Ownwell is a scam | TheaterFire

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

the 80s called, they want that phrase back. lol

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I used them last year after I had my real estate agent SIL pull comps for me. I didn't think a reduction was possible. My home's assessed value is still lagging behind the market value because of the cap. Any reduction, which I didn't see possible in the comps, would have only been to the market value. Signed up for Ownwell any way. They weren't able to get a reduction. But they tried and I paid nothing. Trying again this year.

A friend of mine, though, got a modest reduction last year with their first year with Ownwell. They are using Ownwell again. Important years for them because they are about to lock in their property taxes as seniors.

Ownwell may not be as aggressive as others but the price is right for what we get.

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

Thanks. I am not sure whether they would be able to get a reduction in all cases. I do not anticipate that they will be able to do magic like that. That said, what irked me was them blatantly establishing that my home was valued $25K more than what it should be at. Two years ago, I got $20K in reduction myself. When they made that claim in writing (and of course hiding behind all the fine print), I thought maybe if they got me $15k, I would be OK with that. But they pulled in a paltry $8K and lost me any chance at talking to the tax office. My contention is, you have to go above and beyond helping them and then they will just forward all the research you came up with. How is it, then, did they make any sort of assessment to begin with?

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Spirited-Summer4590@reddit

My house is worth 275k, but Ownwell has slowly lowered the tax value of my house down to $126k over several years. https://www.ownwell.com/?owl=2A77AZF0F

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

looks like you have to fix that roof, the foundation and put up a fence for crying out loud. Oh, btw, you may want to put some real grass for a change instead of the weeds pretending to be your friends. maybe the property value folks should pay you a visit. lol

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Spirited-Summer4590@reddit

I have no idea what Ownwell is sending them. I have recently put up a new fence and pergola, painted, 12 foundation piers, major plumbing, electrical and did a major upgrade to the front retaining wall. Maybe taxes will go up a little. https://www.ownwell.com/?owl=2A77AZF0F

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

It is classified! What do you think they are going to do when they advertise like crazy and attract everybody that sees their ad. They go by the numbers and if they can get a decent $25-30 for every person that signed up and they just got maybe $100 off the property tax for the owner and shafted the owner from going out and representing themselves, then that is $30000 for every 1000 suckers that signed up. Good chunk of change for a couple of people running this show.

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The_Crage@reddit

Just us an AI engine to generate your protest letter. Upload the appraisal to the engine of your choice, tell it you need a protest letter generated for your property and watch the magic. I use the paid version of ChatGPT and it does a much better job than the free version.

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suncp2017@reddit

AI will not generate estimates for repairs by contractors. That is required for all protests applications. They will not just take made up numbers.

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

good idea, will try that. I will ask the bot to add some profanities as well and why the county should take their assessment and shovel it. jk!!

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bzbeer@reddit

Filed my own protest for 5 years and got tired of the process. Used Ownwell for the past two years and got some modest reductions. Worth it to avoid the hassle for me. Satisfied with the service.

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bezitofficial@reddit

Hello, Feel free to try bezit.co this year. We charge only 10% of the tax savings. As a new customer you pay only 7% of the tax savings for the first year

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HiFiMarine@reddit

Do you cover Tarrant County?

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Mindless-Client3366@reddit

If you live in Tarrant County, Chandler Crouch will file your protest for free. Look him up.

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Cardiologist_Honest@reddit

I signed up but it didn’t say 7% for the first year it said 10%

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jasoncongo@reddit

My experience is a mix of OPs & yours. I still agree it's not a scam and while they didn't do anything for me, that's the same result if I had done the protest. Cost to me was $0 benefit to them was $0.

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Weak_Lettuce_9053@reddit

I have the same philosophy. Doesn’t hurt.

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tested75023@reddit

Same here. Comps in my area made any reduction impossible. Not Ownwell's fault. I'm glad they did something so I didn't have to waste a day or 2 trying and getting nowhere.

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Vegetable-Run3432@reddit

Agreed. Scheduling with the city isn't easy. You select a time and they say you are in line and call you back then you get A call 5 hours later to talk to the group of people and if you aren't a real estate agent with proper comps and rationale then it's basically just hand waving. Ownwell does it for you. Good deal

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winkelschleifer@reddit

Same here, last year got a significant reduction via them. Not a scam, but because it’s “free”/ contingency (no upfront cost but they keep 25% of what they save you), don’t expect white glove service.

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tcbaseball555@reddit

Lowered my property tax by $800+ last year. Yeah, what a huge scam

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

nice. 800+ reduction would have been over $50000+. Sure, they reduced my tax bill by over $2000.

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tcbaseball555@reddit

After meeting with the Denton County Appraisal Review Board, we were able to reduce Denton County's recorded market value for your property from $473,565 to $429,000. This means you'll save about $879 on your next property tax bill!

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huhwutwuthuh@reddit

you used ownwell?

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AHCofNY@reddit

Were you able to verify it before you pay? I don’t see it in my towns record online yet. Got email from them today that they claim to be successful in reduction

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tcbaseball555@reddit

I paid after I got my refund from the county

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AHCofNY@reddit

I guess I will hold off paying until I get a refund. When I did it in the past with another company, they got the refund then mailed me the check for the remainder. I was surprised I got a bill right away. I didn’t see the details on my agreement. I will pay once it is verified and preferably when I am refunded. They claimed a $1700 reduction.

Thanks

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Beneficial-Walk1976@reddit

https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=83206ZBEB

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bezitofficial@reddit

We built bezit.co specifically because of this. We're local to Collin and Denton County, and our approach is the opposite:

— We pull actual neighborhood sales and build your comp case before you sign up. You see the data first, for free.

— We do the legwork. Comps, evidence package, the whole thing.

— We only charge 10% of your savings (first-time customers get 30% off that). Nothing if we don't save you money.

The goal isn't to get *any* reduction. It's to get you the *best* reduction. If you're in Collin or Denton County, come see what we find on your property at bezit.co — no commitment required.

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ProcedureWilling5726@reddit

It’s now 8% for first time

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Jessica321321@reddit

ownwell is not a scam
it has helped us a lot to save the taxes

use my link for $40 off when you signup
https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=54E2AZ474

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unfoldthefuture@reddit

I don't know if Ownwell is a scam, but they sure are big and advertise a lot which raises some flags for me but I think they just play a numbers game. I don't think they really protest in person ever. This year I am trying propertytax.io - The DMN Watchdog seemed to think they were good. they ask you to do a little work (like uploading photos and estimates if you have them) but that gives me a little more hope. propertytax.io small discount code if anyone needs one: C85211

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

Well if you send a letter and it indicates that my property is valued at this but the county has my property valued at $30,000 more and they get barely $5000 off, then they are just shit mailing letters and I cannot call it anything but a scam. They do not try and they take away your chance at fighting. As somebody mentioned, you can hire them if you think you have no chance at getting any reduction at all.

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Lonely-Function-6764@reddit

Couple of points -

1.Valued at X ... by WHOM? You? Real estate agent? Actual appraisal?

Don't tell anyone, but the taxing authorities use inflated values to keep from raising tax rates. Higher valuations = more tax revenue, while not having to petition for higher tax rates.

I've been through the process with a certified property appraisal, and they reduced my valuation some, but not to the appraisal value. They use their OWN appraisal process.

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videlicet2020@reddit

I've used them for years. As someone who owns multiple properties in multiple states, I cannot be everywhere at once to protest taxes. I gave them a trial run on one of my properties about 4 years ago and then ended up signing up my others with them and have been happy.

Not sure if this is allowed, but I'm happy enough with them that I'll share my referral link so you can get $20 off with them https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=33754Z202

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Aggravating_Pen5211@reddit

Used! If we’re allowed, here’s mine link. https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=DBC1AZ1E1

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OcelotHot5287@reddit

frustrating experience for sure, especially in plano where appraisals keep jumping. the key is finding someone who actually prepares a real case instead of just mass-filing. i switched to Resolute after a similar situation and my bill came down a decent chunk with zero hassle on my end.

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Loose-Paint4404@reddit

I just now called Ownwell and cancelled my signup - after answering several questions, the signup form indicates that unless you have problems with damage to your roof or other similar problems that would cost more than $5000 to remedy, your protest would fail. Then the questions became more and more intrusive, asking about things not really related specifically to lowering your tax bill. No telling what kind of bullshit marketing spam emails I will soon be receiving! 🤣

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

At least they told you something about your house needing some repairs. They just plainly sent me a letter indicating that my house should have been valued at about $25k less than the valuation. My question is where did they find that $25k number?. They seem to have many suckers that they pulled in to be advertising like crazy. I will do it myself going forward. IMHO they are still a scam.

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Sufficient-Capital38@reddit

Thanks for sharing. I wondered if it was worth it.

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ZER0_F0CKS@reddit

I used Onwell for my house I bought 2 years ago and got a refund check for like $2700.00. The service was very easy to use. I was actually surprised how effective it was.

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Sy1phIsRiv3n@reddit

I just read their terms and it says they are entitled to any refund checks from previous years in addition to the 25% of savings fee. That's the only part I don't like.

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ZER0_F0CKS@reddit

They only take 25% out of the refund. So I got a refund for like $2700.00 from the previous year and they charged me $600.00. I still made $2100 by doing nothing but following their process. For us the extra $2000 was a big difference.

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CAPRIQUARIOUS9@reddit

Do you have to do anything on your end after they complete the assessment.. do you have to send documentation to the city?

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Pristine_Choice_8358@reddit

Really? They have consistently saved us money every year since 2024 and the process has always been so easy hands off! Ownwell charges 25% of the tax savings you receive, which is the lowest I could find. If you have a homestead exemption and the protest brings it below the 10% cap but does not add any extra tax savings, their service is free! Most other companies I was looking into would charge even if you saved nothing. Others wanted 35 to 40% of the tax savings. Website is very user friendly making it very easy to upload receipts, photos, etc.

We had a bad hailstorm in 2025 that damaged our roof, gutter, fence, garage doors and paint - over 34k worth of damage! I just uploaded our documents to Ownwell which took me less than 5 minutes and have quickly been able to work with my agent by email and by phone number. Still highly recommend them!

Here is my active referral link if you want $20 off your invoice! Happy to answer any questions if anyone has any.

https://www.ownwell.com/?owl=5A941ZB1B

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Obvious_Boss9981@reddit

They need information from you to leverage when they protest for you. If you don't provide them P&Ls, Rent Roll, maintenance costs, pictures of damage, etc. then you get what you get. I've used them for several years, some years are better than others. Caveat here: If I was protesting my one primary residence, I'd do it myself, but when you have scores and scores of properties, it's impossible to do it yourself.

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

I get it. But if you send a letter that clearly says that my house was valued at $20000 less than the county's valuation (they clearly say that on the letter) and get you a piddly $8000, then I call BS on them. If they determined that value based on the sales in this area to be confident, then its on them to do it. Of course, its important for me to provide maintenance costs, damage pics etc. But I am trying to get what they said they would, not exactly to the last dollar that they said my house was valued at, but at least close to it. If they got $14000 - $16000, then I would agree that they know their values. Otherwise, its crap shoot.

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Pristine_Choice_8358@reddit

Property tax appraisals are notoriously higher than market value. That’s always been the case, even with the best protesting skills and info you have. Property tax appraisals are not the same as market value

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Obvious_Boss9981@reddit

I understand your frustration. Often, even if you protest yourself, you won't get what you want, I think the Rolling Stones said it best. I guess with a single property, your best bet is to lead the charge yourself. My personal experience with them as a real estate investor, has been favorable. As a matter of fact I've been uploading documents to them as we speak and adding new properties to the account I have with them to protest on behalf of my companies. Good luck!

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Ok_Belt2521@reddit

I did this myself several years ago. Went in person, stood in line, and got it reduced. It was pretty much a rubber stamp process.

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MyUniqueUser1@reddit

Been in my house in Denton County since 1998. I used to go every year and would walk out with a decent reduction reduction. That's when the process was sitting with an appraiser in his office while he went through multiple reports in physical binders.

Then, one year around 2027-2010 (can't remember precisely) the process changed big time. There was a line of tables with appraisers using computer terminals along the front of the room. We sat in chairs waiting for our turn. I brought my comps, etc. with me like usual and shared my information with the appraiser. He punched in my address in his terminal and it came up with a value right around what the appraisal was. No back and forth. Basically, "Sorry but this is what it's worth. Period." He knocked a few hundred off the appraised value to throw me a bone for coming and waiting in line but that was it. Haven't been back since.

I had a realtor run comps for me and the average price per square foot, when applied to my property, put the value at about $9k above my appraisal so I'm not hopeful that my going down there this year will be worth it. Guess I'll give OwnWell a shot. Will check back here with results.

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alonzoramon@reddit

Their billboards always piss me off through their blatant use of AI art, so I'm not surprised that their services are scammy. Sorry you had to go through that though.

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Realistic_Winter5754@reddit

Big property tax protest firms work on volume. More often than not, they settle for topline reductions (a.k.a Agreed Orders or Joint Motions ). Whey they are protesting for tens of thousands of homeowners, it's next to impossible to argue through each and every case. And CAD's don't have the bandwidth either.

Topline reductions are a quick way to resolve large protest volume quickly. Basically, every kid in the class gets a candy. And all kids are happy!

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AHCofNY@reddit

I just got a email from ownwell that the reduction was successful and gave me a link to the town to verify it. I went on the site and was unable to see any reduction. I don’t know if it takes time to flow through, but they want payment asap. I have not contacted the town or ownwell yet

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bezitofficial@reddit

Try bezit.co Denton county assessments for 2026 are out. Satisfaction guaranteed. You pay only 10% of the tax savings. Homestead Exemption is free. Unlike Ownwell, we don't charge any fees on homestead exemption savings.

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smaaaaa@reddit

I've used for only once, but got what I expected less 25% fee. If you want to save $20, you can use my referral code. https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=C6A8DZ323

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LawAny8734@reddit

Honestly I do mine at O’Connor you guys should try them out, they are pretty attentive and are the oldest in the game, So far I’ve been satisfied

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aazcn@reddit

Worked fine for me since 2022

Here's my referral code if you'd like to save some money on Ownwell fees:

https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=7AE63Z5A5

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Imaginary-Loss903@reddit

I strongly recommend people file an open records request to their CAD requesting for the audio of the hearing. Whatever they find there, tell everyone they know.

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Correct_Difficulty25@reddit

Weird right? kinda like they are providing service. Its convienent for me as my plates already full with other adult stuff

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

In years past, I went there myself and argued for reduction and got much bigger reductions. The comps clearly showed that mine was over 20k higher and all they could get was $8k in reductions? If these are professionals at what they claim, it should be have been closer. I called up the tax office and they said, you cannot change it now and have to accept the valuation that was assigned.

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tr1551@reddit

Key phrase is “In years past.” You’re not gonna keep winning against the tax office, year after year, when all valuations continue to climb and normalize. Doubt you would have gotten much better doing it yourself.

I’ll second a few other commenters in saying - it’s a service you pay for so you don’t have to put in the legwork yourself. And they have great reviews with their users including myself. Not really a scam in my opinion, since they only charge a percentage of what they save you…

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one_is_enough@reddit

This right here. People expecting the same results year after year have no clue how the whole appraisal/taxation process works.

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

Not sure what you mean. Considering that I have done a pretty good job of getting reductions based on comps in my neighborhood and any other repairs that I had scheduled to be considered, why is it hard to understand that the comps are what the values are based on. I saw my valuation was about $20000 more than what the values of recent sales in the neighborhood were. I thought they would do a better job than me at getting me more than the comps. Instead they got me less than half the over valuation. I have been successful at getting it close to the valuation in the past based on doing some leg work with the comps in the neighborhood. Only once have I gone in front of the ARB.

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jasoncongo@reddit

The question really seems to be - why didn't you just do it yourself with all your past success and your confidence in the comps?

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

have you seen the advertising? I thought they were professionals and could do it better than I had done. have you not been to a restaurant that was advertised as being really good and then found out it did not meet your expectations? I thought they had better methods to get the valuation down to what I was seeing. I guess I was wrong. live and learn

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MuscleFlex_Bear@reddit

They are not a Scam. I'm tired of everyone saying any service that you pay for that YOU COULD do on your own but would rather not do is a scam. I don't want to deal with property taxes protests. It is a waste of my time and effort. I have no desire to put any effort into that. I will pay someone a portion of my savings to do it.

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p1dfw@reddit

Agree 100%. My time is more valuable to me than sharing a conditional percentage of what they might save me. Happy to let them run with it every year.

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DragonflyWooden1234@reddit

True

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FunctionOk7124@reddit

The only scammy part is the property exemption monitoring service, which you can opt-out or not sign up in the first place.

It’s hard for them to dispute anything if you don’t provide them with deferred maintenance evidence. However, I believe at a minimum they pull the comp for the house and use it as a basic dispute.

However, if you can easily get the comps, you could simply file your own protest and accept whatever the comptroller office offers you without going to the actual dispute.

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thehakujin82@reddit

I’m no slouch, but even when I tried I was swatted out of the room with prejudice. Decided I didn’t want to bother with that effort again, gave Ownwell a whirl and they’ve lowered my tax burden each of the last few years. Meanwhile I have done fuckall. Seems like a fair enough trade off for me. 🤷🏼‍♂️

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acaii@reddit

Same. I’m a finance guy that makes pretty slides for a living and they didn’t hold up to the volunteer tax guy that doesn’t reason with actual data. They have one data point and stick to their guns. I literally pulled up my precise home build throughout my neighborhood as a data point. Got tired of doing my own (last 8 years) and picked up Ownwell. Was worth the time and money saved considering how hard it is to win (especially with a newer house that doesn’t have structural issues).

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thehakujin82@reddit

Ooooooh! Need any other finance guys to help make pretty slides? I’m in the market! 😆

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Responsible-Idea3794@reddit

They’ve gotten me a good reduction the last two years, and I didn’t have to do any work. Maybe I could have gotten a little more myself, but it’s worth it. They have every incentive to get you more money because that’s more money for them. How is that a scam?

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thetruckboy@reddit

I mean....duh. anytime there's a bunch of marketing behind something that is claiming to "help you".

F**king duh.

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DowntownComposer2517@reddit

What time of year do we protest property taxes?

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Select-Sale2279@reddit (OP)

May 15 - 31st depending on when your tax form was generated. Its on your form when they send it out. You will have 30 days from the time you get it to protest.

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DowntownComposer2517@reddit

Thank you!

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RaisingBar@reddit

Got a very modest reduction for me one time, of course you share a % of that reduction with them as a fee. Net you might save a little and you owe them nothing if you don’t. So won’t categorize as scam.

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Stubbby@reddit

Use tax reduction services IF YOU DONT EXPECT ANY REDUCTION. In this case they do the minimal work and get minimal payment. Works out.

If you think you should be getting a larger discount, you need to do it in your own.

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turbothesnail@reddit

Not true. I've used agents for 20 years and some years are better than others. Really depends on accurately giving them info and photos.

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JovianXVII@reddit

I've had the opposite experience with them; they have consistently lowered my appraised value. Could I have done better myself? Maybe, but it would have been a whole lot more effort. Whatever else they are, they are not a scam. They are for lazy or busy people (like me) that don't have the time to deal with it.

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