About Us

What Sets county-cad.org/ Apart — The Manual-Verification Standard

Texas property tax is the kind of system where small mistakes have big consequences. Miss the ARB protest deadline (typically May 15 or 30 days after your Notice of Appraised Value, whichever is later) and you lose the right to contest your assessed value for the year. Apply for the wrong homestead exemption category and you may forgo thousands of dollars in savings. Pull from a stale CAD portal URL and you may end up on a third-party site that charges for what HCAD, DCAD, TAD, BCAD, TCAD, or your county CAD provides free. We built this site so those things don’t happen.

Every Texas CAD guide on county-cad.org/ is verified by a human editor against the CAD's own published page and cross-checked against the Texas Comptroller's PTAD reference materials. We do not auto-scrape. We do not pull from third-party property-data brokers. We do not generate content from a stale snapshot of the web. Every property-search URL is human-clicked before publication. Every protest deadline is cross-checked. Every step-by-step walkthrough mirrors what you actually see when you use the CAD's portal.

What This Site Is For

Texas is unique among U.S. states. Each of the 254 Texas counties has a single Central Appraisal District (CAD) that values all property — residential, commercial, agricultural, business personal property — for every taxing unit operating in the county (school districts, cities, the county itself, special districts, ESDs, hospital districts, MUDs, and others). One CAD; one assessed value; many taxing units that apply their own tax rates to the CAD’s certified appraisal roll. This consolidated system was established by the Texas Property Tax Code (Title 1, Subtitle E of the Texas Tax Code), and it makes the CAD the single most important office in your annual property tax cycle.

county-cad.org/ is the practical, plain-English reference for navigating Texas CADs. Every CAD guide on the site lists the official appraisal district name, the verified property-search portal URL, exemption application procedures (with deadlines), ARB protest procedures (with the §41.44 deadline calendar), the GIS / parcel-map portal where available, and step-by-step walkthroughs for property search, exemption filing, and protest preparation.

We are completely independent. We are not affiliated with any Texas Central Appraisal District, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR, which licenses property tax consultants), the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts (TAAD), the Texas Association of Assessing Officers (TAAO), the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), the Appraisal Foundation, or any commercial property-records aggregator, title company, or real estate platform. We do not sell property records. We do not file ARB protests on your behalf. We do not provide tenant-screening, background-check, or any FCRA-regulated services. Every property record is held by the CAD — the official path is always the CAD’s own portal.

The Eight Categories of Texas CAD Information We Cover

What You’ll Find on Each Texas CAD Page

• CAD official name and URL — verified live, updated quarterly
• Property-search portal URL — the CAD’s own online property search, manually clicked before publication
• GIS / parcel-map URL — where the CAD provides one (most major-county CADs do)
• Step-by-step property search walkthrough — by address, by owner name, by property ID / account number / geographic ID
• NOAV mailing schedule — when the CAD typically mails Notices of Appraised Value
• Exemption procedures — residence homestead, over-65, disabled person, disabled veteran, surviving spouse, agricultural-use, timber, wildlife management — with application deadlines
• ARB protest procedure — May 15 / 30-day deadline, written protest forms, informal review with appraiser, formal ARB hearing, evidence rules
• CAD office address & in-person hours
• CAD phone contact — main number, dial-tested quarterly
• Email contact — where the CAD publishes one
• Cross-reference to the County Tax Assessor-Collector — for tax billing and payment (separate office)
• Texas Comptroller PTAD link — for state-level guidance and PVS (Property Value Study) information
• Common protest evidence types accepted in the county — typical things ARB panels respond to
• FAQ — questions specific to that CAD’s procedures

How We Find and Verify — The Eight-Step Process

1. Identify the right authoritative source. The county’s official Central Appraisal District, plus the Texas Comptroller PTAD reference materials, plus the Texas Property Tax Code as codified.
2. Verify the property-search URL is live. A human editor clicks every link before publication.
3. Walk through the property search. An editor performs a real property search on the CAD’s portal — by address, by owner, and by property ID — to confirm the step-by-step description matches the current interface.
4. Cross-check exemption procedures and deadlines. Against the CAD’s published exemption forms and Texas Comptroller PTAD reference.
5. Cross-check the ARB protest procedure. Against the CAD’s protest forms, the Texas Property Tax Code §41 framework, and current PTAD ARB Manual.
6. Verify the GIS / parcel-map URL where one exists.
7. Dial-test the CAD’s main phone number. Quarterly cycle.
8. Editor sign-off. A second editor reviews end-to-end, including a fresh check on the FCRA non-CRA notice and the “verify with CAD before relying” caveat.

Texas CADs We Cover — Major County Examples

Texas Oversight & Professional Standards

• Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Property Tax Assistance Division (PTAD) — supervises Texas property assessment under Tex. Tax Code §5 and §6; publishes the Property Tax Code, the ARB Manual, the Methods and Assistance Program (MAP) reviews, and the biennial Property Value Study (PVS)
• Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) — licenses Property Tax Consultants and Senior Property Tax Consultants under Tex. Occ. Code Ch. 1152
• Texas Association of Appraisal Districts (TAAD) — professional association of Texas CADs
• Texas Association of Assessing Officers (TAAO) — professional association of Texas property tax professionals
• International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) — national/international professional standards (Standard on Mass Appraisal of Real Property, Standard on Verification and Adjustment of Sales)
• Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) — administered by the Appraisal Foundation
• Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) — for some procedural matters

Who This Site Is For

• Texas homeowners checking their NOAV, applying for residence homestead exemption, or filing an ARB protest
• Buyers researching a Texas property before making an offer
• Sellers verifying their CAD record before listing
• Texas real estate agents pulling assessment data and comparables for client research
• Investors doing due diligence on Texas residential or commercial property
• Senior Texans claiming the over-65 exemption and the Tex. Tax Code §33.06 deferral option
• Texas veterans and disabled veterans claiming the 100% disabled veteran exemption or partial veteran exemptions
• Texas ranchers and farmers applying for 1-d-1 open-space valuation, 1-d agricultural-use, or wildlife management valuation
• Property tax consultants (TDLR-licensed) and tax agents preparing ARB protests for clients
• Texas attorneys handling property-tax appeals at the district court level under §42
• Genealogy researchers tracing historical Texas ownership through CAD records

What We Don’t Do

• We do not sell property records, provide bulk data, or operate any kind of subscription database — every record is held by the CAD
• We do not file ARB protests on your behalf — a TDLR-licensed property tax consultant or an attorney can do that
• We do not provide title searches, title insurance, or any title-related service — those are licensed activities
• We do not provide tenant screening, background checks, or any FCRA-regulated consumer reports — we are not a CRA and using site information for those decisions is prohibited
• We do not provide credit reports, employment screening, insurance underwriting data, or any other FCRA-permissible-purpose product
• We do not provide legal or financial advice on ARB protests, exemption qualification, or property tax planning — consult a TDLR-licensed property tax consultant, CPA, or attorney
• We do not represent any CAD, the Texas Comptroller, TDLR, or any other Texas authority
• We do not accept “preferred listing” placement from any CAD, tax consultant, or third-party service
• We do not sell your data — see Privacy Policy

How We Pay for the Site

county-cad.org/ is funded by display advertising. Editorial content — CAD directories, walkthrough procedures, exemption summaries, and ARB protest procedures — is never altered to favour any advertiser. The official CAD link always comes first on every page, before any commercial reference. We do not accept advertising from third-party "property record" operations that misrepresent themselves as official CAD sources or charge for what the CAD provides free. The full position is on our Editorial Policy and Disclaimer.

Corrections and Feedback

CAD portals change — they get redesigned, exemption forms are revised after legislative sessions, ARB calendars shift, and chief appraiser contact changes happen after elections. If you spot something on the site that doesn’t match the live CAD page, or you’ve gone through the property search walkthrough and a step doesn’t match what we describe, please email us. Reader-reported corrections are our priority queue and get a response within seven business days, with a 48-hour expedited path for actively-broken CAD portal URLs.