Although some children may brag that they “swim in a pool to keep themselves cool” or “swing in a tree up high,” the Tolbert children will respond: “We make our annual trek to the Denton Central Appraisal District with our miserly mom.”
For the fourth straight year, I loaded the kiddos up and, armed with my spreadsheet of comparable sales data, we made our annual summertime pilgrimage to Denton to protest our property valuation.
With parked cars lining the street and overflowing into nearby gravel lots, my heart sank as I pulled up to the building. This clearly was not going to be painless.
Unlike last year, the customer service lady that greeted us didn’t act like she hated our guts. She politely and apologetically explained that there was currently at least an hour-and-a-half wait to meet with an appraiser. Sweaty bodies wearing scowling faces filled every seat and lined the walls up and down the corridor. Knowing that my three children would do much to liven up the dreary place … in all the wrong ways … we trekked back across the scorching asphalt, piled back into the car, and went in search of a more suitable place to wait out the next few hours until it was our turn to plead our case.
After some overpriced Icees and pretzels at the “Golden Triangle Mall” set us back $11, the pressure was really on to make sure our venture ended up in the black. And to make a long story (three hours roundtrip, to be exact) short, even with our refreshment expenses factored in, I’m happy to report that we chalked up another victory (equating to a not-too-shabby $650 tax savings this year) extending our perfect record–four decreases, four years in a row. Denton CAD should spare us all the inconvenience and administrative expense and just appraise my property correctly the first time … because you can bet that we’ll be back next summer if they don’t.
Of course I can’t get too excited about the fact that our home value has dropped; but because the only way I’m ever moving is if I’m carried out in a pine box, I’ll celebrate the tax savings for now.
