Ownwell

Alex Reeves: Welcome back to Invest Smart with Steadily. Today we're talking with Sam Thrash from Ownwell, who's the head of client success and helps a lot of real estate investors with their property taxes. Sam, welcome. Tell us a little bit about Ownwell and what you do.

Sam Thrash: Yeah, thanks for having me. Ownwell helps real estate investors manage and reduce their property tax liability through property tax appeals. The reason that's so important is that property taxes are often one of the biggest operating expenses. In my role, I have the privilege of working with a lot of our real estate investor clients who are often managing assets across many markets or many jurisdictions. That's given me really good insight into the common questions and challenges folks have around property taxes, and what it takes to deliver savings at scale.

Alex: That makes sense. For real estate investors, what do you think is one of the biggest misconceptions around property tax assessments and the appeal process?

Sam: One of the biggest misconceptions is that if your assessment didn't go up very much, or stayed the same, or even went down, then maybe there's no action needed or it's not worth the time and energy. But the reality is there may still be significant savings opportunities, especially when the market has softened. That's why you always want to review and evaluate whether it makes sense to appeal.

It's important to keep in mind that in some states there's no downside risk. The property tax code is set up in a way where you can't be penalized for filing a protest. Take Texas, for example. Your assessment can't go up just because you chose to file an appeal. That isn't the case in every market, but it means it's really important to review your assessment every year to see if there's an opportunity to save.

Alex: That makes sense. In the economy we're in and the interest rate environment we're in, cash flow has gotten pretty tough, especially for new investors that are just now jumping into the market. What are some success stories you've seen where an appeal has directly impacted an investor's cash flow?

Sam: That's the reason we exist. I mentioned it before, but property taxes are one of the biggest operating expenses, and any savings that you get on property taxes flows straight to the bottom line. It becomes something you can use to reinvest or to buffer against other rising costs.

For some of our larger clients or portfolios, at a 5% cap rate, $1,500 in property tax savings translates to $30,000 in property value. You not only get the cash flow savings, but you get the ongoing benefit of asset valuation for reporting or refinancing. What many investors miss is that there's evidence a lower assessed value this year sets a lower baseline moving forward. There's a compounding effect that can drive more savings in the future. That's a general answer, but it's important for investors to keep in mind.

Alex: Property taxes and the assessment process can be a big black box for most investors. What are some of the levers that you guys are able to pull or highlight in order to successfully negotiate some of these costs?

Sam: Good question. Where that perception is built is that there are a lot of nuances from state to state, or even county to county. Maybe to share a little bit more about Ownwell: what makes us a little bit unique is the combination of local, in-house licensed property tax professionals spread across the markets we service, combined with best-in-class tech and tooling that enables them with the information, the data, and the resources to build the strongest possible case.

We automatically monitor and analyze your assessments across your portfolio. We build out the strongest possible evidence and supporting documentation for your case, and then we handle the entire process from start to finish. That includes managing the various appeal deadlines, which can vary from year to year because they're a function of when your assessment notice goes out. The window is usually 25 to 60 days from that date to file an appeal.

We attend the hearings on your behalf, and there's an art and a science to not just putting together the best evidence, but also presenting the most compelling case in those hearings. Where relevant, we handle any escalation or correction. If we need to pursue arbitration or litigation or subsequent steps allowed in that specific market to make sure our clients are paying their fair share, we take all of that off our clients' plate. On their end, they have full visibility into the entire process: what's the status of my appeals, what are the results, which cases is Ownwell pursuing. They still have that control and that visibility, but they can focus on what they need to do in terms of building their business and managing these properties.

Alex: Thinking historically about property tax negotiations, I actually remember my mom going down to the Dallas County Assessment Board in a suit when I was a kid, and she brought in pictures from the house with siding missing and all kinds of things. Now there's obviously a tech-enabled solution, which was needed in the market. Are you the only ones in the market doing this? What makes you the best at this? What's your edge over dressing up and bringing pictures down to the assessment board?

Sam: I was laughing because my dad is a DIY landlord here in Austin and owns a rental property, and despite his love for his son, he stubbornly refuses to use Ownwell. In his defense, he knows his property better than anyone, but that doesn't mean he knows how to get the best results.

That's where the technology, the data, and the team come in. A lot of our property tax consultants came from competitors or were former appraisers and assessors themselves in some of these markets and counties that we operate in. We have the relationships and the experience to know what it takes to drive results.

There are other firms, especially in places like Texas where property taxes are such a pain point. It's been an industry for a while. It tends to be more local, regional professional services shops, folks who have a lot of experience and drive pretty good results, but aren't leveraging tech to make it as good of an experience as it could be, or to pass more of the savings on to the owner. What makes us unique is the investment we've made in technology to deliver the best possible results at scale. That's what's fueled our growth, not only as the fastest-growing firm, but at this point the largest residential property tax agent in the country.

Alex: Let's talk about a specific example, because a lot of investors practice the BRRRR method, where they're buying, renovating, renting a property, and so on. When you buy a property, it could be worth $100,000, but then you put $100,000 into it, so now your property is worth $200,000, but the tax records are still at a lower value. At what point during the BRRRR method should you enlist Ownwell or have somebody take a look at the property taxes? And what do you need to be documenting throughout those renovations so that you're set up for success?

Sam: Good question. The short answer is you should be reviewing and analyzing from the get-go. We always encourage our clients, no matter where they are in the asset lifecycle, to sign that property up and have our team take a look at it.

Right when a property has been purchased, or in that subsequent tax year, there may be less of an argument. If the county did assess the property at the value it was purchased at, and that was an arms-length, fully marketed deal, then it may be hard to argue that it should be assessed at a lower value. But one thing we'll look at is time adjustments. If that property was purchased in January of 2025, that may not be as strong a data point for the current market value as of January 2026. What happened in that market or submarket over those 11 months at the end of 2025 may give us some argument.

There are a few common reasons investors may be overpaying on property taxes without realizing it. The first is incorrect property data in the county or assessor's records. They may have the wrong square footage, bedroom counts, lot size, classification, or condition. Features the property has may be inaccurate.

The second is limitations in mass appraisal techniques and methodologies that a lot of these counties are leveraging. These are statistical models that apply standardized ratios to a market or submarket. Your property may be getting assessed based on average properties in that market, or average condition, when your property is unique or has condition issues or deferred maintenance that need to be accounted for.

The third is just inaction or lack of expertise. Not knowing what you need to present and put together to maximize your chances of a reduction. Those are all things that when a property is onboarded onto our platform, our technology and our team is looking at and reviewing each year. If we determine your property is under-assessed, or it's not worth the risk to appeal, we'll wait until the next year. But we give clients the peace of mind that they're not overpaying.

Alex: How often should an investor, especially if they have multiple properties, be taking a look at the assessment or leveraging Ownwell to be part of their systems and processes?

Sam: Reviewing every year. Appealing depends. The way I try to position Ownwell and our service to clients is you can think of it as free property tax monitoring. Someone is going to be taking a look at your assessment every year and identifying whether there's an opportunity to save. That doesn't mean we'll move forward every year.

In many states, you're reassessed annually, so there's always something to look at. Even if you're not reassessed annually, in many markets you can still file an appeal off-cycle. As I said before, that appeal window is short. You want to be attentive to when those opportunities arise, because if you miss it, you have to wait until the next year and eat that cost in the current year.

One thing we like to say around here is don't assume stability in your assessment equates to accuracy. It's always worth taking a look.

Alex: I would say the same goes for insurance. There's literally a nomenclature: death, taxes, and insurance. We have that in common. Every year it costs you nothing to have somebody quote your insurance, and it sounds like it really costs you nothing to enlist Ownwell's services as well. Is that correct?

Sam: That's correct. It's free to sign up. The way our business works is we only take a percentage of any savings that we get for you. No additional fees, no cost to file. We only make money if we've saved you on your tax bill.

Alex: That's essentially a no-brainer for any real estate investor. Taxes and insurance are two of the biggest line items every single year. Just have somebody take a look at it. It honestly takes very little time and can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Sam: What was really surprising to me when I started at Ownwell and started learning the business was just how few people take advantage of the mechanisms that exist within the property tax code to appeal. We estimate something like 90% or more of property owners across the country don't take any action. It really feels like an education and awareness gap more than anything, but it's also a pretty high-friction process if you want to do it yourself. That's part of the value we've created, making it really easy to pursue your rights as a taxpayer.

Alex: What did I miss? Anything else that you think real estate investors should know about Ownwell or real estate tax disputes?

Sam: There's a whole lot more we could get into, especially if I was to loop in some of my colleagues who are the real experts, our property tax consultants across these markets. I would encourage folks to do research and not hesitate to reach out even if they just have some basic questions. At a minimum, we want to equip people with information they can leverage to go pursue the appeal on their own.

Now is good timing. In most markets, your assessor is going to be assessing your property as of January 1st of the calendar year, and notices will start going out later this quarter and throughout the rest of the year. As I said before, that's really what starts the timer. If you want to take advantage of a service like Ownwell, or even a local resource in your market, now's a good time to look into what you can do and when you should get the process started, because you don't want to have to wait again until 2027.

Alex: Thank you so much, Sam. If somebody wants to find Ownwell, where should they go?

Sam: Ownwell.com. You can find us there. We have an incredible care team, an incredible marketing team who's put together a lot of useful resources, a blog, FAQs. Please visit us there, and we'd love to help you if we can.

Alex: Awesome. Thank you so much.

Sam: Thank you.