Eldo street which is more valuable than ever. As mentioned by Hans Richter “Property taxes are out of control when taxes grow faster than the economy, that’s not sustainable”. Lawmakers have placed limits for senior citizens and homeowners in the rise of taxes, but not for businesses. As a result, the burden has shifted onto businesses, which have seen tax bills at its peak. Property taxes paved way for small businesses to end up shuttering, not because they don’t make money, for taxes are climbing up too fast. Property taxes are much worse than what it is in other states, the only effective way to control the amount of property taxes that people pay is to control the total levy. Currently the limit for property tax is 8 percent, and several ...