About Us

What This Site Is For

Texas property owners interact with their County Appraisal District (“CAD”) for some of the highest-stakes decisions of the year — appraised value, homestead and other exemptions, protest deadlines, and Appraisal Review Board (“ARB”) hearings. The information they need is public, but it’s spread across 254 separate CAD websites, each with its own layout, its own portal, and its own conventions.

appraisaldistrict.org/ consolidates that information into one consistent format. For every CAD, the page answers the same set of questions in the same order, written in plain English, kept up to date, and always linked back to the CAD's own site so visitors can verify and act.

We are completely independent. We are not a CAD, not the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, not the Appraisal Review Board, and not affiliated with any property-tax consultant or protest service. We are an editorial reference site, full stop.

The Texas Property Tax System — At a Glance

Texas property tax operates under the Texas Property Tax Code, with each county running its own appraisal district. The system is administered locally but standardized statewide:

What You’ll Find on Each County Page

For every Texas CAD we cover, the page answers the same set of questions in the same order:

• Property search portal — direct link to the CAD’s official property/owner/address search, with the URL verified live
• Contact information — physical address, phone, fax, email, and office hours, with a Google Map embed of the CAD office
• Chief appraiser — current chief appraiser’s name where publicly listed
• Notice of Appraised Value — when notices are typically mailed, what the protest deadline is, and how to find it on your specific notice
• Online protest portal — direct link to the CAD’s online protest filing system where one exists, plus the paper Form 50-132
• Homestead exemption — Form 50-114 application, what to attach (Texas driver’s license matching the property address is the key requirement), and where to mail or upload it
• Other exemptions — over-65, disabled person, disabled veteran, surviving spouse, agricultural, and others available in that county
• Tax assessor-collector — separate link, because billing and collection are not the CAD’s job
• Appraisal Review Board — how the ARB is structured, when hearings are scheduled, what to bring
• Open records / public information — how to request public records under the Texas Public Information Act

How We Verify the Information

Every piece of factual content on a CAD page comes from one of three places, in this order of priority:

1. The CAD’s own website (typically a .org, .us, or .gov address such as dallascad.org, hcad.org, traviscad.org) — for portals, contact details, deadlines, and forms
2. The Texas Comptroller’s Property Tax Assistance Division — for statewide standards, appraisal manuals, the biennial Property Value Study, and statutory forms
3. The Texas Property Tax Code as the underlying legal framework

Every CAD page is reviewed at least quarterly. Protest deadlines, exemption forms, and ARB hearing windows are time-sensitive content — we treat them with explicit “last reviewed” dates and verify URLs live before publication.

Our full source hierarchy and methodology is documented on the Sources & Methodology page.

Who This Site Is For

The site is written for:

• Texas homeowners who got a Notice of Appraised Value and need to figure out what it means and what to do
• People who just bought a Texas home and need to file a homestead exemption
• Property owners considering a protest who need to find the deadline, the form, and the CAD’s online portal
• Investors and real-estate professionals doing diligence on appraised values, exemptions, and tax treatment across multiple Texas counties
• Texans over 65 or with a qualifying disability looking up the additional exemptions and tax-ceiling rules that apply
• Disabled veterans and their surviving spouses looking up the disability-percentage-based exemption (up to 100% on residence homestead)
• People paying property tax on agricultural or timber land who need the productivity-valuation rules

The site is not a substitute for legal or tax advice. If you need help with a specific protest, hearing, or tax dispute, consult a licensed Texas property tax consultant, a Texas attorney, or your CAD directly.

What We Don’t Do

To be clear about scope:

• We don’t appraise property. The CAD does.
• We don’t file protests for you. You file directly with the CAD or hire a property-tax consultant.
• We don’t process homestead applications. You file Form 50-114 directly with your CAD.
• We don’t collect or bill property tax. The county tax assessor-collector does.
• We don’t represent any CAD, the Comptroller, or any county.
• We don’t sell your data. See our Privacy Policy for the full position under CCPA/CPRA, the Texas TDPSA, and other state privacy laws.
• We don’t publish anyone’s home address as a “feature.” Property records are public, but we link to the official CAD search rather than republishing personal data.

How We Pay for the Site

appraisaldistrict.org/ runs on display advertising shown alongside content. We do not accept paid placements that pretend to be editorial content. CAD pages are never edited to favor or disfavor any commercial service — including property-tax-protest companies that advertise on the site. The full position is set out in our Editorial Policy.

Corrections and Feedback

Texas CAD information changes throughout the year — chief appraisers come and go, portals get redesigned, protest deadlines shift slightly, and county lines occasionally adjust. If you spot something on the site that doesn’t match your CAD’s current information — a wrong phone number, an outdated form link, a closed office we still list, an exemption rule that doesn’t match the current Property Tax Code — please email us. We treat reader corrections as a priority queue and respond within seven business days.