Ownwell is a scam

Posted by Select-Sale2279@reddit | plano | View on Reddit | 43 comments

I used ownwell last year for property tax reduction and they did not do a thing. The issue with hiring them is you will lose all negotiating with the tax office in lieu of whatever they can get for you and they do not do anything. Their modus operandi is based on just submitting something with the hopes of getting any kinda of reduction in prop taxes. They do not do any legwork or are not conscientious enough to put in any effort. They are clearly looking to get you to do all the legwork. While you are waiting on getting them to get the best reduction, you are losing time and any little extra effort that you could have gathered to get a bigger reduction. They will get you very little or nothing and then their operation will take 25% of whatever reduction they got. The biggest issue is, you could have gotten a bigger reduction with a little bit of work and getting them involved. Use extreme caution with this company. They advertise like crazy during the property tax assessment periods and do not engage in any real or meaningful reduction in your tax. Good luck.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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