You must adjust comparable sales to your own property to have an effective case.  A real estate brokers Comparative Market Analysis that doesn’t adjust is not much help at the Appraisal Review Board.

Condition can be determined from your appraisal district’s website.  If the condition of a comparable property is lower than the condition of your property, then you must adjust your value up to compensate.  If the comparable’s condition is higher, then you adjust down.   Districts vary in the amount they attribute to condition differences; that’s a good reason to attend an informal hearing with an appraiser before your formal Appraisal Review Board hearing.

At Property Tax Protest we encourage our clients to submit photos of condition issues affecting their property.  But there are caveats:

• Photos should show enough of the property to identify it.  Appraisal Review Board members don’t want to see photos that they can’t link to the property.  As an alternative, we suggest to the owner that he/she attach to the rear of the print a caption that identifies the property and describes the condition and that they print or sign their name to the caption.
• Distinguish between maintenance issues and capital improvement issues; the latter qualify but the former does not.  A leaky roof gutter or a driveway in need of patching will be considered maintenance.  A pool in need of patching may be considered capital improvement because of its cost.  A cracked slab will be considered a capital item.  Use good judgment and don’t flood your hearing with irrelevant issues.
• Keep photos to a minimum — not more than ten and preferably five or less.  Board members don’t appreciate verbosity and quantity as much as they appreciate cogency and quality.

In this series of Adjustments to Comp Sales we show homeowners how to adjust sales based on the criteria used by appraisal districts.  The most important are:

• Neighborhood
• Size
• Age or Effective Age
• Class
• Condition
• Pool / No Pool

We’ll even show you how to use logic to dispute some of the the districts’ criteria that we think are not realistic.  Search for Adjustments to Comp Sales: Lots and Logic.  You can use our argument when it fits your purpose.

To find each, just search for “Adjustments to Comp Sales” and select each one separately.