poconnor

When it comes to owning a home, there are a lot of things to consider besides what kind of house you want and where you want to live. Owning a house means paying for property taxes which goes to local governments so you, as a resident of that district, can benefit from the public services they have to offer. This also means that your home’s value can either increase or decrease depending on the changes you make to it. Your state’s local appraisal district usually determines property tax. How it works is that an  appraiser  visits each property and reviews any changes that were made since the last time it was appraised. Appraisers usually asses the size and kind of improvements made to your property, its quality, and current condition, plus your property’s characteristics. With these, the appraiser will determine how much tax you need to pay based on your property’s value. DEFINING REPAIRS AND IMPROVEMENTS Knowing that appraisal districts review your home before deter...

Follow the path of one homeowner, Chuck Devore, a recent transplant from California as he goes through the process of protesting his high property tax value in 2019. While Texas state government has done a decent job over the years in limiting spending growth to around population and inflation, especially compared to other states, this hasn’t been the case at the local level. Local governments in Texas—counties, cities, school districts and some others like municipal utility districts and hospital districts—raise and spend more than half of government expenditures in Texas excluding federal dollars. This means local government spending habits have an outsized role in the state’s tax climate. Fortunately, if Texas property owners believe their government appraisals are too high, they can protest them—though the tiny percentage who do usually hire someone for the task. He filed a protest, received his date and time to appear, and,  having taken a vacation day , trooped down to ...