HCAD Appraisal protests--full panel or just appraiser? I always

We use O'Connor & Assoc., and let them do that work for us.

cardinalsong : I never give them an Isettle amount and DO WANT to go to the Virtual Meeting with the Appraiser. If you give them an amount, then you are stuck with that as your base. You can always tell them, "...upon further review...". You do have to tell the appraiser in the beginning what you think and then work up from there. He even said, "start with a low number if you want". I did, I justified it and he accepted it. I could have probably gotten another $10K out of the deal. You do have to have your ducks in a row, reasons why you think it is what it is and then justify it on paper with pictures, numbers, estimates etc, if you have it and it applies to the situation. This year I had a great guy and we broke the ice with a few things to ease the tension and it does work. They are human too. You have to have your info uploaded into their system about 5 days before. They also have an appraisal that they are going off of and you can check those properties too. I compared ours to two others and at the 12th hour, I wanted to really compare it to another one and he said that that was the one he was going to use for his mid-range one so it worked. We came upon a SF value. Then with some of the issues I had already discussed with him and a few estimates, we then went back and took the SF price I was offering, which was based on the 12th hour comp, and explained the estimate to what their FMV was originally and then came up with what I thought it should be appraised at.It worked and he said that he could justify all that. He said it was one of the better proposals he had seen because it had everything in there on paper and I just gave a verbal summary of what was in there. He said that so many people come in with just a verbal explanation and not much to back it up or don't have the docs to go with it. He then said that people don't take the informal offer and then they want a board to work with them with the same explanation and it sure doesn't work and the screws could turn even tighter.Out of the last three years, I have had two great ones(guy and gal) and the third(guy) was pretty good but I got my info in late, so that was on me. I have heard horror stories about the board which are citizens trained for the appeals. I was an alternate once for a jury and I knew that if this one lady became the foreperson, the guy was going to jail when there were just too many questions. The public defender did not provide backup data to the things she was saying. I couldn't use any outside sources while in the trial, but when I was dismissed as an alternate, I did and if they had brought in that backup data, it would have proved his innocence. More involved story. Well, the foreperson influenced the rest and the guy went to jail. I do not want to take may chances with the board, when I can get done what I need to in an informal meeting with the appraiser.I did learn this year to go lower in my meeting with the appraiser. You can always work up but not back down. You don't have to take the number in the informal and can then go to the board.The numbers for this year were:
10% - Original increase proposed
5.45% - Increase that was sent to me which I just let expire
-5.71% - from the original AV from last year$332,000 - AV proposed ($352,000 Fair Market Value)
$319,000 - Offer sent
$285,000 - What was agreed upon in the informal appraiser meetingGood luck with it and a prayer before the meeting doesn't hurt either.Let me know if I can be of any more help.

SteveT :
Thanks SO MUCH for all this information. I have protested every year for about twenty years with the full panel; I always come with my four copies of photos, repair estimates, etc. It's totally luck of the draw as you said--some years they take one look at the Kingwood address and figure we are all rich enough to handle any appraisal increase, some years they are willing to bargain. I'll give the one-on-one with the appraiser a chance this time.

cardinalsong : WOW! 20 years of doing that! Kudos to you! Sounds like you have a system down. That's cool! There are some categories that they value differently too.
Remodel
Repair
Normal wear and tearHAR.com is a great resource too for comp pictures. I don't show them just pictures of what it compares to in their comps from their list. I put it into a chart with the 1st and 2nd column being their comps and then the last column being our property. That gives them a good comparison to let them see where your property stands against the others.My approach was here is what these properties had and this is what ours doesn't have. They can then see it in pictures. Then I work backward and take what I want to have put the estimate on top of that and say that is what it is going to take to get to your FMV. I am sure you do that too. The first informal appraiser I had was a lady and she finally stopped me with the pictures and explanation. She wasn't short at all or rude, she just said I get it and I am going to give you what you are looking for because of the information and documentation.Happy hunting!

cardinalsong : Many years ago I took all of my settlement payments and that was accepted as the value. I don't know how you protest the doubled land value since there is no open land in kingwood any more, best option is a a new county judge and lawsuit.

Jmh. FYI. I just went to the formal and I opted for the 1 on 1 vs the 3-person panel. I thought it would just be with the appraiser, but it was with the appraiser and one member from the community rather than 3. She actually lowered the value suggested by the appraiser by $20,000. I asked to go right after my informal so only had one set of documents rather than the four they usually request

donnatella :
Same here.

Has anyone had a formal hearing this year?
If so, how did it go?
Any advice?