Tentmaking Tips

We haven’t added an Airbnb to this property yet, although we’re still considering ideas.

Here’s some of what we’ve been working on in the last 6 months:

• We recently submitted a protest for our property taxes this year which I encourage people to do each year. Initially when I protested, they didn’t offer me any reduction in value. As a result, I appealed to the board. While waiting on hold for a board hearing, another appraiser jumped on the call and was ready to negotiate. They initially offered $42,000 off the current assessed value. I negotiated them to $59,000 off. This resulted in a tax assessed value even less than the one from last year. I was pumped!

• We’ve done some updating to our home & we believe the value has gone up significantly. We’re just over 2 years in, so we’re able to flip for tax free profit if we want, but we think w
...

That is, finding ways to reduce the costs of our home by renting something out on our property.

In the last 2 homes we’ve lived in, we have covered all of our primary housing expenses just by renovating a garage space and putting it on Airbnb. This reduced our ongoing housing costs to essentially $0.

We moved into a new house last year and we’ve been trying to figure out how we want to “hack” it. Once you get used to not having housing expenses, it’s hard to go back to paying them. 🤣

We’ve had multiple options:

1. There is a large storage shed in the backyard that we could renovate.

2. There’s a separate wing of our house that we could wall off for guests.

3. We could build an additional small structure in the backyard.

But, honestly, we didn’t love these options for a variety of reasons.

That’s when we had an idea.

Unique Airbnb experiences are becoming more and more popular. An

And it probably won’t surprise you to find that your taxable value went up… again.

Sometimes it makes sense as to why it went up. You’re aware that home prices have risen in your area. Other times you’re confused as to why it went up because sale prices have stagnated or gone down in your area.

Remember, in either scenario, your value is subject to negotiation.

That’s why I protest every year.

Here are a few tips for protesting this year:

1. Submit your protest right when you receive your notice.

I received my notice recently and immediately went online to protest. Thousands of other people will be doing the same thing, but because I did it quickly (literally the day of), I was able to get an appointment the next day to see an appraiser.

2. Negotiate with one of city appraisers first

In Texas, both the local appraiser and the appraisal review b

And the answer is really simple.

It doesn’t matter.

Huh?

I tell people this all the time. How you get started in real estate really doesn’t matter. The key is just getting started doing something.

Why?

Because once you get into the real estate world, you’ll find out over time what interests you the most. Just get involved somewhere.

Sometimes people overthink where & how to get started and I remind them that the where & how don’t matter that much.

Here are ways people might get started:

• Landlord

• Multi-family

• Development

• House Hacking

• Flipping Houses

• Real Estate Agent

• Short-term Rentals

• Commercial Brokerage

The list could go on.

Perhaps a great way to choose is to find someone you know & respect that is involved in real estate. Take them out to lunch & ask them to tell you more about what they do. Maybe they’ll offer you the opportunity to tag along & learn from them. That could be a

The price you’ll pay to get professional pictures taken of your home is almost always worth it.

Many people take their own photos or let their Realtor take photos of their house. But I would discourage this.

Great pictures can make a difference in how much interest is generated in your house when you list it (either for sale by owner or with a real estate agent).

In addition to pictures, you can often pay extra for interior videos, floor plan maps, and even drone footage. All of these can go a long way in drawing attention to your listing.

You know me, I’m all for cutting costs and saving money where it makes sense, but this is not one of those places.

If you want to sell your home for top dollar next time you sell it, invest the money in a good media package (pics, videos, maps, etc) to make your home stand out from the pack.

In that notice, they told likely told you your appraised/market value and your assessed value (taxable value).

Most people assume there’s nothing you can do about it.

That’s not true.

Due to the increase in property values nationwide in recent years, tax authorities are taking the opportunity to significantly raise taxes.

An increase makes sense, but you can negotiate with them about how much your increase should be.

And, obviously, you want the increase to be as little as possible.

Their increase is often applied broadly & doesn’t account for the specifics of your house.

That’s why you want to tell them more about your house to have them evaluate it specifically & hopefully lower your taxes as a result.

We had a big increase in our appraised value last year and we were able to protest & negotiate a six-figure drop in value for our house, which was awesome!

We had another big jump agai