It's necessary to fight escalating property taxes anyway possible win or lose. Sometimes, it is luck, however, try to rely on compelling evidence in support of your protest.

It might be worthwhile to protest whether you think your property is overvalued or undervalued. Before you go gather your data and if possible get the evidence the appraisal district used in assessing your property or the evidence that they will use against you. Most counties do their appraisal of property values at the beginning of the year or in January.

You can go on protest on your own or hire someone or a company to represent you. Getting a comp. report from a realtor will not hurt to see if your house is overvalued.

If you have any material future repairs get an estimate and take it with you. Sometimes you can persuasively argue by saying that there was no justification in raising property value in the area, unlike the usual argument to say my property is overvalued on market or/and equity basis. Fortunately some board members are smart, you cannot say for the majority, to see a chance that an overzealous appraiser went over board or went from high value area into a lessor value area, reached the wrong conclusion because he was tired, or he does not care. It is possible to get a reduction using this argument in any piece of property.

If there is anything wrong with your house whether roof, plumbing, A/C, electrical, foundation, change in zoning regarding flooding or any relevant information should be gathered and presented preferably with pictures and estimates. Without proof such as pictures and estimates, you have no ground to stand on. The repairs must be material, not rooted broken fence post, peeling paint, loose tile or and any justifiable maintenance type. For your first visit with a county appraiser, you need one extra copy, but for a Board hearing you may need up to a total of five copies.

In real estate, it is location, location, and location, so if they compare your house with higher valued properties in the some subdivision or neighborhoods you should highlight the difference.  Also if your home is on a busy street or backs into a commercial area or located in a less attractive part of a subdivision, you should us it to your advantage. You have the option of filing online or sending your protest via mail. The deadline to file a protest is May 31, 2017.

Note: past repairs may not give you any advantages. So use needed repairs s or existing problems with supporting evidence such as pictures and estimates to make your case for a reduction in value.