You must adjust comparable sales to your own property to make an effective case for a property tax reduction.  Here we’ll discuss Effective Age.

Effective Age is sh0wn on your appraisal district’s web site.  You can compare the sale property to your own by age and adjust yours up if the comparable sale is older or down if the comparable sale is newer.  Districts vary in the amount they attribute to age differences; that’s a good reason to attend an informal hearing with an appraiser before your formal Appraisal Review Board hearing.

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.