We’ve received your information and we’re working on lowering your Property Taxes!
Thank You!
This service began out of an experience Ben had with a client who was being forced to sell her home after living there for over 40 years when her property taxes came to a level she was unable to keep up with. Her husband had passed and being a retiree on a fixed income, it was no longer possible for her to maintain tax payments even though her home was paid off.
Taxes in Dallas County are out of control and of course, our city needs funding to continue providing services we all benefit from and our goal is to make sure no one is paying more than their fair share. For this reason, we’ve built our tax dispute service to help people of all walks of life to get the help they need to not only stay in their homes but raise their families and live in neighborhoods they love.The video below is a full walkthrough of the process. I've also taken this opportunity to help with any frequently asked questions.
Don't Forget to File your Dispute!
The dispute process begins on April 22nd so if you’re a little early, no sweat, we’ll send you an email reminder once the dispute process is opened with the County. You, as the homeowner, need to file a dispute on your tax value, we can’t do that for you. Don’t worry though! We have an easy process and you don’t even need to leave your house.
Go to http://www.dallascad.org/SearchAddr.aspx & Search for your address. Once in your property detail page, file your dispute by clicking the uFile link in the upper left corner. They’ll collect a little information and if you have documents from us or evidence of deferred maintenance, you’ll have the opportunity to submit that here. If you’re still waiting on documents or information, go ahead and file the protest anyway, you can submit it later. Once you have completed their registration, they’ll generate an email with a review board hearing appointment. If you get an appointment, you’re done for now, great job! We’ll walk you through how to protest by phone and save yourself tons of time later, but first, I’d like to help you understand how taxes work in Dallas County.How Can I Lower My Taxes?
1. Appraisal: This is where we come in. We’re going to run a market analysis on your property. If we find that you’re being overvalued, we can help! We’ll send you comparable homes that have sold along with a broker price opinion letter. You can add these to your uFile documents or provide them by email to your appraiser. If we don’t think you’ll be able to get your appraisal reduced, we’ll still send you comparable sales, and you’re still welcome to pursue a reduction, totally up to you.
2. Desirability: This is something you need to do on your own, but I can tell you exactly what you need to do. Desirability encompasses everything from your location in the neighborhood to your specific property condition. Dallas Central Appraisal District (CAD) factors desirability highly when they’re trying to find your taxable value, so it’s a great way to reduce your tax liability. If you back up to the highway, live on a busy road or next to a commercial area, those can be considered less desirable than your neighbors and in a lot of cases, you can get your desirability rating reduced. You can also submit pictures and bids of deferred maintenance around your home. Fence falling over? Cracks from foundation movement? Take some pictures and get a bid, send it in to DCAD through the uFile link or email with your appraiser and that’ll help get your desirability reduced!
3. Exemptions: This is the easiest way to get your taxes reduced. Everyone in TX gets a homestead exemption and it’ll lower your tax bill around 20-30%. If you don’t have your homestead exemption, file for that on your property page on DallasCAD.org while you’re out there. We will check for your Homestead Exemption during our process and let you know if you don’t have it in place. Other exemptions like over 65, disabled military, etc also exist and it’s well worth checking to see if you qualify for more than just your Homestead. Here’s the info page for exemptions in Dallas County: https://www.dallascad.org/Forms/Exemptions.pdf
What Do I Need To Do?
1. File your Protest! Get that done before the filing deadline on May 22nd!
2. Wait for your info from us to arrive, we’ll send it to the email you submitted. If you got to this page, it means we have everything we need from you.
3. Consider your desirability rating. If you haven’t had your desirability rating reduced for specific issue with your location or current deferred maintenance, now is a good time to collect your evidence.
4. When you’re ready, call Dallas CAD and ask to speak with an appraiser. You are going to have an informal dispute hearing so be ready to negotiate and have all the evidence you’ll need in pdf form so you can email it easily. Appraisers are very busy this time of year so when they get on the phone, tell them you have a protest hearing coming up and you wanted to see if you could get it taken care of ahead of time. The appraiser will review your file and ask for your evidence and what you think it should be. Remember, this is a negotiation so you may not get everything you want, but get as much off as possible. Remember to be courteous and polite! The appraiser can reduce your property taxes at their discretion, you’ll get more done if you’re pleasant. If you’re unhappy with the results of your conversation, you can always continue on to the review board hearing. If you both come to an agreement, you can lock in your new property tax rate and you’ve saved yourself some money! Congratulations!
How Much Does Protesting My Property Taxes Actually Save?
According to Dallas CAD’s property tax calculator (https://dallascad.org/TaxRateCalculator.aspx) we pay 2.51% of our property value in tax every year, before exemptions, as of March 2023. So, for every $10,000 you get your property tax reduced, that saves you $251 per year, or $20.91/mo!
Last year, we averaged saving our clients that protested around $50k off of their property tax bill. What could you do with an extra $100 per month?
Who Is The Lauer Group Helping?
We service Dallas, Collin and Rockwall counties, although the information we share is specific to Dallas county. We find that in most cases, Collin and Rockwall Central Appraisal Districts (CAD) will be extremely similar to Dallas CAD, but you should double check all the dates and specific information.
I Just Bought My House, When Can I Start Protesting?
If you bought your house last year (This is 2023, so if you bought your home in 2022..) it’s too soon for what we do here. If your tax value is more than your purchase price, protest and use your closing paperwork to show them that your house is being over valued. The most comparable home to your home.. Is your home!
Also, don’t forget to get your Homestead Exemption in place!I Don’t See The uFile Link on DallasCAD.org
Is it before April 22nd? You can only file your protest between 4/22/23 and 5/22/23, if you’re outside that date range, the link is not active.
What’s the Difference Between Appraised Value and Taxable Value?
When you have exemptions on your property (Homestead, Over 65, etc) you will have an appraised value as well as a taxable value in your property detail page.
- Appraised Value: Total market value of your property as determined by Dallas CAD.
- Taxable Value: The amount that you will be taxed based on after the reductions granted by your exemptions.
Your taxable value will be lower and if your property has a Homestead Exemption, it can only go up 10% per year. When you protest, you’re protesting your full appraised value so it is possible to get a reduction without actually cutting into your taxable value.
Do I need to protest my appraised value even if it won’t save me money this year?
Absolutely. Think about that appraised value as a backlog. Your taxable value will continue to go up 10% every year until it catches up to your appraised value. Protest every year to get your appraised value down so that in the future, you won’t go up 10% annually.
How Long Will It Take To Get The Market Analysis From The Lauer Group?
Please understand that this takes us an unbelievable amount of time to manually process all the requests we receive every year. Each request takes Spencer and I about 10 minutes, last year we handled a little over 1,500 requests which took us a combined estimated 6 ½ weeks! We’re excited to save you tax money but please be patient with us, we’re expecting to be completely inundated.
If you have a hearing in less than a week and still don’t have your market analysis from us please email us at BLREOffice@gmail.com and we’ll make sure to get you something before your hearing date.That Seems Like a Lot Of Work! How Can I Help?
First, please be patient. We are doing our best to get through these fast while also running our business, it’s important to you and it’s important to us too. We will get back to you as soon as humanly possible.
Second, we’d love to be introduced to anyone you know who needs a good Realtor! This process takes us away from a lot of other things we usually do in our day so if you or someone you know is moving, we’d be honored to help. Besides, if we’re willing to do all this for free, imagine how well we treat our buyer and seller clients!Did We Miss Anything?
If we still didn’t answer your question, you’re probably not alone. Drop us a line, we’ll help you out and update our webpage.
Thanks!
BLREOffice@gmail.com