Overruled vs the contingency firmOverruled · DIY appeal kit

DIY at $37 once, or 25–33% of your refund to a firm.

You can do your own property tax appeal — and most homeowners should. Most contingency appeal firms take 25%–33% of your first-year savings; the Overruled kit is a flat $37 paid once and the homeowner keeps the entire refund. The side-by-side below covers what that trade looks like in practice: what you pay, when the filing actually happens, who owns the case file, and what each path ships.

Get the $37 packet →Try the $89 Pro calculator →
Move the sliders. Defaults match the static comparison above.

Compute your multi-year dollar gap.

Multi-year dollar gap

$1,463

Over 5 years, a contingency firm at 25% keeps $1,500. The $37 kit keeps that money yours.

$200 – $10,000
Firm's percentageIndustry range · 25% – 33%
1 – 10 cycles
Firm keeps$1,50025% × 5 years
You paid for the kit$37One-time, kept on file
Net difference$1,463What's yours to keep

Every year the post-appeal assessment holds, the firm re-bills the lower baseline — that's the line the headline gap depends on. A $37 packet pays once and pays for itself the first year.

Get the $37 packet →Try the $89 Pro calculator →
Four axes, side by side

The Overruled kit vs a contingency appeal firm.

What they cost, when they file, who owns the file, and what each path puts in your hands. Read each axis once — the same four apply whether the parcel is in Texas, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, or anywhere else.

  1. COST

    What you actually pay.

    Overruled kit · $37 once

    Flat $37 paid once. No percentage, no follow-on invoicing, no upsell after the hearing.

    • · On a $1,200 first-year refund you keep the full $1,200.
    • · $37 stays $37 next year, and the year after that.
    • · No cap on the refund — the higher the reduction, the more you keep.
    Contingency firm · 25–33% of savings

    25%–33% of your first-year savings, on every successful protest.

    • · On a $1,200 refund, the firm walks away with $300–$400 of it.
    • · Compounds year-over-year on multi-year reductions — for the same $1,200 base, 33% across 5 cycles is roughly $1,500 of your money.
    • · Multi-year reductions often re-bill the same base year after year.
  2. TIMELINE

    When the filing actually happens.

    Overruled kit · $37 once

    You file inside the county-published deadline — the real window for your parcel, the same year the notice arrives.

    • · Per-county lookup, sourced from the county itself, not a manufactured countdown.
    • · Same filing cycle as everyone else — your case is decided in the regular ARB window.
    Contingency firm · 25–33% of savings

    The firm batches protests by season — your case joins a queue, not a deadline.

    • · Most firms only file in a compressed spring/summer window and only in the states they already cover.
    • · A missed-by-ten-days case often gets rolled to the next filing cycle — twelve months later.
  3. EVIDENCE

    Who owns the case file.

    Overruled kit · $37 once

    You do. Every worksheet, comp roster, record-card diff, and letter draft lives on your machine — yours to reuse next cycle.

    • · The packet is yours to update, archive, and re-submit at the next assessment cycle.
    • · If a future appeal restores the higher value, your evidence file is already built.
    Contingency firm · 25–33% of savings

    The firm does. The record-card audit, comps, and adjustment narrative live inside the firm’s case-management system, not yours.

    • · You re-engage the firm (and re-pay the percentage) to do it again next year.
    • · Off-cycle appeals after a value change start from scratch inside the firm’s queue.
  4. WHAT SHIPS

    What lands in your hands.

    Overruled kit · $37 once

    A reusable kit — record-card audit, comps worksheet, three appeal letters, evidence-packet template, and a county deadline guide.

    • · ARB-formatted evidence template they read because it reads like their own file.
    • · Optional +$17 hearing-script pack with four rehearsed objection/response pairs.
    Contingency firm · 25–33% of savings

    A filed protest and an outcome letter — the firm handles the paperwork end-to-end.

    • · You never see the comps, the worksheet, or the adjustment narrative that won (or lost) the case.
    • · You represent yourself at the hearing only if the firm opts in to a hearing role — most contingency firms settle on a written-only path.
Files & paperwork

What ships, what the firm handles, what you don’t see.

The packet is yours at the end of the case. The firm’s filing is theirs. The list below names every document in each path.

OVERRULED KIT SHIPS
  • · Record-card audit (square footage, bed/bath count, fixtures, condition).
  • · Comps worksheet + selection rules + sources list.
  • · Three appeal-letter templates: factual error, market value, unequal appraisal.
  • · Evidence-packet template, ARB-formatted, paginated, tabbed.
  • · County deadline guide, county-published (not a manufactured countdown).

Optional +$17 hearing-script bump on the way to checkout.

WHAT THE FIRM HANDLES
  • · Filing the protest paperwork on your behalf.
  • · A written-only adjustment narrative the ARB reads without you in the room.
  • · A case file inside their internal system — your comps, your evidence.
  • · A settlement outcome letter from the ARB to the firm, then forwarded to you.

What you don’t own

  • · You do not own the comps.
  • · You do not own the worksheet.
  • · You do not own the adjustment narrative.
  • · You do not see the prep work that produced the outcome.
STATE-SPECIFIC DEADLINES

If you already know which state you’re in.

Each state page shows the deadline, the protest grounds, and the filing instructions specific to that jurisdiction. Texas, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina are seeded first; everything else lands on the all-50 directory.

  1. TexasTex. Tax Code § 41.44(a) · May 15 or 30 days post-notice.
    Read the Texas page →
  2. GeorgiaO.C.G.A. § 48-5-311 · 45-day protest window post-notice.
    Read the Georgia page →
  3. FloridaFla. Stat. § 194.011 · 25-day petition window.
    Read the Florida page →
  4. North CarolinaN.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-302 · 30-day post-notice window.
    Read the North Carolina page →
See all 50 states →
ALREADY OWN THE KIT

Walk the annotated example packet on your member delivery page.

Once you've bought the kit, the annotated example packet lives on your member delivery page — a worked sample of every line of the worksheet, the comps, and the appeal-ground letter, with notes on what the ARB reads first.

Open my delivery page →

Not legal advice. Overruled ships information and templates — checklist, worksheet, letter forms, evidence-pack template, and a filing-window guide — so you can prepare and represent yourself at an appraisal review board hearing. It is not a substitute for a property tax attorney, especially for rentals, multi-property, commercial, or matters in active litigation. Paid firms typically take a percentage of your first-year savings; the packet exists so that money stays yours.