Who this is for, and the moment you are in
You bought a house last year and the first full tax bill just arrived, and it looks higher than the seller's. You turned 65. You received a VA disability rating. Your spouse died and the house is now in your name alone. You refinanced and the deed was re-recorded, and the homestead that was on file quietly fell off. You inherited a parent's house and nobody ever filed anything. In each of these moments the county has an exemption on its books that its own record may not show for your parcel, and the county's outreach is a line on a website, so the gap sits there year after year.
The same report is useful to a real-estate agent or a title company that wants something worth handing a buyer at closing, and to a senior-services or veteran-services office that sees the owner at intake. If you are one of those, say so in the address field and we will reply about per-report pricing.
Assessors do chase non-claimants in public. The Harris County Appraisal District's news page carries the headline "HCAD Encourages Homeowners to Take Advantage of Homestead Exemptions." The Cook County Assessor publishes a Certificate of Error process for exactly the case where an exemption was missed in a prior year. The forms are free and the county wants them filed; what is missing is someone reading your parcel against the full list.
What you get
The report is written as record and rule, line by line. It never says you are eligible; it says what the county record shows for your parcel and what the county's rule is, and it leaves the decision to the county that reads your form.
- The exemptions the county record currently shows on the parcel, read from the public assessor record and quoted with the record date.
- Every exemption the county offers that the record does not show, each stated as what the record shows and what the county's rule is.
- The dollar value of each gap per year using the county's own published figures, and the back years still inside the county's refund window (five tax years in Cook County; two years after the delinquency date in Texas).
- The county's own application form and, where one exists, the missed-year refund form (the Cook County Certificate of Error, the Texas late application under Tax Code §11.431), pre-filled with the parcel, owner and filing address, with the deadline.
- A one-page cover note you can hand to an agent, an attorney or a family member.
| Line | What the record shows | What the rule is |
|---|---|---|
| Homestead | No general residence homestead exemption on the 2026 roll for this parcel; deed recorded 2025-03. | Texas school districts must give a $140,000 homestead exemption; a late application is accepted up to two years after the delinquency date (Tax Code §11.431). |
| Over-65 | Owner date of birth not in the record (you answer this in the intake). | Texas adds $60,000 for an owner 65 or older or disabled. |
| Status | A parcel whose deed is newer than the assessor roll reads HOLD, not "missing." We say so rather than report a gap the county has not had time to post. | |
The example above is the shape of a Harris County line; the Cook County, Philadelphia, Miami-Dade and Maricopa versions cite those jurisdictions' own figures and forms.
How it works
- You give us the address and answer four questions. Whether you live there, the year of birth of the oldest owner, whether any owner has a VA disability rating or a disability, and whether the deed changed in the last few years. That is the whole intake.
- We read the record, run the county's rules, and pre-fill the forms. The assessor record is public; the exemption catalogue for each covered county is a table we maintain; the arithmetic is the county's own figures. The only prose we write is the cover note.
- You sign and file; the county decides. The filing address and the deadline are on the form. We do not file, we do not represent you, and we do not contact the county on your behalf.
If the county's record lags your deed, you get a HOLD, which says the record is not yet current, and the audit is refunded under its stated condition if there is nothing else to report.
Prices
A read of the public assessor record for one address: whether a general residence (homestead) exemption is on file, which county we read, and the date of the record. Same day.
Every exemption on file against every exemption the county offers, the per-year value of each gap in the county's figures, the back years still refundable, and the county's own application form pre-filled with the parcel and filing address. Within one business day.
The audit, plus the over-65, disability, veteran, surviving-spouse or refinance re-file forms that the life event opens, plus the missed-year refund packet (the Cook County Certificate of Error, the Texas §11.431 late application) for every back year still inside the county's window. Within one business day.
Prices in USD. Agents, title companies and veteran-services offices that want reports for their clients can ask about per-report pricing through the form.
Why it costs $19
Nobody sells this as a product. The assessor's own outreach is free and passive. The property-tax appeal firms take 25 to 35 percent of your first-year savings on an assessment protest (Ownwell's published pricing) and they ignore exemptions, because an exemption is not an appeal. The mailed letters that offer to "file your homestead" charge a fee to file a form the county gives away. There is no cheaper version of the same report to compare against; the alternatives are to do nothing or to hand a firm a percentage.
The amounts on the other side are the counties' own numbers. Cook County says its Homeowner Exemption alone is worth approximately $950 a year and can be redeemed for tax years 2021 through 2025 through a Certificate of Error. Philadelphia says most homeowners save up to $1,399 a year from its $100,000 homestead, with a December 1 deadline. Texas school districts must give a $140,000 homestead exemption plus $60,000 for an owner who is 65 or older or disabled. Florida's homestead cuts taxable value by as much as $50,000, with a March 1 application deadline. Against that, a $19 read of the record with the form pre-filled is priced so that nobody has to think about it, and the refund condition is written so that a report with nothing in it costs you nothing.
What this is not
Operated by Reality Contact, LLC.
This is not legal, tax or financial advice.
We do not represent you before any appraisal district, assessor, board of review or appraisal review board, and we do not file on your behalf. You sign and file your own exemption form.
Texas registers property-tax consultants for paid representation in protests. We do not represent you; you file your own exemption application.
We never say you are eligible. The report states what the county record shows and what the county's rule is, and the county decides.
No guarantee of an exemption, an approval, a refund or a dollar saving. Dollar figures on this page are the counties' own published numbers.
Prices in USD. Refund conditions as stated.
Questions people ask
My county is not on the list. Can you still check my address?
Ask. We cover Cook, Harris, Dallas, Travis, Miami-Dade, Philadelphia and Maricopa now because those counties publish exemption flags we can read by machine. For another county we tell you before you pay whether we can read the record, and if we cannot, we say so and charge nothing.
I just bought the house. Why would the record not show my homestead?
Assessor rolls lag deeds, sometimes by months, so a recent buyer's parcel can show the seller's exemptions or none at all while the county catches up. We report that as a HOLD, meaning the record is not yet current, rather than as a gap. It is also the moment to file the application in your own name, because the prior owner's exemption does not transfer to you.
Can you file the form for me?
No. You sign and file your own exemption application, which is how the appraisal districts want it. The form comes pre-filled with the parcel, owner and filing address and the deadline, so filing is a signature and an envelope or an upload. Texas registers property-tax consultants for paid representation in protests; we do not represent anyone.
What does "the record shows X and the rule is Y" mean for me?
It means we tell you two facts and let you and the county do the deciding. The record for your parcel shows which exemptions are on file. The county's rule says who an exemption is for and what it is worth. If the record does not show an exemption whose rule you appear to meet, the report says exactly that, with the citation, and the county decides when it reads your form. We never say you are eligible, because the county is the only one who can.
Is this the same as protesting my appraisal?
No. A protest argues that the assessed value is too high; an exemption removes part of the value from tax regardless of what the value is. Most owners who miss an exemption also never protest, and the appeal firms that take a share of protest savings do not look at exemptions. The appeal packet is a separate product we run in notice season; this one is the exemption read.
How far back can a missed exemption be refunded?
It depends on the county. Cook County's Certificate of Error reaches tax years 2021 through 2025, and its Senior Freeze and Returning Veterans exemptions must be filed every year. Texas Tax Code §11.431 makes the chief appraiser accept a late homestead application up to two years after the delinquency date. The report states the window for your county and lists each back year inside it.