I came here on NYE (New Years Eve) and it was not busy, nor was it my first visit. I was seen swiftly. As it has been each time I've been here. I came to handle a tax mishap. Apparently there was an intern that took my paperwork my first visit that sent my file down the wrong path. Now I could have had a horrible outlook and it might have been perceived as righteous by some, but, that's not my way. All things work together for the good. I met with a wonderful woman who helped and saw the error immediately and now the tax situation has been handled and no one's blood pressure had to be elevated. read more

Harris Central Appraisal District - Whew! Got it done! - Public Services & Government Near Me - Houston, Texas

If you go into the office to get a copy of your notice of appraised value (because they don't update your address months after you submit the 2525brp form), good luck. They won't give you the notice of appraised value with ifile numbers unless you ask for the manager. They also will question if you are the owner of the property. I doubt anyone would want to go in to talk with these people for fun. Last year, our experience protesting our appraised value was ok. They make it difficult on purpose so you don't save on taxes, just expect to spend a few hours waiting before your hearing. We saved almost 4k on our taxes last year by going through their hassle. read more

excellent. I was there for a change of address. was sent to the 3rd floor, very impressed with the service I received at the counter. the facilities. the officers, parking and building all excellent. read more

This year was a SCAM. She was so fast to make sure that I knew that we could only talk about market value and not appraised value. As soon as Texas helped us on our taxes, you better know that HCAD raised my market value by the same value which is ridiculous. We need to shut down appraisal districts, fire every employee, sell the building and land, and you pay taxes on the home when you buy it, and capital gains when you sell it. It is a giant scam. Wanna balance the budget? Fire 80% of government employees. read more

We realized this year that our house was appraised based off of incorrect information. Our in person appaiser named Aubrey L. was amazing, he seen right away in his system that the house was incorrectly added an additional 272 square feet based on the evidence we provided. And even though he said that the price per square foot increases with a small house, he gave us the better price and excepted my counter offer of a lower value. We could not have asked for a more understanding and compassionate appraiser and I just wanted to recognize him and say thanks. read more

Very deceptive practices this year. In years past they give you an "Appraissal" value which you can protest to lower your tax burden. Now they give you 2 values, Appraisal and Market. I normally protest every year and do pretty well..... this year I went into the webex meeting and the agent offered to lower my "Market" value by $30,000 without the usual fight. I asked him if that would lower my taxes since it was the Market Value, he said "No". So what was the purpose? People will assume they had HCAD lower their value by tens of thousands of dollars thinking they won and lowered their taxes, in actuality it's a fake out! read more

Please make the formal hearing optional for commercial property. I have been at this long enough to know that a 10-minute hearing for commercial property is not sufficient. I've never seen any meaningful adjustment made in a formal HCAD Hearing....only pennies. read more

I wasted my time today protesting my appraisal. The appraiser said he can only talk and adjust about the market value and not the appraised value. He did a lengthy calculation and he only proposed a $2k reduction on the market value and no changes on the appraised value, from which property tax is calculated.  Despite of providing him of home damages pictures and quotes. Bunch of liars! read more

This was my 2nd time to appeal/protest my home's evaluation in person and it is worth taking the time to write that Mr. Mehdizadeh (David) was wonderful to talk to and deal with! I was practically the last person of the day and he didn't rush me or seemed anxious to leave work. Everyone I enteracted with in any way was courteous and professional. David answered all my questions and explained everything throughly and patiently....and I had a LOT of questions. I was very pleased with the final results too. I brought lots of photos to explain my evaluation position and I left them all with him. I thanked him often and sincerely and I thank him now "in print". HCAD is not a scary place! read more

Ive been trying to get my homestead for property tax resolved for over a year. I've been assured multiple times it would be taken care of only to be advised that my paperwork was botched multiple times by the tax office. each time takes over an hour wait time on a phone and ive called dozens of times over this past year trying to get this resolved and told every time that everything was in order and it would be sent in the next correction period. now its going to cost me thousands in additional taxes with little guarantee im going to get refunded later. this is by far the worst institution ive ever had the misfortune of dealing with. read more

What do u expect? Government offices are never on time for appointments yet they hold all their subjects to meet their demands and penalties otherwise. This places holds true for that. Definitely make more time and plan to be disappointed with the appraisal as usual. The people who work here and the ones on the panel must be bored out of their minds . Definitely something that computers will be replacing in the future. All these things taxes are paying for for all their inefficiencies. I wish their was an government evaluation program who scores their own kind and hold them to a higher standard for taxpayers who fund it. read more

HCAD Reform NEEDED Taxpayers and voters in Harris County are screaming for a FAIR way for HCAD to appraise property values.   I AM not talking property taxes, rather the way property values are being assessed.   Currently, a property owner has to fight the same fight each year.  In other words, I can prove the correct values etc and the next year I will have to do the same in hearings on the same facts that have already been proven.    This method is inefficient.  It is wasting tax payers money, HCAD's budget dollars,  as well as property owners time.   Currently, HCADs budget is ridiculously high and wastes tax payers dollars on needless repetitive  informal and formal hearings every year.   The reform needed would be to demand HCAD do a better job of placing accurate initial assessments on properties -- thus resulting in fewer, not more, appeals and lawsuits.  In addition, there should be average property owners on procedure review boards to simplify the process so the average property owner can understand and fight their own property values.  The current method takes years to understand and is intimidating and overwhelming to an average property owner.   There are thousands of property owners and voters that say PLEASE look into this matter and DO something! read more

I had to come here to protest a homestead exception. I guess this review would have been different depending on my verdict. But in this case the verdict was in my favor. Overall, the place is good. There are plenty of chairs to sit in and they have tvs to occupy your time. I would recommend just coming on time for your appointment. I thought maybe if I came early I could leave early, nope. It was like an hr after my appointment time. I wouldn't suggest coming late but right on time would probably be your best bet. read more

This place may as well hold you at gunpoint and take your money. They are thieves and you have no recourse for any kind of fairness. Oh and I just love the panel of three impartial appraisers. I've done a formal hearing for the past four years and each time I go they ALL three agree with what the Harris County Appraiser says your house is worth down to the last dollar. What a coincidence. Never did see the face of the appraiser. He was hiding behind his computer the whole time. Jerk. What is the point of a fair hearing when you never get it? They are crooked thieves!! read more

I have tried to reach the appraisal office for three days in a row. However, when I called, the recorder said they were extremely busy and disconnected. Since the tax season is over, I wonder if anyone is working there. read more

I thought the process may be a little tedious, but it was actually pretty straight forward.You can file the protest online, which makes everything much easier. For my meeting I told him what I thought, showed him some pictures and then he countered and I accepted. l'm sure I could have lowered it more, but he was tough. The truth is that I didn't want to have to go to a hearing, so I settled. read more

Besides the fact that this place is nice & clean and the front desk people including all the other staffers are very nice and professional, the worst and most frustrating part of dealing with HCAD are the appraisers and the Appraisal Review Board (ARB.) Most people who write a positive review about this place is because they have NOT dealt with HCAD on a longterm basis. Our HCAD is probably one of the most callous government entity in Texas. I have done many property protest in other counties in Texas, but Harris County Appraisal District are just unreasonable & unconscionable people. Other counties out in the rural areas are so much more friendlier and reasonable. Hell they even smile, but don't expect the same with the people here. THEIR OBJECTIVE is to overprice your property so that can collect the most tax from it. There are 4 steps in protesting your property. When you receive your property value from HCAD, you can do an iSettle online or setup an Informal Hearing. Doing an iSettle will waive your right to Informal Hearing! I recommend an Informal Hearing because you always want to deal with a real person. If you don't get the desired result from the Informal Hearing, you go to Formal Hearing with the ARB. These guys are probably the most unfriendly people in the world. Once you enter you can feel that they are judging you as a person before sitting down. I always come in smiling, introducing myself and greeting everyone but yet you feel some kind of tension in here. When the ARB speaks you feel completely ALIENATED. They seem to be communicating among one another and the representative with HCAD, either talking and establishing eye contact with everyone else BUT you! And I thought they were citizens on our side, but WAIT they are paid by HCAD..... No wonder?!? Next, after feeling like you wasted 30 minutes of your life talking to idiots, you can still have the option to arbitrate your property value or take it to court. Recently there is new law passed that allows speedy arbitration that only cost $250 from both sides. Litigation get the best results but it is costly. The good thing is that most of the time it is settle during mediation. So depending on your budget, you decide what is best for you. I RECOMMEND EVERYONE to appeal your value through arbitration or litigation if you don't get a fair value with the ARB. From my experience, YOU WILL ALWAYS REDUCE YOUR PROPERTY VALUE LOWER THAN THE FORMAL HEARING through mediation or litigation. The savings are well worth it in my opinion. JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL TO FIND THE TRUTH....... What is disturbing is that these so called citizens that makes up the ARB are VERY bias and lean towards the decision of the HCAD because HCAD pays their checks! What is also disturbing is that the Appraisal Review Board is suppose to be an appraiser yet they have no understanding on how to value a property. For instance, isn't it logical that a commercial property on a corner lot is worth more than a non-corner lot because of the high exposure of an intersection? Well to HCAD or ARB it is not. They also can't understand the concept that pothole devalues your property. Don't get me wrong. I have ran into one or two decent members on the ARB but the majority of them are just pawns for HCAD because HCAD writes their checks. EVERY year property value goes up in Harris County! The LAND VALUE does NOT go up BUT the building value or what they call IMPROVEMENTS goes up! (FYI not all counties in Texas do this.) According to HCAD your building APPRECIATES every year instead of DEPRECIATING because it cost more every year to build a similar building that is on your property. Doesn't this seem to be unfair? It is completely ILLOGICAL to appraise it like this. The only way this will happen is if your building is some how destroyed and you have to rebuild. DOH! Of course building cost goes up every year because of inflation! I made this comment during Formal Hearing and everyone in the room SHUT UP! There was a long silent in the room and everyone started eyeballing everyone to establish some kind of sanity. What most people don't understand even though the Appraisal Review Board is not selected by the HCAD, HCAD pays for their paychecks!!!! So you BETTER believe the HCAD have some influence in the ARB. Not only that but the HCAD decides when the members on the ARB works. www.hcad.org/pdf/resources/PublicAccessInfo.pdf The bias ARB and unprofessional HCAD is forcing everyone to arbitrate or appeal the appraised value in court, wasting more unnecessary tax dollars. My take on this, is that you better have the stomach to deal with the ARB, because most of the time I leave a Formal Hearing feeling so disgusted with illogical, stupid people that I have to meditate to get the uneasy feeling out of me. If you don't have the time or stomach to deal with HCAD then hire a respectable company to protest your property value. read more

For a governmental agency, HCAD must be the one that gets dumped on the most. They can't win the hearts of citizens since (1) some taxpayers are pissed off by high appraisals, (2) they get blamed for hoovering cash from people's wallets, and (3) are thought to be in some evil conspiracy with the taxing authorities to stick it to each and every property owner. The sad fact is that, unless you are the Donald Trump of Houston real estate, HCAD doesn't even know you exist. Okay, so they have a small inkling since they send you a bill. But, this is the true dominion of where you are a number: a property tax roll number. Given all of this, why am I relatively happy with them? Well, as the proud owner of my own small slice of Americana, I get a tax bill. And, unlike the traditional government bureau which fights tooth and nail against anything more modern than 1950, HCAD automates and uses the internet for a good deal of its actions. Upon receiving my first full year's appraisal, I explored their website which is a font of data. Then, I pressed the "iFile" button to protest their assessed value since I thought it was too high given what I paid for my place during the Great Recession. After entering a few bits of data, I was asked to express my opinion on what the valuation should be. Granted, you could put in a solitary $1 but the next field asks for a reason why you gave that valuation. So, don't get all crazy with lust to make your millions off of the tax appraisal board. (Plus, that's not how The Donald does it.)* A few weeks later, HCAD posts its data that it based the original assessment and alerts you via email to review it. It also tells you whether or not the HCAD examiner agrees or disagrees with your valuation. They also tell you what their counteroffer would be. If you disagree with their counteroffer, the process moves to scheduling a real-life ARB [appraisal review board] visit. If you agree with the counter, you electronically certify that you agree and waive further appeals of this year's valuation. How did my own tax protest turn out? Well, the HCAD examiner's data showed a number of comparable sales (including my own) and agreed with my valuation. Since I had gotten 100% of what I wanted, there was no sense in seeing the fine folks of HCAD down at their offices. I'm sure that government office is nothing but plush carpeting, comfy chairs, smooth jazz, and frappacinos all around. (Yeah, right.) Plus, as a new landowner, I'd have to go in my finest Colonel Sanders seersucker suit with my best drawl to go with it. Unfortunately, the suit is at the cleaners. Right next to The Donald's. * Don't be scared to challenge the valuation. All of this was done completely free - there's no need to add those property tax protest companies (with their commission) to the mix. Use the savings to buy your own frappacinos - or, in my case, milkshakes. read more

Went in there at 1:00 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. The place was dead. We couldn't believe it considering it is the end of the month AND filing period is close by. The security guard at the main entrance is not too bright. My service dog wears her vest when we are out in public. It's clearly marked that she is a "working service dog". I guess he can't read. He said, "Is that a special needs dog or something?". Duh! What was your first clue you minimum wage pretend police officer. My wife answered his question because she knows that nothing nice will come out of my mouth when I am asked questions like that. I blame it on my PTSD. Up to the third floor we went. It always amazes me how frightened people are when they see me coming with my dog. She's a Dutch Shepherd. If you have never seen one they resemble a mini German Shepherd and most people think she is a GSD puppy and will stay far from her. With my PTSD that suits me just fine. They had 7 or 8 clerks working in the 3rd floor "exemption" office. We had filled out our paperwork prior to arriving so we were in and out of there in less than 10 minutes. Quick, easy and painless. I was extremely pleased to learn that as a permanent and totally disabled Veteran I only have to file for this exemption one time. It is good for as long as I own the house. Other states have you file annually. Texas is great when it comes to taking care of her Veterans. read more

This is the slowest Appraisal district ever! The district only works with Harris County, but they act like it's the whole state of Texas or the whole population of Houston. It takes 3 months to review your homestead application, just to say something is missing that wasn't listed on the information to upload along with your application. Once you upload the new request, it puts you back at the beginning! I submitted my application in December 2022 and today is June 2023, 6 months later. When you call you might speak to someone that gives you incorrect information or you may receive a voicemail that is full like it's after hours. The hold time on the phone will be # 60 in the queue and when you select a callback, someone will call you and hang up or it will say the voicemail is full! Every year I disputed my appraisal and taxes increase and they denied it every year! When I was approved for back pay for the homestead exemption, all of a sudden, they wanted to recalculate my appraisal amount. The state of Texas is money-hungry and straight circus clowns! read more

They give me an appointment time but it wasn't until 40 minutes later until I went in to see the appraiser. I was amazed how nice the guy was taking time to explain to me what he was doing. He ended up adjusting my square footage which was off and also lowering my property value based on the evidence I showed him. My best advice is to come prepared with a PowerPoint that has similar property comparisons especially the same models as yours and plenty of photos. We referenced the photos I brought quite a bit since all the appraiser has is an architectural drawing. Armed with research and politeness you should be able to lower your property value and win your case. Oh and don't waste your time hiring a firm to represent you. The appraiser said you can be in and out of hcad's offices in an hour to hour and a half. That plus the research took me about 4.5 hours total. read more

I've talked to people twice in the last year. I could not possibly ask for better service and attitude.

I called today for help with completing my HCAD Form 11.13, Application for Residence Homestead Exemption. Stacy answered my call; she was very pleasant and very helpful; very warm, pleasant phone voice. I appreciate her helping me feel comfortable; she provided the information I needed to complete my form. read more

Nice facilities and relatively nice people. My second time here fighting my tax hike and I will say the waiting area is open--typical 70-80s converted office building atrium layout--and comfortable with TVs, vending machines and soft rubbery chairs. Nice enough to make me think this is one reason why they keep on trying to jack with my property taxes. A brilliant operation. read more

This is the best Governmental office in Harris county, staff members are very efficient and polite and know how to get answers quickly and efficiently read more

Good customer service. Free parking and generally scheduling time does comply for hearings. Staff is personable and willing to help. It's one of the better run public service agencies in Houston. Public WiFi could be better however read more

I tried calling to verify HCAD Customer Information line and the line was always cut off. This is the worst service. Considering that these folks are paid by the very taxes paid by the residents, it is ironic and tragic that they could not render proper service to the public. read more

Both informal and formal hearing are a joke. Informal hearing: it does not matter how much evidence you bring and the quality of the evidence you bring, HCAD comes up with non sense reasons not to lower your property value, such as "we base our calculation on most recent sales". When countered by "you lowered the property value of my neighbor (exact same house) to $xxx" response: "yes but he must have come in with a special document." Formal hearing: I come in with the "special document" justifying the lower value. The three appraisers (who say they are not working for HCAD but you wonder how much of this is correct), completely disregard it, do their own calculations based on they don't tell you what. I ended up with a higher property value compared to my neighbor when his house is bigger...go figure. They are just a bunch of thieves. I hope one day somebody look into this and prevent them from continuing their dishonest practices. Maybe this person will be me. Despite the fact that these hearings are screwed, I was able to lower my property value, so it worked, even if it was from a small amount. I recommend EVERYBODY to protest their property value. I think HCAD counts on the fact that people will be discouraged to do it. This is why they make it a nightmare. I ask everyone of you to stand up against them and protest your property values. We can't let them win. read more

Property Protest. You go, sign in, sit down. Someone eventually calls your name and you follow them down a hallway and into a room. In the room are microphones and cameras. I had three arbitrators and an HCAD rep in mine. They explain the process and talk legal stuff. They eventually ask for your evidence which you must provide and explain to them why your taxes should be lower. Then the HCAD rep goes. Then the arbitrators decide who to side with. Then thats it and you leave. In my case they compared my house to only homes with more SQFT. They offered a slight reduction but I stuck with my lower number because they had appraised a similar home as mine much lower. In the end I lost but they still reduced my taxes to match what was offered on my e-Protest. There is no need to come in here if you do your research and e-file with the right numbers because they wont go any lower unless you have solid proof their e-file counter offer wasn't good enough. read more

We were very bothered by seeing Fox News on every TV in the lobby while we waited knowing that rich people and corporations just got a huge tax cut from Trump. After the formal hearing, we received a $400 reduction from $460,000 on a Heights HOME. Although there were many examples of similar properties selling for $425,000, meaning no update, these people seemed to have already focused on the expensive properties that sold for $500,000 to $600,000 which our house does not even come close to. Plus, the HCAD claimed not to see the 13" ditch on the skinny driveway. The "hearing" ended up with one of the HCAD people asking us to complete a survey. Why they would want us to complete a survey when they knew we weren't happy with $400 reduction. It's like a bad review means they did their job well by denying a tax reduction for a middle income tax payer. read more

We had excellent service on the 3rd floor for homestead exemption and name changes. Staff was extremely knowledgeable and pleasant.

This entire process has now taken on the characteristics of a bureaucratic scam. Protesting on line, hoping for a fair isettle value or indeed appealing to the so called hearing board, is just a complete waste of time and energy. Why don't they just state that unless you can provide evidence that your home has been compromised in some way (i.e. flooding, fire), then don't bother. I just came from my 'hearing'. Three citizens of the state who are supposed to be independent arbitrators. In my case my property value has, according to Harris County, increased by 52% (their assessment of actual price - this is a little different than your tax basis due to the 10% cap in place, but it does show intent for future years) over the last three years ! As much as I wished that were true; there is not a shred of evidence to support this. The process itself had as much credibility and transparency as a North Korean court, although I think the North Koreans may have more personality. No reasoning, no debate, no platform for them to explain how they derive their values, and above all they didn't listen or ask any questions, at least not to me. Incredibly all three 'citizens' agreed on exactly the same figure - to the dollar. Not even a 1% deviation for the sake of diversity, and amazingly enough it correlated directly with the Harris County appraisers view, to the exact dollar. How is this even possible ? Make no mistake these guys have been told what to do and how to do it; there is zero credibility to this process. In essence the Harris country appraisal system is beginning to price people out of their homes. My taxes have gone up 32% in the past three years - it is totally unsustainable, what HCAD does not account for is that people cannot use their homes as a cash generation machine for them; incomes have stagnated and many have been made unemployed due to the demise in oil prices. In 13 years and despite two major drops in the price of oil I have never seen a downward adjustment to my property value; however any time the price goes up we get year over year 10% (max allowable by law, Thank God) increases. This is just a corrupt façade to give homeowners the impression that they have some sort of due process over which they may be able to assert some justice to property prices; in reality it is a closed shop designed to support the district and only the district, by the way your three fellow citizens are bought and paid for by HCAD - how is that for independence ? Hopefully others have more success and hopefully you are not assigned the three homunculi that I had to deal with. A shakedown by any other name. read more

I wish I had read Noel's review below (6/8/15) before spending all the time preparing my protest materials. I just came from the ARB where they only gave me 5 minutes to speak on my case before they reaffirmed HCAD's value to the dollar. Complete waste of time.To be fair, the panelists were friendly but you could tell they probably had been given a directive to not lower the value by even a penny unless some incredibly extreme evidence is given or you point out blatantly erroneous information in their file. I had a real estate agent pull a CMA report showing the property was overassessed by about 15-20%, I had pictures of the inside of the homes that HCAD used as comps, displaying that those weren't comparable (one even had an extra bedroom), they were much more updated than my property and in better parts of the neighborhood (showed crime data, school data, etc), I had 29 pictures of negative influences in my neighborhood (yes there were that many). I came with the WORKS! And this all should've been enough to justify at least a 5-10% decrease but just as in Noel's account, they just restated the value--to the dollar--which HCAD had assessed it at. No questions for me, no comments, nothing. After they concluded their "assessment", I asked frankly if the material I provided was not adequate and how I could have improved it and they admitted "no you provided great evidence but we have guidelines we have to follow." Or in other words, you completely wasted your time because we already had our minds made up before you walked in. Basically I've learned the following from this which will hopefully help out some of you: 1.) Purchase price is a very heavy anchor. You're in a good position if you bought your property low but if you bought at/near a market high, it is nearly impossible to get your tax value lower than that number, even if you come with a boatload of evidence that the market has declined since your purchase. This is most applicable to anyone who's purchased between 2013-2016 as we've seen the Houston home prices rise dramatically. 2.) People who've owned their property for many years seem to have a better chance than newer owners (because of #1 above). 3.) The extent to which the previous owner of your property handled the tax protesting can make or break your chance of success because the values they let it skyrocket to will be your own benchmark. My home was used as a rental property by the previous owner and so I believe he never protested the assessments because he enjoyed the benefits of the tax writeoffs (sure that's speculation but it's my theory). This ended up being detrimental to my protest because I was battling a superficially high value that should've been protested years ago. Basically the higher the starting point when you begin your protest negotiations, the more impossible it is to lower it at a later date. In sum I found the protest process to be a complete waste of time. Now I know what to expect though! Maybe I'll have better luck next year but hopefully this will at least save a few of you from wasting your own precious time. read more

If i could give these low down dirty thieves a NO star I would. The "review board" is a panel of 3 people that look like they are forced to be there. They want you in and out. No questions asked. The HCAD employee assessing your property, is some sort of God, you are not worthy of speaking with him. The guys wouldn't even say hello back. Not only was I demeaned, I was treated like a number that didn't have a voice. Finally the God behind the computer completely and randomly pulledba number out of his rear end and stated my property was worth X amount of dollars! Just said "hmnnn I think it's worth this much " there it was. Now I'm paying my taxes which I have never protested, based on what the HCAD God's and the useless 3 member panel agreed to. That's it, we're done scoot along now.......... read more

File a Form AP-219 with HCAD within 45 days after you lose your ARB hearing. This costs $500 and will get you an arbitration which is managed by the state comptrollers office. You must file within 45 days or you lose your right to appeal the ARB decision except via lawsuit. The arbitration waives your right to a lawsuit. read more

I went to the informal meeting intending to get $20K knocked off because of incorrect land value. But the appraisers told me land is just an allocation, you have to look at the whole thing. As a last ditch effort I complained there was an 12 unit apartment right across the street. Mike somebody, who was training a Jackson Mosley, said hmmm, and they did some researching on the spot. Then they agreed the apartment should be counted against the value which knocked $20K off the market! So 30 minutes of meeting and everything worked out correctly. I just wish I had asked for retroactive relief! I very much recommend giving this process a try, These appraisers are not like the A**holes on the ARB formal hearing who get paid to deny everything you can say. These people are professionals. If you can present your case like a professional yourself, they will do the right thing for you. read more

Oh my gaw, I'm going to say something nice about a government facility! Look, this is the cleanest, nicest government building to have to go to. Easy to get to, free and ample parking, and tons of seating. And you will sit, but that is the nature of the beast. I got there half an hour early, but wasn't called until ten minutes after my scheduled time. No biggie, it's government. We've protested several times and always successfully. Our experience is that they've been fair and if you come in with good reasoning and documentation, you'll be considered fairly. This time was particularly easy because of a recent home purchase and if I had been using my whole brain, wouldn't have even wasted the time of the group if I had read how to ACCEPT the iFile offer (which was fine this year, because I had overpriced ours by 5K and they gave it to me). Still, they were really kind and even complimented my kid's behavior (miracle) after I apologized for bringing him (I had no idea I was going to hearing, again, because I didn't read my stuff). In the past, we've been told they like seeing photos, so if you come prepared with statistical data consistent with what they find and photos you can share with them about what brings down the value of your home, they will be very reasonable. The politeness of every single person I've ever dealt with here is top notch though. They seem to have no idea they are working for the man and the attitude that usually goes with that read more

I came here to find out some information and it was not bad at all. There was plenty of parking and the front desk was very helpful. I went to ask a question and the I thought I might have to see someone for it, but she answered my question and off I went. My recommendation is to come here early when it is not busy yet. It was quick and easy thank God. read more

I went in today for my 87 year old parent's property evaluation. I had legitimate proof that their land was at too high a valuation. Tax statements showed land behind them and land across the street from them was valued at $43,000-44,000 per acre. They had it appraised at $54,485 per acre. But because I checked the wrong box on my protest form, you know the 1/8" square box that is not as plain as it should be, they would not consider my evidence. They went with one piece of property down the road from them and one piece of property that sold 2 miles away for market value. I know after they showed me the protest form, that I checked the wrong box, but does that change the fairness of the evaluation. I had five tax statements from five pieces of land all around my parent's land which was proof enough that their land had too high an evaluation, but it couldn't be considered because I checked the wrong box. The first box says: Incorrect appraisal (market) value. The second box says: Value is unequal compared with other properties. Wonder why the market value box is first on the list? No accident. This is probably the box most people check because it says Incorrect appraisal value in it. Then you get there and find out they can't even consider what the honest and fair thing to do is. I left very disappointed that I could not get my parents evaluation lowered (cried all the way home because I failed my parents). But I learned a lesson, and I can sleep tonight, and if those people at HCAD have any conscience, they can't! read more

You know, this place isn't so bad. The front area staff, receptionist ect. are great and friendly. The review panel, OMG, people at a funeral would be funner to hang out with. All in all, got what I needed in a timely manner. BTW, 290 SUCKS!!! read more