Today I had some extra time
and decided to protest some values on residential investment properties at the
TAD offices on Handley-Ederville road. In the past, after registering at the
front counter and providing the addresses of the properties you wished to speak
with an appraiser about, you took a seat and waited for your name to be called
by an appraiser who would meet you at the side counter. There was a limit to
the number of properties that you could discuss at one time, two or three if I
remember correctly. That part is still relatively the same except the limit on
the number of properties has been removed. I was only prepared to discuss eight
properties today and planned to do some additional research and return on other
occasions to finish with all my Tarrant properties. Things have changed! Things
started out pretty well, seven of the properties were recently purchased and I
brought a copy of those settlement statements as evidence to support my value
estimate. Those values were accepted without protest but they now have to be
approved by the Appraisal Review Board. Not a big deal, it seems as if Tad doesn’t
want blood on their hands and passes the buck to the ARB for their rubber
stamp. I had pulled the comps from the MLS for my other property and showed
them to the appraiser who made copies and told me that someone from their
resolution team would contact me at a later date to discuss the appraisal value.
They no longer make decisions on value or discuss their comps at the counter on
anything except properties that the owner/agent has a recent settlement
statement.
I returned home and began
to pull MLS comps for my other Tarrant County properties and use TAD’s eAccess
to see their comp evidence online to make a comparison and file my protest
online since a visit to TAD’s offices wouldn’t be fruitful any longer. I quickly
learned that none of my other value notices were supported by TAD’s evidence.
In fact, their comps provided a lower projected value in every instance. When
using eAccess you have the option to make a selection that you disagree with
the notice value and to provide your own estimate. When my value was lower than
TAD’s projected value from their comps I was given an option to settle for their
projected amount. In other words, by looking at TAD’s value I was able to know
what value they would accept online without me having to protest. This was
welcomed news to me as TAD’s projected value from their comps was in line or
lower than the value my comps supported on the large majority of properties. It
looks as if I may only need to discuss value with a member of their resolution team
on less than ten properties. There are properties that I wasn’t going to
protest the value that I have now received and accepted a settlement offer less
than the original notice which I thought was fair.
It isn’t all rosy; my
total overall value is still higher than it was last year but, every little bit
helps!
In order to use TAD’s
eAccess you must have the 2016 Property Value Notice they mailed to you. The
notice you can get online does not have the eAccess PIN number on it.
