Potential Savings of $600 in Property Taxes

Just got our "2008 Notice of Appraised Value" from the Hays Central Appraisal District stating that our Total Estimated Taxes (property taxes) is $11,634 based on an appraised value of $407,250 and total tax rate of 2.91%.

I learned from one of my favorite blogs (of a local Austin realtor) that "If the appraised value is higher than the amount you’ve recently paid to purchase the home, bring your Settlement Statement showing what you actually paid, and they’ll lower the value to the price you paid without a fuss." The Crossland Team

Takeaways here for ordinary people like me (non-realtors):
1. The Settlement Statement being referred to here is one of the documents you signed during closing. So dig it up from wherever you stuffed it!
2. Key operative term here is "recently purchased"... since the tax year starts on January 1 (2008), then I am guessing that the previous month or quarter does qualify for being "recently purchased". The good thing for is that we bought the house on December 17, 2007 (by the way, buying the house at this timeframe has its advantages too, but I'll reserve that for a future story".

So, since what we paid for the house versus the Appraised Value is lower, we could potentially save about $600 from property taxes. Yoohoo!!! Hays Central Appraisal District - here I come!

How about you? Have you checked your 2008 Appraised Value already?