Filing your own appeal is free and it works. The part that decides your case isn't the form, it's the comparable sales behind it. Here's the honest comparison, including when DIY is the right call.
A flat $129 per property, per tax year.
$0 for the packet. You supply the hours.
The evidence: sales comps, equity comps, the adjustments, and a defensible number.
The form. The evidence is on you.
About 15 minutes. You review the packet and file it.
8-15 hours for a first-timer: pulling records, choosing comps, adjusting them.
Selected and adjusted for size, age and condition, with the weak ones screened out before they reach the board.
The step most self-filed cases lose on. A comp the board rejects hurts more than no comp at all.
You do. Nothing is signed over and you stay the owner of record.
You do.
You do, with the packet in front of you.
You do, with whatever you brought.
You add what no database knows: the foundation crack, the dated kitchen, the road noise, the deferred roof.
Same, if you know to document it before the hearing.
We tell you before you pay anything, and you owe nothing.
You find out at the hearing, after the work is done.
$129 again on the new value. Nothing auto-renews.
Free again, and the second year is much faster than the first.
When your time is worth more than $129, or the comparable sales aren't obvious.
When you enjoy this, have the hours, or your expected savings are under about $129.
File it yourself. The form takes about twenty minutes and nobody can file it better than the owner. What DIY actually costs you is the evidence: pulling comparable sales, adjusting them for size, age and condition, and knowing which ones a board will throw out. If you have the time and the patience for your county's data portal, do it free. If you don't, $129 buys the packet, and you still file and speak for yourself.
If you'd rather hand the whole thing to a firm, compare Ownwell, O'Connor and Abode instead.
Want the whole market at once? See every property tax protest company and what each charges.
Time estimates reflect a first-time filer building a comparable-sales case from public records; a second year goes much faster. Filing fees are set by the jurisdiction, not by TaxDrop: Texas, California, Georgia and Maryland charge nothing to file, Florida charges a Value Adjustment Board petition fee set by the county, and New Jersey charges $5 to $150 up front by assessed value. Below roughly $129 in annual savings, DIY is the cheaper choice. If we don't find you a case, you don't pay.