Sam Sosa - Senior Property Tax Manager, Ownwell Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, we've got a brickhouse. Your property taxes probably went
up six twenty three is our time here in Houston's
mooring news. Is brick worth more than stucco? I'm not
sure about that. Maybe Sam Soson knows. He's a senior
property tax manager at Texas based owned well. By the way,
you folks who worked for me and got me some
decent money back the last few years. So I'd like
to personally thank you for doing that. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's great, thanks, Jimmy.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
You bet So. How does this process work? You know,
it seems to be a real cottage industry we've graded
here in Texas of fighting your property taxes. You know,
we have a lot of companies like yours that do it.
Clearly you have more success than you don't have success
at getting property taxes lowered. So does that just mean that,

(00:46):
you know, we should all just kind of assume that
we get our assessment, that our assessment has overrated our
home or put more of a value on our home
than our home is actually worth.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I think that's a fair assumption, Jimmy, I mean to
be honest. I always encourage Texans to file a protest
every year because there's zero risk to doing so. By that,
I mean the by law, the appraisal district and the
appraisal Review Board can't increase your value as a result
of a protest, So really the worst thing that could
happen is that the value just stays the same. So

(01:17):
I don't see why folks don't protest every year.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, And from a practical standpoint, before everybody gets the
hopes up that they can get their taxes lowered, I mean,
what are some tailtale signs from your property tax assessment
that tell you that they've really gone too far as
far as overvaluing what your home is worth.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I mean, there's a couple of different ways that you
can look at it. So when you follow a protest,
I always suggest requesting a copy of the district's evidence packet.
By law, you're entitled to that so you can see
all the data and all the information that they're valuing
your property as. But generally, you know you're going to
want to look for, you know, in inaccurate property details.

(01:57):
Make sure they have all the square footages of your
property correct. Look at similar properties in the neighborhood that
are comparable to yours see where they're valued at, you know,
because the Texas Constitution says that you can't be you know,
you shall not be taxed higher than your neighbor. Right,
So it brings this whole equity approach, your uniform and
equal approach saying, hey, let's look at comparable properties and

(02:20):
make sure that they're all in line. You're also going
to want to take a look at sales. I mean,
there's a variety of ways that you can look at it,
but I mean, really the big takeaway is folks like,
even if the value goes up, stays the same goes down,
get out there and protest because you know, you want
to see how the district is valuing your property and
make sure that everything is correct.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
And I'm guessing too that what we've seen with home sales,
home sales are certainly down over where they were, let's say,
two years ago, and certainly homes are not selling at
the same price they were two years ago. So if
they're making a comparison of your home based on a
comp from a couple of years ago, then that's automatically
out of date, isn't it right?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, And I think it's awesome too important to remember
here that you know counties appraised properties in Mass. You know,
they simply don't have the resources to go out and
visit every single property. So because mass appraisal uses generalized data,
it may not always reflect unique characteristics or actual conditions
of an individual property. So that's why owners have the

(03:21):
right to appeal if they believe that their appraisal is inaccurate.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
All right, Sam, thanks appreciate it. Ben, Senior property tax
manager at Texas based own Well. That is Sam Sosi