It seems like just a couple of months ago, we were assisting homeowners contest their property tax assessments with the Collin County Appraisal District, but it was almost a year ago.
The state of Texas places an estimated value on every home and parcel of land (among other things) in the county. Every year The Grisak Group volunteers to assist any property owner in Collin County if they want to reassure themselves the county was fair in their assessment. The general public doesn't have access to the sale prices of homes and land on the MLS, but we do. We're happy to share some sale comparables that might help their case if we can find them.
This is a service we provide free of charge with no obligation to Collin County property owners, whether they are or have been our clients or not. We never know if we'll be able to find any comparables to support the property owner's opinion until we see what's been reported to the MLS, but we're certainly willing to try. We have not set up the program to schedule visits on Zoom with our agents, but that will be coming soon. However, you can call our office now, 972.359.1553 to be added to the list. We'll contact you when we have things in place.
Here are the dates you need to remember ...
- May 15th is the deadline to protest, so letters will hit mailboxes around April 15th.
- the tax code allows you to go back 2 years for comps, but county rules are much more stringent.
- Collin County is more stringent than the surrounding counties.
- Collin County will push for comps between 3/1/25-2/1/26.
- You can try to include comps sold after 2/1/26, but you'd better have a strong argument for it.
- In person protests are in June if owners don't reach an agreement through the online protest.
- There are 16 in-person protest rooms, each with a panel of 3 appraisers.
- Sometimes you can get an in-person protest with 1 appraiser instead of 3, which is usually better.
- If owners protest in person, they only have 5 minutes to present their case, so they'd better be prepared with a strong argument.
- You can use off market sales if you have the closing statement.
- Stay within 10% of square footage whenever possible.
- Being over 65 freezes your taxes with school district and county, but not city tax. Plano is one of the only cities that also freezes city tax for people over 65. So if someone is over 65 and their taxes went up, they need to look at the "city" tax and understand that will always change, but school district and county won't.
- This WEBSITE has videos you can share with people about protesting your taxable value.
- January 1st is the most important date, because the estimated values are determined "on that day". So, if you run comps for someone, and there's a really good comp on December 27th (very close to January 1st), then start with that one.
- With a Homestead Exemption, the value growth should cap at 10% each year.
- If someone has made a noticeable change from the air (added a pool, barn, guest house) then the county can increase the value more than 10% even if it has a Homestead cap.
Homestead Exemptions can be complicated. When someone buys a home, they can apply for a Homestead Exemption right away. They will get a prorated discount on that year's taxes. That said, they won't actually get the Homestead cap until they've lived in the home for an entire calendar year, so their taxes could go up by over 10%.
For instance, someone buys a home on June 1st 2025. They can apply for their Homestead Exemption on June 2nd and will get a prorated tax reduction for 2025. Then they have to live in the home for all of 2026. Then, starting on January 1st 2027, their Homestead cap will kick in, which keeps the max growth at 10%. So their taxes for 2026 could go up by more than 10%.
