Tax value is not the same as real value.
Last week I put together an MBR Land Reality Check for a Collin County acreage owner.
I went through the comparable sales, looked at the utility situation, and worked through it the same way I would if it were coming to market, whether it actually ends up happening or not.
The projected value range came in meaningfully below what the county currently has it assessed at.
That’s something I’m seeing more often lately.
For a long time, if you saw a rural tract priced at or below tax value, it at least got your attention. It didn’t always mean it was a deal, but it was usually worth a closer look.
That’s not as reliable as it used to be.
In a number of cases now, especially with more rural acreage, tax values appear to have caught up to, or in some cases moved ahead of, where the market would actually transact.
It’s likely a function of the way values moved over the last several years.
At the same time, most of these properties carry an agricultural exemption. So while the assessed value may be high on paper, the owner isn’t being taxed on that number.
Which means there’s very little incentive to challenge it.
If anything, it tends to have the opposite effect. A higher assessed value feels like a positive signal, even if it doesn’t reflect what a buyer would actually pay.
That can create a disconnect.
And in some cases, it matters more than people realize.
If an agricultural exemption is removed, rollback taxes are calculated based on the assessed value. If that number is higher than it should be, the exposure is higher as well.
I’m not going to get into the mechanics of that here.
And to be clear, I’m not an appraiser. The MBR Land Reality Check isn’t designed for use in a property tax protest. If that’s the objective, a tax consultant or appraiser is better equipped for it.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t allow yourself to understand what your property might realistically be worth today.
If nothing else, it gives you context.
You don’t have to sell. You don’t have to even consider selling.
But things change.
And it’s a lot easier to make a good decision when you already understand what you have than when you’re trying to figure it out under pressure.
So the question isn’t whether you’re planning to sell.
It’s whether it makes sense to know where things stand.
PS – Most landowners aren’t planning to sell right now.
But when something changes, the ones who already understand what they’re dealing with tend to handle it better than the ones figuring it out on the fly.
That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for. It looks at actual sales, what’s competing, and the things that quietly push value one way or the other.
Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?
PPS – If you’d rather just keep an eye on how this works, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.
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