Property Appraisals going up again???

April 21, 2008

I read this article in the statesman about property appraisals going up this year… I think with the recent mortgage crisis that started late last year, the values would be going down, but I guess not. Notices will be sent out this week, and you can find out for sure.

Last year I used a service that appealed my property value for me. They reduced my assessment about 10% and the main thing is that I did not have to do anything. I know some people will say its real easy to protest, but these guys just do it for you and if they do not reduce your home assessment value they don’t take anything and if they do reduce it they get 40% of the property tax benefit for that year and nothing ever again. They are Texas Protax Austin. Check it out.

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Bill

my appraisal didn’t go up that much. only about 2% this year.
mreddy

Just got mine in the mail today. It went up more than 10% and they capped it. Need to talk to Texas Pro Tax again.
Anonymous

Ours went down by 5%
Lindsey

Ours didn’t go up too much.
We usually pretend we’re paying for a private school tuition Heh.
anon

If you need help with an appraisal, call Mike Dixon. He is a Steiner Resident. His site is http://www.absappraisals.com. He can often get them done same day – good because the deadline for protesting is coming up.
Eric

Mine went up 23%! I will be using an expert to appeal this draconian asessment.
http://www.AustinRelocationResource.com anon

I’m posting this here because it affects all of our property values.

Today In Steiner Ranch, There are currently 189 Active Listings and only 22 Under Contract.

In an effort to promote the “resale” homes in Steiner Ranch, a few of us Realtors have organized a Steiner Ranch Open House Extravaganza. There will be over 40 homes open this Sunday (3/29) from 1-5. We have placed a large ad in the Statesman telling people to go to Cups and Cones to get a map of the homes that are participating. If the person visits 5 or more open houses, they will be entered into a drawing to win several prizes donated by local businesses.

Some examples – 4 Hours of house cleaning by Maids By Melissa, Free haircut by Michelle Lasher at Salon Platinum, Free Family Portrait Sitting by FieldPhotography.com, a Travel Bag from Travel By Marina, A Private Wine Tasting from D’Vine Wine, Décor Items from Lakeway Interior Fabrics, 1 Hour Design Consultation from Janine Charland at Metamorphosis for Homes, etc…

As you know, all of our property values are affected when people buy new construction over existing. Please help us promote this event by forwarding this email to your friends, neighbors, Yahoo groups, and anyone looking for a home in Steiner Ranch. If it is successful this weekend, we plan to make it a monthly event throughout the summer.

Let’s get some houses sold!
Michelle

How did the open house event work out?
http://www.AustinRelocationResource.com anon

It was actually great – we had about 40 people come and get maps. There were varying numbers ar each open house, but I had 20 groups through mine. Much better than the average Steiner Open House. Several of the agents reported that they thought their house would sell from the event. We have some kinks to work out for next time, but we plan to do it on a regular basis throughout the summer. Hoepfully we can keep the resale invventory from getting to high this summer.
resident

What if we don’t want the monthly “parade of homes” traffic and realtor circus?

All this is doing for residents is clogging up the curbs and cluttering the streets with baloons and reator signs. I thought you all were supposed to use Steiner signs?

Inventory will decrease as unemployment in Austin decreases and the housing market hits bottom. ( and it hasn’t yet)

Hoopla isn’t going to help move inventory in this market.

Who is sponsoring/sanctioning this?
resident

I checked with the HOA on this thing and they didn’t know anything about it.

How does that happen in a planned community?

Not real big on the contest to see as many houses as possible in a day

…anybody else foresee any potential inconveniences and/or problems with this kind of event???
anon

There is no reason for the HOA to know about it. It was just a bunch of Realtors coordinating to have all their open houses open on the same day. So far, agents have reported that 5 homes were sold directly from that event. I can’t imagine why you would have such a negative attitude about it. This was specifically targeting RESALE listings. Too many people go straight to the builders, especially when they are giving away the farm. People trying to sell their existing homes sufferred tremendously in the last year when Taylor Morrisson was “blowing out” their inventory. As agents and homeowners in this community, it is our job to educate the public that we have lots of great homes for sale here. And you don’t have to drive 2 miles in to find one!

Wait until you have to sell your home, you will be glad your agent is thinking outside the box and not just sticking a sign in the yard and saying a prayer.

And, for the most part, everyone did use Steiner Signs. It’s kind of hard when they charge $40 a sign and it takes at least 5 per open house. And, I get one “lost” almost every time I do an open house.
RJN

People are seriously upset with clogging up the curbs and a few balloons? Wow…

I agree with the previous poster, wait until you need a home sold. I guarantee this will seem like a great idea.

I commend the realtors who are sticking by existing home owners and who are thinking outside the box! I also thank all those who helped donate services or items. I personally will make every effort to use those businesses because of their support in this.

Best of luck if this event takes place again. I love the concept and it is a great way to support existing home owners who would like their home sold in a tough market.
Michelle

It’s a few hours on a Sunday, and it helps out our home values. Relax, guys. You were getting traffic to the homes anyway. Now five of them have no more traffic.
resident

“As agents and homeowners in this community, it is our job to educate the public that we have lots of great homes for sale here.” – ARE YOU SERIOUS?

I have a job(fortunately); and it isn’t “educating the public about houses for sale”.

However, I have bought and sold 3 residential properties in the last 5 years and NONE of them were sold through an open house.

MLS listings sell houses; virtual tours and web sites sell houses; – the Weekend Circus does not sell houses. Check the data if you doubt me.

In fact, if you are in the industry it is widely known that an open house is merely an opportunity for the agent to market his/her name. And to prospect for new clients.

Much the same way real estate 101 tells you to sponsor community events, and put out community papers to get your name out there. (not because you actually care about the community; but because you are looking for a RETURN)

I have also heard that agents are pressuring folks to lower thier prices to move inventory.
That DOES NOT help the community.

Like I said before, we are in an economic downturn – and once we get through it you will all be back to doing deals on the hoods of cars.

But for now, let us residents enjoy our peace on the weekend. (You must have listings in other neighborhoods you are neglecting by all being in one place, right?)
anon

Typically, you are right, open houses do not sell homes, but this is a unique situation. Clearly you have no grasp of today’s Reas Estate market. Thank God you have a “job” and are NOT a Realtor. You seriously need to relax….you obviously have some sort of grudge agains Realtors. Our community lake access brings more people here onthe weekends than a few open houses. Maybe you can find a house out in Dripping Springs where you are not bothered by any signs or people or…oh no…not the dreaded Realtor!
anon

Oh, and by the way, Resident – enjoy the Bluebonnet Home tour this weekend. The HOA does know about that one, so I’m sure you’ll be able to sleep at night. :0)
resident

anon- actually I do have a grasp of today’s real estate market, and that is one of the reasons I’m NOT a realtor.

And since when is 40 a few???

Lake access is down Quinlan Park, not every street in the neighborhood.

I don’t have anything against realtors at all. As long as they are ethical and not the “used car salesman” type.

Steiner Ranch requires its residents to pay dues. In exchange for those dues we get to enjoy some nice benefits. One of those benefits is that we have rules in place to keep our home values UP.

That includes the part where we don’t have to come home to a bunch of realtor balloons and signs of all shapes, sizes and colors. It makes the neighborhood look cheap and tacky, especially in large quantities. (like 5 per house x 40! Even in that lovely Steiner Ranch Brown that’s A LOT OF SIGNS)

If you want to sell in our neighborhood, follow the rules we residents have to pay for.

And when you get together with your cronies to plan your next Steiner takeover please discuss the impact you will be having on the people who live here outside the 189 who are selling. (something like 4000, right?)

We have children who play and ride their bikes on our streets.

We moved here for the peacefulness and beauty of Steiner.

If we wanted to be around a bunch of people racing through the neighborhood to win the big “free haircut” or “travel bag” for going to the most open houses we would have chosen to live on 6th street.

Hey – now there’s an idea! Why don’t you do a SCAVENGER HUNT??? – You know like the sorrorities and fraternities do downtown. (Just kidding – please don’t take that as a serious suggestion)
Melissa

I think anon is taking it a bit far, but he does have a point – sort of. I was involved in Real Estate for years, and Open Houses really don’t sell houses. Like anon said, they market the realtor. They attract a lot of neighbors and people not qualified to buy the house anyway. They also attract theives who take the tour, see what nice stuff you have, and what kind of security system the house is equipped with. Then they come back during the week and rob the house. Happens quite a bit.
Chris

We got our property appraisal this week – maxed out again at 10% for the third year in a row. This puts the taxable value pretty close to the purchase price (which was about $135/sf – we have a corner lot and were charged a lot premium). The problem is that I got a SR real estate review yesterday that says that the average sale price for homes in our price range is around $100/sf. Any thoughts?
Melissa

We are protesting. Our house is older (1998) but the TCAD says it’s worth way more than it is. I already had our realtor run the comps for us, and according to that, our house is overvalued by about $25,000. You may have a harder time if your house is newer, however. Because there may be a lot of houses in your price range that are older and don’t have things like granite, stainless, etc. So you may be at the high end of the average. And if it is newer, then the purchase price is probably not too far from current value. Our house is appraised quite a bit higher than what we paid 4 years ago. It’s not worth what they say, but it is worth a lot more than we paid.
Chris

I hope you’re right about our house being at the high end the average since it is new. Unfortunately, on my run this weekend I saw a house one street over (built in the same timeframe) for sale for about $100/sf.
http://www.jawsnpaws.net Heather Stetten

I think ours is over appraised as well…it’s new, but we only paid like $311k for it and they appraised it at $360k or something to that effect…although, we have a corner lot, live in a neighborhood that only has ONE whole street with two cul-de-sacs on each end, ours is one of the largest sq footage in our neighborhood, largest yard I believe and thank God our side of the street doesn’t back up to the new Longhorn Village going in…I don’t want to look out my window and see someone else’s house in my back yard…so I’m sure it’s worth more than we paid, but I doubt that much more.
Another resident

PLEASE be sure to protest your values! It’s quick, easy, and free, and when your neighbors’ homes values go lower (per Travis CAD), it helps with your protest the next year. If enough of us protest, some will prevail and that helps everyone!
Bill

My appraisal went down 3%. I was not expecting that but will not be complaining either!!
Michelle

I’m curious about the statement that protesting is “quick, easy, and free”. The problem with protesting is that you need good sales data of comparables. This data of actual sales prices is not generally available to the public (that I’m aware of), and so it’s not clear to me (and my neighbors) of how you can actually collect the data to make a compelling protest.

How do people collect comparable sales data? Or how else are you doing this so that it’s “quick and easy”?
The Poster formerly known as Steiner Res

Go to whatever real estate agent you used when you bought your house — usually they will provide you the info (they want your business when you decide to sell).
Melissa

What TPFKasSRes said. I just called the realtor we used to buy the house, and she emailed me a list of comps the same day.
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