Informal Settlement Offer Evaluator
Tells a homeowner whether the informal settlement offer the appraisal district or assessor put on the table is worth accepting, or whether they should reject it and push on to a formal hearing. Most appeals are resolved informally - an appraiser proposes a reduced value before any board hearing - and the homeowner has to decide on the spot whether the offer is fair. The homeowner supplies their state, the original assessed value, the value the district is now offering to settle at, their own evidence-supported opinion of value, the comparable sales backing that opinion, and their local tax rate. The tool computes how much of the gap the offer captures versus how much is left on the table, expresses both as dollars of value and as an estimated change in the tax bill, and then weighs accepting now against the uncertainty of a formal hearing. Critically, in the handful of states where the review board can RAISE a value rather than only lower it, the tool flags that escalating past a reasonable offer carries downside risk - a weak formal case can leave the homeowner worse off than the settlement they walked away from. It never invents a tax rate or a value; it only does the capture-versus-remaining arithmetic on the figures the homeowner supplies and frames the accept-versus-escalate decision.
Example
Input: State: Texas (Harris County); original assessed value $720,000; informal settlement offer $665,000; my supported opinion of value $640,000; comps: two same-street sales at $635,000 and $628,000 in the last three months, both similar size, arm's-length; local tax rate ~2.1% all-in.
Output: ACCEPT - this is a reasonable offer and the extra distance is small relative to the risk and effort of a hearing. The full gap you're arguing is $720,000 - $640,000 = $80,000. The district's offer of $665,000 captures $720,000 - $665,000 = $55,000 of that, about 69% of the gap. What's left on the table is $665,000 - $640,000 = $25,000 in assessed value. Translating to your bill at the ~2.1% rate you gave me: the offer already locks in roughly $55,000 x 2.1% = about $1,155 a year, while the additional value still at stake is only $25,000 x 2.1% = about $525 a year. To chase that remaining ~$525 you'd have to attend a formal Appraisal Review Board hearing, present your two comps, and accept that the board might grant less than the $665,000 already offered. Texas does not allow the ARB to raise your value on a homeowner-initiated protest, so there's no upward risk - the worst case is you simply don't improve on the offer. Given that the offer already captures the large majority of your supported reduction, accepting now is the efficient choice. If your comps were stronger and clustered nearer $640,000 you could reasonably push, but at a 69%-captured offer the marginal dollars rarely justify the hearing. Confirm how to accept the offer on the appraisal district's official page before the deadline.
Input: State: Washington (King County); original assessed value $610,000; informal settlement offer $600,000; my supported opinion of value $560,000; comps: a couple of nearby sales around $565,000-$575,000 but mixed in size and one is six months stale; local tax rate ~1.0% all-in.
Output: ACCEPT - and in Washington, escalating here is actively risky. The full gap you're arguing is $610,000 - $560,000 = $50,000. The offer at $600,000 captures only $610,000 - $600,000 = $10,000, about 20% of the gap, and leaves $600,000 - $560,000 = $40,000 on the table. At the ~1.0% rate you supplied, the offer secures roughly $100 a year and the remaining value at stake is about $400 a year. On its face that looks like a thin offer worth rejecting - but two things change the calculus. First, your supporting evidence is soft: the comps are mixed in size and one is six months stale, so a board may not credit your $560,000 opinion. Second, and decisively, in Washington the county Board of Equalization can RAISE your assessed value during an appeal, not just lower it (RCW 84.48.010). If you reject this $600,000 offer and your case underperforms, the board could set a value at or above the $610,000 you started with - leaving you worse off than the settlement you walked away from. With weak comps and real upward risk, take the $600,000. Only escalate if you can first assemble clean, recent, same-size arm's-length comps that genuinely support a value well below $600,000; confirm the appeal procedure and any deadline on the county's official page.
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