Home Tax Shield charge $30 upfront plus 30% of your tax savings, and they make a genuinely good argument for why the upfront part is better for you. Here is that argument taken seriously, the arithmetic over five years, and every other route — including a $39 one-time kit.
Check your home FREE →Read off Home Tax Shield’s own site on 24 August 2026. Terms change — check theirs before signing.
This is the competitor we have the least bad to say about, so let us start there. Home Tax Shield publish their fee on the front page: “$30 upfront + 30% of your tax savings”, with lower fees available through partners. Two of the four other firms we checked publish no price at all.
They also say two things almost nobody in this industry says out loud:
We agree with both of those, which is awkward for a page like this and worth admitting.
Their case, close to their own words: a firm with no upfront fee only gets paid when it wins, so it has an incentive to work the easy cases and quietly not fight the hard ones — and you would never know whether they actually tried. Their $30 pays a licensed local person to take your case all the way through regardless.
That is a serious argument and we are not going to pretend otherwise. A pure contingency does contain that incentive. If your case is marginal, a firm paid only on wins has a reason not to bother.
Where it leaves you is a genuine choice, not a trick:
Home Tax Shield say protesting delivers a 3–5% reduction on average. Take a $400,000 Harris County home at roughly a 2.1% combined rate:
| Reduction | Value off | Tax saved that year | Their fee ($30 + 30%) | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3% | $12,000 | ~$252 | ~$106 | ~$146 |
| 5% | $20,000 | ~$420 | ~$156 | ~$264 |
And because it is charged every year the protest runs:
| Route | Year 1 | 5 years | What you own afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Tax Shield, on a $1,200 annual saving | $390 | $1,950 | Nothing — the work is theirs |
| $39 evidence kit | $39 | $39, or buy it again | The comparables, the forms and the filing record |
| Do it yourself, no kit | $0 | $0 | Whatever you assembled |
Illustrative. Their published fee, our published fee, extended across five years on a $1,200 annual saving. Rates and savings vary; no route guarantees a reduction.
Strip out the marketing and it comes down to one thing: are you buying a service, or are you buying evidence?
Those are different products. The percentage comparison only matters once you have decided which one you actually want.
By their own logic we should be judged on what happens when it does not work:
Our guarantee: no reduction, next year free. We guarantee the evidence, not the verdict — HCAD decides values. If you protest and HCAD doesn’t bring your market value down by at least $2,000, next season’s kit is free. Nothing to claim and no proof needed: in late August we check HCAD’s certified value ourselves and email you the free code.
“Nothing to claim” is the load-bearing part. A guarantee you have to apply for is designed not to be used.
And like them, we publish no success rate and never will. We do not attend your hearing and we do not decide your value. HCAD does.
Under §41.43(b) an unequal-appraisal protest is decided in your favour unless the appraisal district disproves it, and §41.43(b)(3) lets you argue it using the median appraised value of a reasonable number of comparable properties, appropriately adjusted. §41.461 entitles you to HCAD’s evidence before the hearing. §41.67(d) means anything they withhold past 14 days beforehand cannot be used against you. Your value cannot rise because you protested.
Homestead takes $140,000 off your school-district value under §11.13(b), plus Harris County’s 20% local option under §11.13(n).
HCAD’s public roll shows 1,157,293 single-family homes in Harris County, and 328,310 with no homestead exemption on record — about 28%. That is not proof those owners are overpaying: rentals, second homes and recent purchases legitimately have none. But if it is the home you live in, filing is free, you file it yourself, and Texas lets you back-file two years with the difference refunded.
We complete exemption forms at no charge. You sign and send them. You only ever pay for a protest kit.
A Houston homeowner and software that organises HCAD’s public appraisal roll. Not agents, not attorneys, and we do not file anything for anyone. You sign your own forms and file them yourself — by mail, in person, or through HCAD’s iFile. No outcome is guaranteed; HCAD decides.
Their site says $30 upfront plus 30% of tax savings, with lower fees available through their partners. They describe their standard fees as 40% below the industry average.
Not necessarily, and their argument for it is a fair one — see section 1. The question to ask any firm is what happens when the protest fails.
Filing yourself costs nothing. Our kit is $39, once, with no share of your savings.
May 15, or 30 days after your appraisal notice was delivered — whichever is later (§41.44(a)).
Start with the free check. About a minute, plain questions, no account, nothing you type is kept. If you are not over-assessed, it tells you that too.
See also: every route compared side by side · Ownwell · O’Connor · Five Stone · Texas Protax · Resolute.
Sources: Home Tax Shield, read 24 August 2026 · Harris County figures derived from HCAD’s public appraisal roll · statute text from the Texas Tax Code.