My house in Denton County, TX was recently appraised by the appraisal district at 50% more then I recently paid for it. I suspect the reason for the discrepancy is mostly due to two factors: The condition of the house is below average, and the appraisal district's square feet seems higher than the likely actual sqft. I do not have any estimates for repairs, or any competing sqft measurements. I do have my closing documents which show a closing date within two weeks of the appraisal date and the sale price for the house. The sale was typical, publicly listed on the MLS, not distressed, and fair market. I need to form the argument for my protest. What I want is that the county appraisal be decreased to my actual purchase price. My questions are as follows:

• Is my recent purchase price, demonstrated by the closing documents, a bullet proof argument that the appraisal is high by the difference? Can I expect success with this single-fact argument?
• Would it be helpful to spend further time getting repair estimates, taking pictures or assembling comps relative to other sales? If I were to do this, I may need to hire a pro to take sqft measurements and discuss differences in the condition of those comps relative to my house.
• The value seen on Zillow for the month of January 2025 is almost exactly my purchase price. Would it be helpful to include this in my protest?

Thanks for any guidance you may offer.

There was no appraisal as this was a cash sale. I do have the closing statement showing the sale price which was within two weeks of the County's appraisal date. Comps from other properties may not help much since the only sqft data published for my house is from the County tax role, and I believe that to about 20% high in my case. I could hire a pro to take good sqft data but that brings me back to my original question(s). Will the County likely buy my argument that my purchase price for the property is the best reflection of value or will they expect something more, like for example other comparative sales??

If you get an appraisal, like you should of done regardless of cash sale, now and combine that with the closing documents you should have a better chance of lowering the the county value. Especially if it shows lower amount of square footage.

The vast majority of transactions have an appraisal. So naturally you would present both. But this one does not. So what if the appraisal board says "hey you got a great deal well below market. Congrats! But we think the value is what we set.

Now what? Get an appraisal with comps all dated in the last 6 months of date of sale. The cost is negligible compared to the tax savings if the OP wins.

I have, on multiple occasions, protested a value increase on a house I bought within 6 months of the end of a year. The first question I was asked was when I bought the house and if I had the closing docs. Was never even asked about the appraisal. They have the same sales data and they just confirmed their date of sale.

If it is abnormally low, I guess there may be some implication that it was not on the open market, and it could be scrutinized. Ie, that he bought it from a family member, etc. Then an appraisal would be help. So I shouldn't speak in absolutes. As long as there is proof it was listed for x days and maybe some print out of an email discussion or negotiation through realtors, I could see that being covered.

Thanks for these good responses! I plan to move forwards using my purchase price with closing documents. I think I can find something that shows it was publicly marketed for some length of time. I'll give this a shot. Thanks to all for the good information!

I went through the exact same. Submitted closing documents, and that was set as the county appraised value.

rondis23 said:

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I went through the exact same. Submitted closing documents, and that was set as the county appraised value.

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Was that in Denton County or other??

GigEmAgs14 said:

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Having the closing statement, appraisal, etc. is not always enough. I provided my closing statement, tax comparables, sale comparables, etc. and the county I live in still did not assess me at my purchase price (and it was an arm's length transaction).

Needless to say, a lot of county appraisal districts play this game and the only way to win is to sue them.

Signed,
a Texas Certified General Appraiser

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That's discouraging. I'm a complete non-expert and never professionally involved with real estate. That said, it seems to me the entire purpose of appraisals, comps, tax records etc. is to arrive at an estimate of what a property would sell for when diligently marketed and in an arm's length transaction. It's not difficult to show that the transaction was arm's length, and house was diligently marketed even in excess of the usual amount of time on the market. Therefore, I would think it clear that there is no reason to estimate what the sale price would be in the setting of a qualified transaction, since that information is known and is shown in the closing docs. The real thing is better than an estimate. Rhetorically, why would anyone attempt to estimate a sale price that is known?

Now if they happen to question matters, I may not learn about that until the day of my hearing. I'm not certain if during or after the hearing I will be permitted to submit additional evidence. There is some way of appealing the outcome of the hearing if I'm unhappy with it. However, it seems to me that if the Appraisal Board fails to set their appraisal at the amount of the sale price, and they do so in the face of prima-facia evidence that the marketing was diligent and the sale was arms-length, then it would be the Appraisal Board who would have the burden to show the house was not marketed properly or the transaction was not arms-length. I would expect that to be very much of an up-hill battle for the board to take upon itself!

Several posters contradicted me about getting an appraisal saying "all you need is your transaction price and it's a done deal". Well as you can see no it's not. It really depends on your CAD. No way to know how they will respond unless you have previous experience with them. Each are different.

But you can prepare as much as you can. An appraisal report should cost 400-500. Or you can pay for a tax negotiation service. https://www.ownwell.com is one option.

But going yourself risks you get steamrolled.

Good luck

They may not. As proven a couple of posts above. But if you have sales comps at least you have some evidence that his price was fair market. The CAD WILL have comps to support their value. So if he walks in with nothing he gets rolled.

The problem, in my opinion, is he didn't get one before the sale. I would estimate 80-90% of all transactions had an appraisal. Or at least had realtor comps.

right, but you can get sales comps without paying $400 for an appraisal. It is a good idea to arm yourself with data in case they don't want to use the sale as evidence.

In most cases, the settlement statement will be fine. If the CAD wants to ignore that, then you're probably going to have a tough fight ahead. I don't know that I would want to spend the extra money for something that's not guaranteed to help my case.

You have your opinion and I have mine. You have 10+ years as a realtor so for you I would not advise an appraisal

SteveBott said:

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They may not. As proven a couple of posts above. But if you have sales comps at least you have some evidence that his price was fair market. The CAD WILL have comps to support their value. So if he walks in with nothing he gets rolled.

The problem, in my opinion, is he didn't get one before the sale. I would estimate 80-90% of all transactions had an appraisal. Or at least had realtor comps.

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I walked in with comps, but they would not use them. They would only use comps from a different builder, a more expensive semi custom builder. They have the power to punish you if you dont take the first offer.

They also lied to my face and said an actual person came out and checked the homes. This is WCAD

For the ARB, How long does the purchase price of a home typically bear weight on the assessed value?

I get if you're < 3 months from the sale it should be equal, no questions asked. Is that expected for transactions within 9-12 months of the appraisal date? Or once you reach 1 year the original sales price is that off the table and you need to go argue comps?

I get it depends on each ARB, but I was curious if there was a general consensus.

Sub4 said:

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For the ARB, How long does the purchase price of a home typically bear weight on the assessed value?

I get if you're < 3 months from the sale it should be equal, no questions asked. Is that expected for transactions within 9-12 months of the appraisal date? Or once you reach 1 year the original sales price is that off the table and you need to go argue comps?

I get it depends on each ARB, but I was curious if there was a general consensus.

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Ours told us if it was the sale price was out of line with neighborhood appraisal values that they could run it through their adjusted market analysis equation to get an updated value. Of course that analysis favors them greatly.

JJxvi said:

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The best comp to trump all other comps is the subject.

If the CAD didnt immediately settle at the sale price and it went to an Appraisal Review Board hearing, I would probably focus primarily on proving or demonstrating that the sale was a valid open market transaction over getting an appraisal. Get a copy of the listing, that shows it was exposed to the market, was not some kind of distressed sale or something, and hopefully your name isn't the same as the seller's name, and that kind of thing.

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Assuming it was an arm's length transaction with no undue motivations by either party, or other considerations involved in the transaction, then yes. But you'd be surprised how often that's not the case.