Property Tax Time - What to Do?
The Travis County Appraisal District has released appraisals to homeowners across Austin, and expectedly, home values are way up.
The data this year shows the median home price in Austin now sits at $632,208. Up from $413,403 in 2021 and $354,622 in 2020. That represents an increase of 52.9% in just the last year. Congratulations if your property has appreciated alongside this crazy market!
One thing that comes with this rise in value though, is the rise in property taxes. We expect a lot of homeowners this year to be surprised at the size of their tax bill for their property. As a property owner, you have actions you can take that can greatly help you reduce this amount owed for your property taxes every year!
We encourage clients of Stone Oak Property Management to protest their property taxes, and have negotiated a deal for our clients with our partner, Home Tax Shield, when you set up the protest through us. The cost of the service is contingent on savings they are able to obtain for you so if they don’t save you any money you don’t pay! We are able to assist our clients with working with Home Tax Shield, we just need the owner’s approval to do so.
If you’re a client of Stone Oak you have until May 12th, 2022 to notify us you’d like to work with us to protest these taxes. If you are interested in exploring this option please don’t hesitate to contact your property manager. Time is of the essence with the filing deadline on May 16th, so the quicker you contact your property manager the sooner we can get your protest staged for filing without concern of missing the deadline.
If you’re already participating you should have received a welcome email from Home Tax Shield by now. If you did not receive a message please check your spam folder, and if you don’t see the message let us know so we can verify your account is set up and have the message sent again.
Here are some recent articles concerning the 2022 appraisals-
More information regarding the Austin housing market and the assessed property values on KXAN’s website.
Information about the steep rise in neighboring Williamson County (Northwest Austin) appraisal increases
Non-Real Property Items Survey - Your Feedback is Appreciated
We’ve had various situations pop up recently regarding non-real property items (microwave, fridge, etc) that may be at your property and whether or not our clients would like to be responsible for replacing/repairing these items. The survey is 3 questions in total and will give our team good insight into where our clients stand on this topic. Please take a second to share your opinions on these items and your roll in maintaining them.
Visit & Complete Non-Real Property Items Survey
Yard Work & Your Vacant Rental Property
Spring is upon us and with it comes spring showers! This in turn makes the local vegetation grow faster resulting in your property’s lawn growing faster. Please keep in mind, during vacancies the landlord is responsible for lawn care. Some properties with HOA require weed removal, so a suggested one time weed treatment might be needed to get your lawns looking their best. Your Property Manager will provide more information about this and opting into a weed treatment. Please don’t hesitate to contact your property manager with any questions!
HOA Notices
Please remember to send in any HOA notices you receive in a timely manner to allow time for the tenants to remedy. If we fail to provide tenants with a notice to cure, then we find it more challenging and difficult in passing through any fines or fees incurred as a result. To expedite HOA communication, please add Stone Oak as a contact with your HOA if you have not already done so!
Selling Your Property in This Wild Market
Stone Oak wants to remind our clients that we are a licensed real estate brokerage in the state of Texas and process transactions alongside property management. If you are thinking of selling your property or a portion of your portfolio we are happy to assist you. Contact your property manager to inquire about selling your property!
Thank you for being a client of Stone Oak Property Management and trusting us with your real assets. Please don't hesitate to contact our team if you need anything!
