John M.

John: My name is John and my wife and I recently relocated to Austin in the Hill country in Driftwood, Texas. We built this home and we moved in right around the corner from our son and daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.

Interviewer: How did you feel when you first got your annual property value assessment from the County.

John: Most years, when we got our initial property tax assessment it was significantly higher than the prior year. And, this is a continuous problem here. You have the tax assessors who are trying to get the most revenue for the County that they can, and they’re hoping that the homeowners don’t push back too hard. And some of us you know, take, take on the challenge and they’re successful as we were last year.

Interviewer: So, have you ever protested your property tax value before?

John: When we started getting protests that were significantly out of line as we thought we submitted online protests and we got response obviously. And the adjustments that were made are nowhere near what we thought were reasonable. So, then we started submitting formal protests and then appearing before the tax assessment board. And we got mixed results there primarily because we didn’t have access to the data that we needed to more forcefully argue our case and just the lack of experience of ever doing anything like that. And so, once we found out that there were companies that would actually go to bat for you, we went that route. And we did that with two different companies and most recently with Home Tax Shield in 2020.

Interviewer: How much money did Home Tax Shield save you in 2020?

John: The amount that Home Tax Shield was able to get for us in 2020 was very significant. They saved us over a hundred thousand dollars of assessment value, which resulted in about $2,500 worth of tax savings, which was the most significant that we’d ever gotten before.

Interviewer: What, how did you feel when you saw that final report from them?

John:  When we saw the final report from Home Tax Shield, we were blown away obviously. We decided at that point that that should be the way that we go forward here because they could argue the case much more effectively than we could. And then it dramatically reduced the amount of effort and stress on our part.

Interviewer: Tell me a little bit about the process of working with Home Tax Shield.

John:  The process of working with Home Tax Shield was I don’t know how it could have been any easier. It played out over about three months started in late spring. And then in July we got notified of the tremendous success that they had gotten. And there were really only three different you know, points in that process for us, the initial signing on. Then we sent them information that we knew specifically about our house that we thought might be useful to them and in arguing our case. And then the third and final was them closing back with us notifying us of the success that they’d gotten, that they’d saved us over a hundred thousand dollars in assessed value and $2,500 in taxes. Wow.

Interviewer: Comparing that easy three-step process to kind of the, doing it yourself process you’ve done in the past. Tell me how did that compare?

John:  Number one, compared to what we’d done in the past, which was you know, arguing our case, our ourselves it saved a tremendous amount of time and effort on our part. Number two, it saved the stress of having to go before the board, which I wouldn’t say they were hostile, but they’re very used to people coming in and trying to you know make their case for lower reductions. And then of course it also, in our case, it saved us a two hour round trip to the County tax office in San Marcos, Texas.

Interviewer: Did you have to go and dig through a lot of documents to get everything that they needed?

John:  No. The process of working with Home Tax Shield was very easy. There’s just a minimal amount of information that we had to provide them and they have access to a lot of other information that you don’t really have access to. Things like comparable property in the surrounding area and so forth and so they did all of that work. They took what information we had and they completely ran with the ball all the way through to completion.

Interviewer: So, throughout this whole process did you feel like Home Tax Shield was keeping you informed of what was happening?

John:  Yes. They kept us informed throughout the whole process. You know, primarily by email you know, from the initial sign-on through collecting information, any questions that they might’ve had about the property. For example, we knew that there was some square footage that our tax assessment was based on that wasn’t accurate.

Interviewer: Did you ever have to appear in person to handle this protest when you were working with Home Tax Shield?

John:  No. And that was one of the big advantages. We never had to appear in person that was completely handled by Home Tax Shield and one of the time-saving and stress saving parts of the whole process. And one of the reasons why we’re obviously going to be going with Home Tax Shield in the coming year.

Interviewer: How long did the whole process take from when you first initiated the process with them to when you got the final result from them?

John:  The whole Home Tax Shield process went very fast. We signed on with them. I think it was late spring, maybe April/May timeframe. And then we got notified in July that they had successfully completed their filing and saved us over a hundred thousand dollars in assessed value and $2,500 in tax.

Interviewer: Do you feel that you arrived at a fair tax value?

John:  The fairness of the assessment is what’s really important. And we didn’t really have access to the information to be able to compare our assessed value with our neighbors. That information that think is typically available to real estate agents or companies like Home Tax Shield. So when determining fair market value Home Tax Shield was able to get the information that would help them argue their case and justify getting a significant, lower value for our home. And I can’t emphasize enough how significant that was and getting a reduced, assessed value.

Interviewer: Do you think that home tax shields pricing was fair for their service

John:  Home Tax Shield pricing was very fair for the services that they offered. We had used one tax protest from prior to Home Tax Shield, and they saw charged significantly more than Home Tax Shield charges for their services.  The prior company we had used had charged 40% of the assessed value and Home Tax Shield charges 30%, which is a very significant 25% reduction in our cost out of pocket.

Interviewer: What will you be doing with the money that you will be saving on your taxes?

John:  Yeah, that’s one of the other significant advantages of going with a company like Home Tax Shield, is that the money that they save you, which is more than, than you could typically get on your own, enables you to put that money back into your house. And in our case, we’d put it in new drapes for our new house, which we desperately needed.

Interviewer: Would you say that you are happy with everything you’ve gone through with Home Tax Shield?

John:  My wife and I couldn’t be happier with our experience with Home Tax Shield. And, as a result of that, we obviously are going to be going with them for all the years to come and save us a significant amount of time and effort and stress and travel, arguing our case. And it played out very, very efficiently and effectively with the minimum effort on our part.

Interviewer: Would you recommend Home Tax Shield to a friend?

John:  My wife and I have no reservation whatsoever with recommending home tax shield, and fact, we’ve done that to all of our friends and family, and I’ve even posted it on my Facebook page.

Interviewer: What would you say to anybody who just has didn’t know that this was something they could do and why they should really consider looking into this?

John: My advice to anyone who doesn’t feel that their home, an assessed value is reasonable, particularly in light of what they know is going on in their neighborhood should look into going with a company like Home Tax Shield. They can save you a lot of time and trouble and stress and money that you probably wouldn’t have otherwise.