TIL property tax records show way more than just taxes owed

I was looking up a house on Zillow in Austin last week and noticed the property tax history link. Clicked into it on the county appraisal site and found out the previous owners paid $87k in 2019 but the current owner bought it for $215k in 2021. That kind of flip data is gold for figuring out if a seller has room to negotiate. Has anyone else dug into those records for comps?

2 comments

2 Comments

wright.dakota1d ago

Yeah that flip data is wild once you start digging. Did you check if the assessed value jumped way above the sale price too? Sometimes those records show the county appraisal went up way higher than what the seller paid, which means they might be stuck with a huge tax bill and desperate to unload it. Really curious if you saw any big jumps in the tax assessed value between those two ownership years. That could totally shift how you approach an offer.

angelafisher1d agoMost Upvoted

I mean, not exactly - the assessed value and the sale price are two totally different things in Texas. The county appraisal is based on market value estimates, not what someone actually paid, so a jump in assessed value doesn't always mean the seller is desperate. Idk, maybe it's just me but I'd look more at how long the current owner has held it rather than the tax bill itself.