D

Live Blog Feed

RE: Collin County Tax Appraisal Office

Posted on July 14th, 2008 6:39pm by Candy Evans
Filed under Real Estate, property taxes

Calling Tom Pauken: this whole process of fighting one’s tax assessment is not unlike what life in the former Soviet Union must have been like when you wanted to move. Says our reader who spent 4.5 hours on the property tax battlefield today:

“Now they tell an owner they cannot value the property based on what he could sell it for. They said it is worth a certain amount, even if he can’t find a willing buyer. Sound like fair market value to you?”

Doesn’t even sound fair. Call it the fiefdom mentality: I am a citizen in power and I vill tell you what your house is vorth .

2 Comments to “RE: Collin County Tax Appraisal Office”

Jason @ July 15th, 2008 at 10:04 am

I went through this as well. Pretty amazing to see a group of “volunteers” (that is what the board is made up of) tell a homeowner his home is worth more than it could be sold for. Not that the people on the board weren’t nice, they just “drank the coolaid” and moved on.

The quote I thought told all:

“We cannot use square footage price to value your home. We have to take similar properties that recently sold in close proximity and run them through a software given to us by the CAD office. This software uses formulas and tools to make the homes virtually the same as yours, which is where we get our valuation.”

So, aren’t they essentially using a software they control to validate their valuation of your home’s worth? I thought the board was supposed to mediate between the CAD office and the homeowner? If they say they are doing that, why are they allowed to use software given to them by the other side?

Once the gov is in your pockets, they just keep digging deeper and deeper.
JD @ July 16th, 2008 at 10:08 am

You aren’t kidding either! I just had this same issue with these folks! What hole are they in? I “might” take mine a step further, to arbitration or court. It is ridiculous, that these “citizens”, mostly retirees, think they know better than realtors, builders, etc. I brought in comps as well and a table showing the most recent PSF pricing in my neighborhood and they still upheld the District at $15 psf more for my home than any other one in the neighborhood! The appraisal district employee, was a nice lady, but she pretty much said we “already gave you an adjustment”, which I think the Board then “shut me out on my presentation”. These people are IDIOTS!