I recently filed my protest in Comal county and they got back to me electronically within a week. They dropped my evaluation by around $67,700. Honestly still not near enough, but I am worried if I deny it then they will run me through the ringer, but if I accept it then they will think it is a fair amount, which it is not. My comps are lower and they did send me evidence but they are really scattered. Many houses with pools and upgrades are going to show as more. Also, their comp dates are all over the place from the middle of last year when they told me it should be around the first of the year.

Just looking for advice on what you would all do. Any thoughts before I respond to their settlement offer?

Depends how much further you think you can drop the appraised value. If your property tax rate is 2% I'm not going to the trouble for a further $5k reduction, but likely would for $20k. If all of the $67k is appraise value, you've already saved over a grand in taxes. That would be hard to pass up imo.

How does it compare to your value last year?

Go to the ARB if you have comps. I am in Comal county. I had my ARB this past Wednesday. Super fast. They listened and gave me the value I requested on the money. The county had 3 comps. One was egregiously different than mine. I asked that they toss that one and gave them a better replacement. They took that and gave me the median. The county offered me 57k less, I ended at 97k less after the board review.

Also my comps ranged from July 2024 to Mar 2025.

I protested in Brazos county this year (Bryan Duplex).

I think if you protest to the board you will do better or equal to what has been offered. I think that is now your worst case settlement, but they won't tell you that going into the appeal.

Brazos County appraised my duplex at 501k and last year it was appraised at 379k. Both figures were too high.
They could not come close to justifying 501k this year and quickly offered what last year was 379k

Had they appraised 379k from the start I probably would not have protested, but I was mad that they thought my duplex was worth 501k, not even close. After my research I came up with 308k. I had to go round and round with them and finally got them down to 327k for which we agreed.

If you have sound logic, you should prevail as they really don't know what they are doing.

Good luck

Thanks, all. That combined information was extremely helpful in making my decision. Yes, the current settlement probably saves me about a grand from last year but I've got some really good evidence that I can present that should drop it quite a bit more. Based on your anecdotes it seems worth it to attend the hearing for me. Thanks again, I really appreciate the input.

I've taken every settlement offer they give me after 2018 where I literally did a ton of research, took my data to the protest only to find me sitting on the other side of a 70 year old Indian guy who had no clue what the **** anything was and the appraisal district rep. I gave my spiel, she gave hers, he ruled for her. Shocking!

Spent a few days of my life and a trip up to the appraisal district to never do that again.

We have to protest our taxes every year for our business. For our county, they are legally capped. We all voted on it. And every year, the tax office exceeds that cap. We go into the office to protest because we are active enough in the community with business to be acquainted with the tax office and the the assessor. Every year, we go in with our cap that was voted on and get it dropped to that, then we show all the comps that are way less and they meet the lowest one. We don't 'accept' anything except what we think it fair. I can usually get it from 30% down to 7-10% increase. Not always, but usually. It takes almost no fight to do it. I do not advise doing anything 'electronically' without doing it in person. In person is way better for negotiation. We've never had to go to a panel. Our guy just fixes it at his desk.

What county?

Yesterday said:

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I've taken every settlement offer they give me after 2018 where I literally did a ton of research, took my data to the protest only to find me sitting on the other side of a 70 year old Indian guy who had no clue what the **** anything was and the appraisal district rep. I gave my spiel, she gave hers, he ruled for her. Shocking!

Spent a few days of my life and a trip up to the appraisal district to never do that again.

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This is exactly what happened to me last year. Had all this great evidence and comps and got nowhere. This year I filed protest and didn't even submit my evidence and they lowered my appraised by over $100k before the hearing. I'll take it!

Sea Speed said:

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Yesterday said:

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I've taken every settlement offer they give me after 2018 where I literally did a ton of research, took my data to the protest only to find me sitting on the other side of a 70 year old Indian guy who had no clue what the **** anything was and the appraisal district rep. I gave my spiel, she gave hers, he ruled for her. Shocking!

Spent a few days of my life and a trip up to the appraisal district to never do that again.

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This is exactly what happened to me last year. Had all this great evidence and comps and got nowhere. This year I filed protest and didn't even submit my evidence and they lowered my appraised by over $100k before the hearing. I'll take it!

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It is a matter of perspective, right. Last year my duplex in Bryan was tax appraised at 379k (i didn't protest it, but I should have looking back), this year they went CRAZY and appraised my duplex at 500k. This is a 3 bedroom 2 bath per side duplex built in the 90s in a neighborhood of 80s built duplexes.

This was so out of line that I protested and they IMMEDIATELY offered me to keep the valuation at 379k. They knew the valuation was FAR OFF. However, I did my research thinking they were going to stick to their 500k appraisal. My evaluation was 308k. After a WEEK of negotiations, yes a week as this was with the informal board. They analyzed my evidence and lowered my appraisal to 329k. Below even last year. I still think that is too high but I accepted that appraisal.

So, it is just a matter of perspective pertaining how you feel when you walk out of the tax office.

Finally, everyone is correct, you are definitely not dealing with rocket scientist.

They put my value lower than my purchase price by 100 grand or so and in line with the value from before I bought it. From my perspective that's pretty good.

Also lower than my proposed value.