We Got Huge Property Tax Reductions in Tarrant County This Year. Here’s How We Did It and What Happens Next

by Chandler Crouch

We Got Huge Property Tax Reductions in Tarrant County This Year. Here’s How We Did It and What Happens Next

This has been one of the strangest property tax protest seasons we've ever had.

We handled about 46,000 property tax protests in Tarrant County, and expanded outside of Tarrant County for the first time in a significant way to do an additional 650-ish protests in Denton County.

The reductions we were able to get were, in most cases, much bigger than anything I've seen before.

The total property value we reduced was well over $3 billion.

That's a huge number. But the number that matters most to me is what happened on your individual account.

So I wanted to explain what happened this year, why our reductions were so big, whether a lower property tax value can hurt you when you sell your house, and what I expect to happen next year.

And since this year has been completely insane personally too, I'll give you an update on what's happened to me personally at the end.

How Did We Get Such Big Property Tax Reductions?

First, we did not get a reduction for every person, but almost...

Our reduction rate was above 99% overall. The people we had the hardest time helping were generally people who had purchased their homes recently, because the appraisal district uses that purchase price as a very strong baseline for market value. To get below the purchase price, in most cases, you have to go to arbitration or district court.

For most everybody else, we saw some really big reductions.

There were plenty of $20,000, $50,000 and $100,000 reductions. We had cases where we reduced values by $200,000+, and the biggest reduction on a single property was around $5 million.

So the obvious question is:

How in the world did you do that?

The answer is probably different than what you think.

We Didn't Argue That Your House Was Worth Less Than It Really Was

Normally, when you protest your property tax value, you're making a pretty straightforward argument:

"My house is worth X, and here is the evidence showing why."

I've taught this approach for years. I took the same approach this year, but it turned out not to be the most effective way to get a reduction because this year was different...

This year, I focused heavily on protesting using an equal and uniform argument.

Here's why.

The appraisal district kept most residential values flat from the previous year due to their controversial reappraisal plan. In other words, a lot of people started this year with the same value they had after their previous protest from last year.

On the surface, you’d think this plan would be great for everybody. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people benefited, but it backfired on many, many thousands of people.

The plan also contains some pretty massive flaws that left the door wide open for homeowners and tax consultants to get enormous reductions on protests.

Here’s why...

Real estate values don’t uniformly go up and down at the same rate across all neighborhoods and houses across an entire county.

Some houses and some parts of the market went up. Some went down. There were some trends though... The actual property values of many higher-end properties increased significantly, while many lower-end properties actually went down in value.

As a result, since the appraisal district froze all the taxable values at last year’s values, the higher-end homes got a huge discount. They ended up paying taxes based on a value that was significantly below what their house was actually worth this year.

At the same time, the actual real world property values on many lower-end homes went down this year. But because the appraisal district froze their tax values at the higher value they were at last year before the market went down, it caused them to pay taxes on values that were actually higher than what their house was worth.

So you had this strange situation where the same policy could produce very different results depending on where you fell in the market.

This isn’t fair at all. In fact, it creates an unconstitutional situation.

Article VIII Section 1 requires the government to tax its citizens on an equal and uniform basis. We must all pay property tax based on the same proportion of our property value.

This is the exact reason the government also gives us the ability to protest.

Because when someone else in the same county gets a massive discount that you don't get, it's not fair. You deserve the same discount other people are getting...

And THAT was exactly the basis for my protests this year.

I just had to put together the evidence to prove it.

We Used Evidence From Thousands of Properties

You can’t just find one house down the street with a low value and say, "Give me the same discount this other guy has."

You must put together a body of evidence that demonstrates it's not a fluke. There must be a reasonable sample of properties demonstrating that an equal and uniform problem exists.

We did exactly that.

We ended up using thousands of properties to build the evidence.

For the overwhelming majority of homeowners, the value we secured is not an actual reflection of the market value of your home.

It is a reflection of ensuring that you’re getting the same kind of discount that other people are getting.

Will a Lower Property Tax Value Hurt Your Resale Value?

This was probably the biggest fear I heard from homeowners.

People would see a $50,000, $100,000 or even several-hundred-thousand-dollar reduction and think:

"Wait a minute. Is this going to hurt me when I sell?"

No.

Your tax value is not the same thing as your home’s actual market value.

When you sell your house, the market determines what it's worth.

No appraiser in a real estate transaction will use your appraisal district value and say, "That's what the house is worth."

Your Realtor is looking at comparable sales. An appraiser is looking at market evidence. Ultimately, what your house is actually worth is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay for it.

That's an important distinction because we were very aggressive this year about reducing the tax value.

Oddly enough, I can actually make a pretty strong argument that protesting your tax value down can make the house even more attractive to buyers and cause you to be able to sell your house for even more money than if you hadn't protested at all.

Here’s why:

Lower property taxes reduce the buyer's monthly expenses. It will reduce a buyer’s debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which gives the buyer more room in their budget and in the mortgage company’s underwriting process to free the buyer up to pay even more toward the purchase price.

Most buyers focus on their monthly payment.

If you lower the taxes, it leaves more room to pay more for the house.

So no, reducing your tax value doesn't somehow devalue your house.

What Happens to Tarrant County Property Taxes Next Year?

2026 and 2027 are going to look very different.

In Tarrant County, the appraisal district's official "reappraisal plan" is to reappraise properties next year instead of freezing values again.

I expect those initial values to come in very high... We’ll protest them down again as low as we can.

Still, the amount of increase from where we got you down to this year compared to the value they’ll jack it up to next year is going to be massive.

Thankfully, if you have a homestead exemption, your taxable value will be capped at 10% growth over this year.

When you see the 10% increase, just keep in mind, your starting point is really, really low because for most people we got a massive reduction.

I’d much rather see a 10% increase from this year’s super-low value than a 10% increase from an already high value.

That's why I keep telling people:

This year's reduction is a win for next year too.

Getting that value down now puts you in a better position going into the next reappraisal cycle, even if the reduction doesn't produce the same kind of immediate savings on your 2027 tax bill.

This year's protest is likely saving you a ton, not only on the 2026 tax bill, but also in 2027 and maybe even years beyond that.

It's a great reminder why it's important to protest every single year.

You can't assume that because your house didn't change, or because you think the value is pretty fair, the tax situation won't change.

Even if this year seems fair, next year could be unconstitutionally unfair.

You never know.

All you can do is protest every year.

And Then There Was Everything Happening in My Personal Life...

While all of this was going on, life at home was a little nuts too.

On May 15, I got all of the protests submitted on time.

My wife was pregnant, and we're 45 years old, so let's just say this wasn't exactly something we took for granted.

The next day, May 16, my wife had an emergency C-section and little baby Oliver was born.

I got a call around 3am saying things were moving in a direction where they were going to take the baby, so I headed to the hospital.

He was born seven weeks premature, so we got to hang out in the NICU for a couple of months.

As much as I would have wanted it to go a different route, the timing in relation to the protests was pretty miraculous.

Protests were submitted on the 15th. Then, at 3 a.m. on the 16th, Oliver was born... Pretty wild.

Every year, immediately after we file protests, the appraisal district takes several weeks to get everything processed, and my staff and I are up to our eyeballs processing evidence.

Thankfully, I’ve got the best team on earth. They've all been with me for many years. They’ve all been trained up and battle hardened.

They knew exactly what to do, on an expert level, and didn’t require my daily involvement to keep the ball rolling forward.

While I was gone, our staff expertly did exactly what we'd been training them to do.

They were analyzing the evidence, preparing everything for negotiations and getting the accounts ready so I could come back in and finish things up.

By the time we left the NICU, the staff had gotten everything to the point where I could jump back in, and again, the timing was perfect... and they blew me away with the level of care and expertise they poured into the protest preparation.

As soon as I could devote more time to protests, the intense hearings and negotiations started.

I almost went straight from the hospital into protest hearings... again, pretty incredible.

And Then I Got a Little Boo-Boo on My Knee

After we got the protests completed, I took my daughter out on July 27 to go fossil hunting...

It was awesome.

My man, Mike Doran, put us right on top of the fossils right in the heart of Ft Worth, and we ended up carrying two backpacks home full of fossils.

When we were wading through a creek, I tripped, and I hit my knee on a rock.

Turns out, the rock sliced through the patellar tendon right below my kneecap.

It hurt a little, but at the time I didn't know how bad it was, so we continued throughout the day fossil hunting and, after a lunch break, even traveled up to Sherman to go hunt in another river for some prehistoric shark teeth at a spot Mike told us about. We ended up taking home some shark teeth!

The next day, I couldn't walk.

I went to the ER, and they told me I needed surgery immediately because of the infection or things would get pretty serious.

Turns out I’m a pretty good host... Or at least my knee is.

I had an infection with a bacteria called Aeromonas dhakensis and a fungus called Aspergillus niger.

I honestly have had the summer of a lifetime.

Nobody wants to have a baby premature like that, but when I stop to think about what life would have looked like this summer if it weren’t for the love and genius ability of the medical staff that took care of us, I think there’d be a few fewer Crouches on Earth right now.

I really didn’t worry about much. I absolutely got to bask in the gratitude and awe of all the doctors and nurses who made legitimate miracles look totally routine.

It's only by the grace of God that I’m getting to live this life. It's truly an answered prayer.

Just for fun, I’ll tell you a little more of the story...

I spent a couple of weeks in the hospital, then ended up wearing a leg brace locked straight for a couple of months.

As my luck with timing would have it, the very day I was finally cleared to bend my knee while walking, my daughter needed someone to go with her to dance class.

But her dance class that day was the one day out of the dance season where the parents are encouraged to participate.

My physical therapist was literally teaching me how to walk with a bent knee again, and that same day I did ballet for the first time.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Triplets and pliés and everything.

I got a pretty nasty side eye from the physical therapist after I confessed, but all in all, I’d say it worked out pretty well.

Thankfully, my leg is getting better, and little Oliver is doing remarkably well.

My HUGE Announcement: I’m Suing the Appraisal District

We’re stepping things up a notch...

I believe homeowners should get the same kind of treatment and opportunity that commercial property owners get. So we've taken the next step.

We've filed a lawsuit in Denton County involving 13 properties.

I'm covering the cost of the lawsuit, and I'm treating this first case as a learning experience that can hopefully help put us in a position to serve even more homeowners. It's part of a grand plan.

The only reason I’m able to do this is because of your support.

I promise that with your support, I’ll continue to pay it forward and not only help you, but use your support to make it possible for me to help someone else.

Your support is making it possible for us to help more people. I am so grateful for you.

I actually don’t have a problem with how Denton County treated me this year.

Don’t get me wrong... I think the whole system is unfair.

With that understanding, I need to give credit to the folks at Denton County CAD. They treated me with the utmost professionalism, and I was impressed with their operation.

I’ve got no problem with the folks there. These are just regular people going to work and doing a job.

The issue is the system itself.

Suing is actually a pretty normal course of action for commercial property owners. I’m just giving the same opportunity to the residential folks. I'll give more details later about how this will put us in a position to help many many more people.