Last year I purchased a home for $705k, and the seller (builder) added in $20k worth of money to pay for title policy and some other items that don't add value to the actual property.

My HCAD valuation this year was ~$850k....a 17% increase.

I did an iFile Protest asking for a valuation of $705k (the value on my closing sheet of the property itself).

HCAD came back with a value of $725k (the value of the property + extras that don't apply to the property & improvement value).

IMO, that $20k doesn't apply to my home's actual value and shouldn't be included in my appraisal. But I don't want to go through the hell of doing an in-person protest and whatnot just to learn that I'm thinking about this wrong.

So, all that said - am I off base in wanting to remove the extra $20k? Is that winnable, or do they only go with the full $ figure on the closing sheet?