How HomeTaxAppeal Builds Your Evidence
Every report starts from the same question a review board asks: what have genuinely similar homes near yours actually been valued or sold at? This page explains how the software answers it — and where the approach has limits.
Where the candidate pool comes from
The analysis looks at every arm's-length sale in your immediate market before narrowing to the most similar properties. Data comes from public records, county appraisal district records, and licensed real estate data. Foreclosures, short sales, and related-party transfers are excluded — they don't reflect open-market value. Price-per-square-foot statistical outliers are removed.
How comparables are scored
Each candidate is similarity-scored on physical characteristics (size, age, beds and baths), location (same subdivision, distance from your home), and recency. Higher-scoring comparables are more like your home; the score is shown next to every comparable in the report, so you can see exactly why each one was selected.
How adjustments work
No two homes match exactly, so each comparable's value is adjusted for the differences that matter: time (when values reflect different dates), living area, lot size (tiered rates — smaller lots weighted higher per square foot), bedrooms and bathrooms, and pools. Adjustment rates are derived from local market data per report, not fixed constants — the sample report shows the actual rates from a real packet.
Reconciliation: one supported value
The adjusted comparables are combined with score-weighting — higher-similarity comparables contribute proportionally more — to reach a single supported value for your property. The report shows the full grid: every comparable, every adjustment, and the weighting, so nothing about the conclusion is a black box.
Confidence, missing data, and when the answer is "don't file"
Confidence reflects how many comparables were found, how many sit within a mile, how many fall inside a recent time window, and how similar their characteristics are. Higher confidence means stronger evidence for your case. When the data is thin — few comparables, missing property characteristics — the analysis says so rather than papering over it. And when the evidence does not support an appeal at all, the free check tells you that before you've paid anything: the honest answer is sometimes that your assessment is fine.
Verify it yourself
Every comparable in your report can be independently verified through your county's public records — addresses, characteristics, and the values used. That's deliberate: evidence you can check is evidence a review board can trust.
Limitations — what this is not
The report is a software-generated market analysis, not a real estate appraisal. It is not USPAP-compliant, no physical inspection is performed by a licensed appraiser, and it is not intended for lending, underwriting, insurance, or legal proceedings. Value conclusions are estimates from statistical methods applied to third-party data, which can be incomplete or out of date — and acceptance by any assessor or review board is never guaranteed. Condition and defect information comes from what you submit.
See it in action
Review a real, anonymized sample report, or run the free check on your own address — the packet is a one-time $79 only if the evidence supports filing. Related reading: how to find comps and what evidence works.
HomeTaxAppeal is a self-service software product, not a tax consulting or representation service; nothing on this page is tax, legal, or financial advice.