The part of the job that doesn’t end at closing. Your documents, your numbers, the people I actually trust with my own house — and every spring, the comps you need to fight your appraisal. No forms. No pitch. Just the stuff that’s genuinely useful when you own a home on the Bay Area.
These are the county’s numbers — deliberately conservative, and set for tax purposes rather than sale. What your home would actually sell for is usually higher. When you’re ready to sell, request a TruMarket™ value.
Request a TruMarket™ value →The appraisal district works off a computer model. It has never seen your house. Comparable sales do about 90% of the work in a residential protest — and pulling comps is literally my job. I watch the roll every spring, and when your number jumps I’ll tell you. You decide whether you want the packet.
Your county appraised value rose 14.2% this year — from $440,100 to $502,310. Want me to pull your comps?
GCAD came in at $470,600. We put nine comparable sales in front of them showing $441,000. They settled at $446,790 — a $23,810 reduction on the appraised value.
Straight from the Galveston County appraisal roll — public record, no algorithm involved. The appraised column is the county’s market opinion. The assessed column is what you’re actually taxed on, held down by your homestead cap. The gap between them is money in your pocket.
| Tax Year | Appraised | Change | Assessed (taxed) | Cap Savings | Exemptions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $502,310 | +14.2% | $389,304 | $110,696 | Homestead |
| 2025 | $440,100 | +4.8% | $353,913 | $86,187 | Homestead |
| 2024 | $419,900 | +7.1% | $321,739 | $98,161 | Homestead |
| 2023 | $392,000 | +18.4% | $292,490 | $99,510 | Homestead |
| 2022 | $331,200 | — | $265,900 | $65,300 | Homestead |
The county’s job is to assess for taxes, and they’re conservative about it. A TruMarket™ report is the real answer — actual comparable sales, current competition, and what your home would list for today. It’s almost always a better number than the one above. I build these by hand, so I’d rather do it when you’re actually thinking about a move.
Values shown are the appraised value on file with the county appraisal district as of January 1 each year. This is the county’s assessment for tax purposes — not an appraisal, not a market analysis, and not what your home would list for today. It’s a reliable way to watch direction over time. When you want a real number, just ask.
Both of these are pure found money, and both get missed constantly. I check them against your address and tell you if something’s off. That’s the whole service.
Texas raised the school district homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 for the 2025 tax year — worth roughly $500–$1,800 a year automatically. Yours is filed and current. I also check over-65, disability and veteran exemptions as your situation changes, because nobody at the county calls to tell you that you qualify.
View your exemption statusGalveston County averages $4,469 a year against a $3,291 state average — and a full coastal stack of homeowners, windstorm and flood runs $5,000–$11,000. TWIA held residential windstorm rates flat for 2026, but most private carriers filed 3–7% increases. Every fall I’ll nudge you to have an independent agent re-shop it. No commission to me either way.
See who I’d callZillow shows you what sold. I can show you what didn’t — the listings that expired, got withdrawn or terminated without ever finding a buyer. That’s the half of the market nobody publishes, and it’s the half that tells you what your house is really worth.
| Address | Beds / Baths | Sq Ft | List | Result | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1402 Tuscan Vista Dr | 4 / 3 | 2,640 | $479,000 | Sold $472,000 | 31 |
| 1519 Siena Ridge Ln | 4 / 2.5 | 2,410 | $465,000 | Sold $461,500 | 44 |
| 2208 Florence Way | 5 / 3.5 | 3,120 | $559,000 | Expired | 187 |
| 1336 Verona Ct | 3 / 2 | 2,105 | $429,000 | Sold $425,000 | 22 |
| 1877 Tuscan Vista Dr | 4 / 3 | 2,700 | $524,900 | Withdrawn | 96 |
I pull it by hand from the MLS so it’s actually right — including the listings that failed, which is the part you can’t get anywhere else. Ask any time; most people ask once or twice a year, or when a neighbor lists.
Every payoff calculator on the internet asks you for six numbers you don’t have handy. This one already has them — they came off your closing disclosure. Move the slider and watch the date move.
Wrong? Correct it here and everything below re-runs.
Extra principal only — this assumes taxes and insurance are handled separately in escrow.
Math on the loan I have on file, not a quote and not advice. Confirm your balance and payoff terms with your servicer — and check whether extra payments need to be marked principal only, because some servicers will happily apply them to next month instead.
Paying it down faster is one option. Sometimes the better one is that the equity is already doing nothing and you’d rather it did something else. I’ll run both side by side — no pitch either way, and I’m not a lender, so I have no dog in the refinance fight.
Everyone loses their survey. Then they want a fence, or a pool, or they refinance, and a new one runs $400–$600. I already have yours from closing — it lives here now. You can add to it too, and you should: every improvement receipt you keep here raises your cost basis, which lowers the capital gains you’ll owe when you eventually sell.
Improvement receipts, permits, insurance policies, warranties. Drop them here the week the work is done and you’ll never hunt for them again.
Two seasons matter here and everybody forgets one of them until it’s too late. Checklists live here year-round, and I’ll text you when a storm is 72 hours out.
Not a referral form. Your link opens a page where they can pull up their own county numbers — appraised value, five years of history, and whether their homestead exemption is actually on file. Free, nothing to join, and it takes them about thirty seconds.
Plenty of people who bought in the last couple of years never filed. Texas lets them file up to two years late and collect a refund on what they already paid. Most of them have no idea.
When the appraisal notices land, anyone can request the comparable sales that back up a lower number. Comps do about 90% of the work in a residential protest, and I’m pulling them anyway.
The vendors. Foundation, AC, roof, drainage — the people I’d send my own mother to. Useful the week somebody’s slab cracks, which is never a week they planned for.
The link is yours, so I know who to thank. They enter their own details — you’re never handing me somebody else’s address, which is the part that makes this feel like a favour instead of a hand-off. And they get the numbers whether or not they want to hear from me again.
Coming-soon and quietly-marketed homes, posted here first. Sometimes that’s a week of head start. If something looks interesting, just reply — no form.
Your equity number is only as good as what I know about your loan. One short check-in each January keeps it honest — and it’s pre-filled from your closing file, so mostly you’re just confirming nothing changed.
Original amount $332,500 · 30-year fixed at 3.125% · started March 2021. Estimated balance today: $273,610. If you’ve refinanced, taken a HELOC, or been paying extra principal, tell me and the equity number corrects itself.
Confirm or updateRoof, kitchen, fence, windows, foundation — anything you paid for. Receipts go in your vault, raise your cost basis for capital gains, and double as evidence at protest time. They also make for a much better listing when you eventually sell.
Add this year’s receiptsAll of this exists so you don’t have to wonder who to ask. But if you’d rather just call and ask me — about a contractor, a permit, whether now is a dumb time to move — that’s still the best way. It always was.