Let's talk about self storage.

I think tssa and members should look at a new battle front with tax assessors.   Instead of individual fights over valuations, we should be looking at the cap rate used against all of us.   For the most part, the cap rate decision is made by one individual and/or a select cabal within the appraisal district office; with no public input, forum, etc.   In two counties I am aware of, they are using 6.5%.   Every .5% increase in cap would be a 7.7% decrease in assessed value!   I think there are legitimate arguments to justify an upward adjustment to the rate used as a cap rate reflects more than simple value of physical assets at a point in time (what, in theory, they are taxing us for). 

Eric Olsen

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Eric Olsen
Dry Dock Self Storage, LLC
Burkburnett TX
(940) 569-0002
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How were you able to tell they were using a 6.5% cap rate?  Was there a note on the appraisal that they were using 6.5% ?

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Rindge
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-23-2026 11:31 AM
From: Paul Lash
Subject: Tax Assessments

I just checked Tarrant County's calculation of my facility, and they're also using a 6.5% cap rate.

Original Message:
Sent: 4/24/2026 9:27:00 AM
From: Rindge Leaphart
Subject: RE: Tax Assessments

How were you able to tell they were using a 6.5% cap rate?  Was there a note on the appraisal that they were using 6.5% ?

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Rindge
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I'm shocked that any of our taxing districts are even using cap rate in their appraisals. I protested our valuation in Burnet County a couple of years ago and I could see their brains locking up and glazing over when I mentioned price per square foot and cap rates.

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River Hills Storage
(512) 347-8336
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Eric and Tosh, there are lots of problems with how county appraisal districts value self storage. A 6.5 cap rate isn’t unreasonable on its face but it would require the county to accurately project our expenses (which they usually don’t). I’d like to reiterate a few things to everyone: 1. The Texas tax code says that valuations should be equal and uniform. This gives owners and their tax protest representatives a lot of avenues to fight the valuation. 2. That glazed over look you can sometimes get is a great reason to hire a tax protest firm who has a solid presence and reputation in your area. They know how to talk to the county appraisers so they’ll listen. We have multiple tax protest groups who are vendor members of the TSSA or you can find local groups who have a good reputation. 3. We should all fight our taxes every year. If you know someone who isn’t fighting their taxes, you should encourage them to. If the appraisal district is able to get just one high value to stick, they can move everyone up the following year. If anyone has any further questions about taxes I’m happy to speak with them further. Please reach out to me or the TSSA staff and we can help put you in touch with the right people.

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Andrew Guinn
Seamless Capital
Austin TX
(903) 780-2728
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Is anyone aware of a protest group for the Granbury area, maybe out of Fort Worth?  Prefer one you would recommend? 

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Kathy Gonzales
Owner
Walnut Creek
Granbury TX
(469) 853-9096
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-25-2026 08:29 AM
From: Andrew Guinn
Subject: Tax Assessments

Eric and Tosh, there are lots of problems with how county appraisal districts value self storage. A 6.5 cap rate isn't unreasonable on its face but it would require the county to accurately project our expenses (which they usually don't). I'd like to reiterate a few things to everyone: 1. The Texas tax code says that valuations should be equal and uniform. This gives owners and their tax protest representatives a lot of avenues to fight the valuation.2. That glazed over look you can sometimes get is a great reason to hire a tax protest firm who has a solid presence and reputation in your area. They know how to talk to the county appraisers so they'll listen. We have multiple tax protest groups who are vendor members of the TSSA or you can find local groups who have a good reputation.3. We should all fight our taxes every year. If you know someone who isn't fighting their taxes, you should encourage them to. If the appraisal district is able to get just one high value to stick, they can move everyone up the following year.If anyone has any further questions about taxes I'm happy to speak with them further. Please reach out to me or the TSSA staff and we can help put you in touch with the right people.

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Andrew Guinn
Seamless Capital
Austin TX
(903) 780-2728
---------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 4/25/2026 12:59:00 PM
From: Kathy Gonzales
Subject: RE: Tax Assessments

Is anyone aware of a protest group for the Granbury area, maybe out of Fort Worth?  Prefer one you would recommend? 

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Kathy Gonzales
Owner
Walnut Creek
Granbury TX
(469) 853-9096
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Hi Andrew, I tried to dispute last year and failed unfortunately. I could use come help with someone to dispute in both Atascosa and Frio counties as I'm almost positive their not using a fair cap rate and their application of the income method was completely inaccurate. Thanks for the help, Craig

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Craig Waldrop
Owner
Indigo Investments, LLC
Georgetown TX
(720) 810-1564
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-25-2026 08:29 AM
From: Andrew Guinn
Subject: Tax Assessments

Eric and Tosh, there are lots of problems with how county appraisal districts value self storage. A 6.5 cap rate isn't unreasonable on its face but it would require the county to accurately project our expenses (which they usually don't). I'd like to reiterate a few things to everyone: 1. The Texas tax code says that valuations should be equal and uniform. This gives owners and their tax protest representatives a lot of avenues to fight the valuation.2. That glazed over look you can sometimes get is a great reason to hire a tax protest firm who has a solid presence and reputation in your area. They know how to talk to the county appraisers so they'll listen. We have multiple tax protest groups who are vendor members of the TSSA or you can find local groups who have a good reputation.3. We should all fight our taxes every year. If you know someone who isn't fighting their taxes, you should encourage them to. If the appraisal district is able to get just one high value to stick, they can move everyone up the following year.If anyone has any further questions about taxes I'm happy to speak with them further. Please reach out to me or the TSSA staff and we can help put you in touch with the right people.

---------------------------------
Andrew Guinn
Seamless Capital
Austin TX
(903) 780-2728
---------------------------------

I have had the best success by performing a Uniform and Equal analysis, which bypasses the Income Approach in a CAD valuation (no more subjective adjustments by their appraisers; no arguments).  I downloaded the entire DCAD property roll (in XLS). I picked 47 SS facilities on the (Dallas) CAD rolls that were similar to mine with regard to age, story height, climate control (or not), Quality, Condition, and Avg Unit Size.

The Common Unit for Comparison is each comp's Estimated Market Value (set by the CAD) divided by Net Leasable Area of each facility.  Note that all the categories are selected by the CAD appraisers.  You are using their data, not the Subject Property's Income and Expense, and local Cap Rates.  

Your property - by Texas Statue -must be within 10% above or below the MEDIAN Value Per Square Foot of your comps.  You are merely forcing the CAD to estimate the value of all SIMILAR self storage facilities in the county uniformly.

Texas Property Code: "(a) The district court shall grant relief on the ground that a property is appraised unequally if:

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Edward Holman
Deep Ellum Self Storage
Dallas TX
(214) 426-3337
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This analysis was very impressive, thanks for giving the #s and process. 

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Eric Sandie
CCStorage
Austin TX
(512) 419-8668
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-27-2026 04:25 PM
From: Edward Holman
Subject: Tax Assessments

I have had the best success by performing a Uniform and Equal analysis, which bypasses the Income Approach in a CAD valuation (no more subjective adjustments by their appraisers; no arguments).  I downloaded the entire DCAD property roll (in XLS). I picked 47 SS facilities on the (Dallas) CAD rolls that were similar to mine with regard to age, story height, climate control (or not), Quality, Condition, and Avg Unit Size.

The Common Unit for Comparison is each comp's Estimated Market Value (set by the CAD) divided by Net Leasable Area of each facility.  Note that all the categories are selected by the CAD appraisers.  You are using their data, not the Subject Property's Income and Expense, and local Cap Rates.  

Your property - by Texas Statue -must be within 10% above or below the MEDIAN Value Per Square Foot of your comps.  You are merely forcing the CAD to estimate the value of all SIMILAR self storage facilities in the county uniformly.

Texas Property Code: "(a) The district court shall grant relief on the ground that a property is appraised unequally if:

(1) the appraisal ratio of the property exceeds by at least 10 percent the median level of appraisal of a reasonable and representative sample of other properties in the appraisal district;"

With the advent of AI, two days ago I attached the entire Dallas County property tax roll for Analysis; asked AI to designate line 60,649 on the spreadsheet as the Subject Property.  Then I asked AI to select and compare all self storage facilities that met the Subject with regard to the above CAD similarities, under a Uniform and Equal Analysis (which the AI engine already surmised that was where I was going).  It took 8 minutes.

Last year I did it manually and sent in the spreadsheet with the comps, the Subject, the Median Valuation Per SF.  The ARB dropped the value to the median.  Two years ago I had to file a law suit before the CAD complied.  Now they don't even argue.  

Look Ma!  No cap rates.

Correlation of Median Assessed Value Per Square Foot Based upon
	Age	Quality	Condition	Size
Median	$65.77	$61.20	$58.42	$62.81
Mean				$62.05
Median				$62.01

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Edward Holman
Deep Ellum Self Storage
Dallas TX
(214) 426-3337
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