How to Protest and Use Reports

How to Protest and Use TaxStar Commercial and

TaxStar Residential Analysis and Reports

Step 1: Type in your Tax ID. – View and check information the appraisal district has on your property for accuracy.

Step 2: Choose your report type: There are two ways of determining if your property is over assessed.

A. Market sales is based on sales in your neighborhood, subdivision, census tract, census block, key map or economic area. This comparitive analysis shows how your property compares to other sales as to sales price per sqft, both before and after adjustments. In some cases no adjustments are necessary when the properties are comparable in size, age and economic areas. The program automatically adjusts based on typical appraisal guidelines. If after making the adjustment, your property is higher than the median you mave have a good cause to protest.

B. Uniform and equal analysis: A comparison of tax comparables in the area which are similar in use, size, age and economic area. This analysis shows a comparison of your property to the median price per SF of the tax comps. If your property's pric per square foot is higher than the median of the comps, then you have justification for a assessment reduction.

Step 3: Check the search criteria. (Note: Presentation Type for all property owners is set for summary report, only professional appraisers and tax agents have access to the detailed reports.)

Search criteria is your street, census tract, census block, your subdivision, map grid, property grade, subject/your building/home living area, gross or net rentable area, followed by the year built. All of the appraisal districts known data about your property is automatically loaded into the data fields. Please check for accuracy! The appraisal district does make mistakes!

If you are preparing a Uniform and Equal report or Comparable Sales report you would want to start by checking your street, grade, year built, living area, or gross building or net rentable area (for commercial) and year built. Both year built and size autofill 30%+/- of your property’s age or size. You may want to increase the range if only a few or no comps are found. If too many are found you can delete the least comparable.

You will need a minimum of 8 to 10 tax comps or sales comps to generate a credible report. Hint: If the minimum is not met, then you should expand your search criteria by unselecting street and neighborhood, and selecting subdivision. If subdivision does not produce enough comps then continue with census tract, the census block or map grid. The object is to get as many tax comps for the Uniform and Equal Report and/or as many market sales as you can for evidence to present at your protest hearing. Check your I file to see the appraisal distircts evidence! Once you get enough comps you can sort and select the ones most applicable to your property.

Step 4: Press continue to proceed to the comparable screen and review each comp/sale. – The Comparable Screen includes these features:

· Map All the comps/sales, edit your property or the comps for inaccurate information and/or

· Map It each individual comp/sale to see its location and picture in most cases.

Step 5: Delete the ones that you believe are not comparable with your property. If any of teh cmops you delete are used in the appraisal districts evidence (I file) you need to write down the reason they are not comparable, so that you can explain at the hearing.

Step 6: Press View Results to see the final adjusted values.

If the final value indication reflects a value lower than the appraisal district, you can present the report at your protest hearing. (Note: All adjustments are made automatically based on previous statistical analysis. If you have an unusual property or one that does not meet the norm for the neighborhood, you can check the adjustment button and make manual adjustments. Read the help screen on each page or email us and we can prepare a report and/or present your case to the appraisal district for an additional fee) Print the comparable map before proceeding. YOu will need to insert this in your report.

Step 7: Select Generate Report or print any screen.

Once a report is generated or a screen is printed you will be charged for that report.

You can re-access and print the same report for up to 5 days with no additional charge. Each report automatically saves. If you select the Uniform and Equal report first, you can return to the front screen and select sales reports and go through the same process.

Remember you may have to use a larger search area because not every home or property in your neighborhood has sold in the past 3 years. Our sales for both residential and commercial only cover 3 years back form the date of value, since your best case is the most recent sales.

Please note that tax comp reports (known as Uniform and Equal) and sales reports are everything at the protest hearing and in most cases contains as much if not more evidence support than the Appraisal District has as evidence. It is up to you to select the most comparable sales and tax comps and to present them verbally in a reasonable manner. If you have an income property you will need to bring your rent roll and profit and loss for year end.

Hearing Evidence: At the informal hearing you will need to provide the appraisal district appraiser with a copy of your evidence. If you go to the formal ARB hearing you will need 5 copies; one for you, one for each of the 3 board members, and one for the appraiser. We suggest that you print 2 complete copies and 3 copies up to and including the comparable map. The tax comparable pages need not be copied 5 times.

You win your appraisal district protest hearing based on the predominance of the evidence you provide. Our data and reports supplemental with your pictures, income data, and other physical factors are the best means for presenting your case, either Uniform and Equal, Market Sales, or both.

DISCLAIMER: CID-SourceNet, LLC, Revac, Inc., and Real Data, Inc. do not guarantee the outcome of your hearing and/or the accuracy of the data. The data and reports are the best efforts of trained professionals and reliable third party verification. The reports and analysis are only tools for your better understanding of your taxable or assessed value. You can either use teh reports yourself or hire a tax consultant.