AppealKit vs OverAssessed

Bottom line: For a homeowner who's willing to file their own appeal, AppealKit is the stronger default — you pay one flat fee, keep 100% of whatever you save, get a hearing-ready adjustment grid built for you, and can confirm whether you even have a case for free before spending a dollar. OverAssessed is the better fit if you'd rather hand the entire process to someone else and are comfortable trading a recurring percentage of your savings for that convenience — its no-win, no-fee structure (per OverAssessed's site, as of 2026-06-24) also limits your downside on a small or uncertain reduction. The rest of this page walks through the trade-offs honestly so you can place yourself in one camp or the other.

If you think your home is assessed for more than it's worth, you can solve it two very different ways. You can hand the whole thing to a company that files the paperwork, builds the evidence, and represents you at the hearing — then keeps a slice of whatever they save you. Or you can build a hearing-ready appeal yourself with a tool that charges one flat fee and lets you keep every dollar of the result. AppealKit is the second kind; OverAssessed is the first.

One thing up front: AppealKit is a tool, not your representative, and nothing here is legal or tax advice. We'll also be careful to label what we know about OverAssessed as what their site said when we last reviewed it. Pricing, coverage, and policies change, so verify anything that matters to you on their site directly before deciding.

What's the core difference between AppealKit and OverAssessed?

The difference comes down to who does the work and how you pay for it.

OverAssessed is a contingency, done-for-you service. As of 2026-06-24 (per OverAssessed's site), you give them your address, they analyze your property against comparable properties, and their team handles the rest end to end: preparing the documentation, filing with the appraisal district, hitting every deadline, and representing you at the hearing so you don't have to attend. You pay a small fee to start — their site states $79, credited toward your savings — and then a contingency fee that's a percentage of whatever they save you. Per their site, if they don't reduce your taxes, your only cost is that initiation fee.

AppealKit is a flat-fee, self-service tool. You build the appeal yourself, but you're not starting from a blank page. AppealKit produces a hearing-ready packet — a per-comparable adjustment grid plus the official application your county uses — so you walk in with the kind of evidence an assessment appeals board expects to see. You pay one flat fee, and you keep 100% of whatever you save. There's no percentage taken off the top.

That's the whole fork in the road: pay a percentage of your savings to have someone else do it, or pay a flat fee and do it yourself with the evidence built for you.

How does the cost actually compare?

This is where the two models diverge the most, and the math is worth doing slowly.

A contingency fee scales with your savings. As of 2026-06-24, OverAssessed's site describes a percentage-of-savings model: the more they reduce your bill, the larger the fee. On a high-value home with a big over-assessment — exactly the case where appealing is most worth doing — a percentage cut can add up to real money. (Worth flagging for your own verification: OverAssessed's site is not internally consistent on the exact percentage. Its homepage and FAQ describe a fee "as low as 25% of savings," while one of its own blog posts states 20%. Whatever the number, the structure is a recurring percentage of your savings — confirm the current rate on their site before you sign anything.)

A flat fee doesn't scale with your savings. With AppealKit you pay the same flat fee whether your appeal saves you $400 or $4,000, and the savings are entirely yours to keep. The larger your potential reduction, the more the flat-fee model works in your favor, because you aren't handing back a fifth or a quarter of it every year it succeeds.

Here's the shape of it, using OverAssessed's own published math. One of their blog posts (as of 2026-06-24) works an example where a $2,000 first-year saving carries a $400 fee at their 20% rate. Apply that same percentage as savings grow and the gap widens — a $4,000 saving becomes an $800 cut, and at the 25% rate quoted on their homepage and FAQ it's $1,000 — while a flat fee stays put across all of it. The bigger and more durable your over-assessment, the more a one-time flat fee favors you over a percentage that recurs each year the appeal succeeds. (Confirm the exact rate on OverAssessed's site before deciding — their pages quote both 20% and 25%, and the structure is what matters here, not the precise number.)

The honest counterpoint: if your reduction is small or uncertain, a contingency service's no-win, no-fee structure caps your downside — a small percentage on a small saving, plus the $79 initiation fee (credited toward savings, per their site), and nothing more if they don't win. A flat fee, by contrast, is owed whether or not your DIY appeal lands a reduction. AppealKit's free check is the hedge against that: it costs nothing and tells you whether the numbers are even on your side before you pay.

Who actually does the work — and do you want to?

With OverAssessed, the answer is "they do," and for a lot of people that's the entire point. Per their site (as of 2026-06-24), they prepare the evidence, file the protest, manage the deadlines, and represent you at the hearing — in Texas they describe signing an authorization form so you don't need to attend any meetings. If you'd rather never think about it, that hands-off experience is what the contingency fee buys.

AppealKit's answer is "you do, but most of the hard part is built for you." The genuinely hard part of a residential appeal isn't the filing — it's the evidence. The most common reason a homeowner's appeal gets dismissed is raw, unadjusted comparable sales: a list of nearby houses that sold for less, with no accounting for the differences between them and yours. Assessment boards expect adjusted comparables — and that's exactly what AppealKit builds: a per-comparable adjustment grid that nudges each comp up or down for square footage, bedrooms and baths, lot size, condition, and the other real differences, so you're comparing like with like. This is the same comparable-sales method assessors and appeals boards use, and California's State Board of Equalization specifically endorses the adjusted-comparable approach for residential appeals (BOE Publication 30, Residential Property Assessment Appeals). So while you file and, if it goes that far, speak for a few minutes at the hearing, you do it with evidence that gets taken seriously — not winging it.

The real question isn't "can I do this?" It's "do I want to be involved, or do I want it off my plate entirely?" Both are valid answers.

What do you actually get from each?

OverAssessed gives you a hands-off outcome. Per their site, that's a team that runs the analysis, files, negotiates, and attends the hearing, plus adjacent conveniences they advertise — free homestead-exemption filing and annual monitoring that re-files automatically if your assessment goes up. The deliverable is the result, not a document you control.

AppealKit gives you the artifacts. You get a free check that tells you — with no account and no email — whether you actually look over-assessed, and then a complete appeal kit (the adjustment grid plus the official application) that's yours to file. The deliverable is the evidence and the paperwork, and you keep all of it. You also aren't handing your property and contact details to a service just to find out whether you have a case in the first place.

What about coverage?

This is a real point in OverAssessed's favor today. As of 2026-06-24 (per OverAssessed's site), they operate across several states — they name Texas, Georgia, Washington, Arizona, and Colorado — and handle all property types, including commercial buildings and multi-property portfolios. If you own property in several of those states, or a mix of residential and commercial, a single service spanning all of it is genuinely convenient. Their model also leans heavily on the Texas protest calendar (April notices, a mid-May deadline), which is where they appear most established.

AppealKit is focused on do-it-yourself residential appeals and is rolling out market by market (starting with San Francisco). If your county isn't covered yet, a multi-state service may simply reach you and a DIY tool may not — that's an honest limitation, not a footnote. AppealKit is also a residential tool; it doesn't build commercial or income-approach cases.

One nuance worth knowing regardless of which route you choose: whether filing an appeal can raise your assessment depends on your state and county. In many places it can't, but that protection isn't universal — confirm the rules for your specific county before you file, whoever does the filing. This isn't legal advice.

Who should choose AppealKit vs OverAssessed?

Choose AppealKit if:

• You want to keep 100% of your savings and pay one predictable flat fee instead of a recurring percentage cut every year the appeal succeeds.
• Your potential reduction is large enough that a 20–25% share would sting year after year.
• You want the hard part — adjusted comparable evidence in the format a board expects — built for you, so the work that's left is mostly filing and a few minutes of presenting.
• You want to find out whether you even have a case before spending a dollar or handing over your property and contact details.
• You'd rather hold your own evidence and paperwork than receive a result you don't control.

For most homeowners who are willing to be involved at all, this is the stronger default: you keep the whole reduction and stay in control, and the evidence that usually decides residential appeals is done for you.

Choose OverAssessed if:

• You want the whole thing off your plate and are comfortable paying a percentage of your savings for that convenience.
• Your reduction is likely to be small or uncertain, and you'd rather a no-win, no-fee structure cap your downside than owe a flat fee regardless of outcome.
• You own multiple properties, commercial property, or properties across several states, and want one relationship covering all of them.
• The idea of filing paperwork or presenting evidence at a hearing is a dealbreaker for you.
• Your county isn't somewhere a DIY tool currently operates.

There's no universally right answer — the contingency model exists for people who'll trade a slice of their savings to never think about it, the flat-fee DIY model for those who'd rather keep the whole reduction and stay in control. Either way, the no-cost first step is the same: run the free check. It tells you whether an appeal is even worth your time — no account, no email, no obligation — before you commit to any route.

FAQ

Is AppealKit cheaper than OverAssessed? It depends on your savings. AppealKit charges one flat fee and you keep 100% of your reduction. Per OverAssessed's site (as of 2026-06-24), they charge a small fee to start ($79, credited toward savings) plus a contingency fee that's a percentage of your first-year savings — their own pages aren't consistent on whether that's 20% or 25%, so confirm the current rate with them. The larger your reduction, the more a flat fee tends to favor you; on a small reduction, a contingency fee caps your downside. Run the free check to estimate your potential savings first.

Does AppealKit file the appeal and go to the hearing for me? No. AppealKit is a tool, not your representative. It builds a hearing-ready packet — an adjustment grid plus the official application — that you file yourself. A contingency service like OverAssessed handles filing and hearing representation on your behalf, per their site. If hands-off is what you want, that's the trade-off you're paying the percentage fee for.

Do I need a lawyer for either option? For most residential appeals, no. See our guide on whether you need a lawyer to appeal property tax. The comparable-sales evidence that wins residential appeals is something you can prepare yourself, and AppealKit builds it for you.

Will appealing raise my property taxes? It depends on your state and county. In many places an appeal can't increase your assessment, but that protection isn't universal — confirm the rules for your county before filing, whoever does the filing. This isn't legal advice. Our explainer on what an over-assessment is covers the basics.

What do AppealKit's comparable-sales adjustments actually do? They adjust each nearby sale up or down for the differences between that home and yours — size, beds and baths, lot, condition, age — so you're comparing like with like. Unadjusted comps are a common reason appeals get dismissed. Learn more in our comparable sales glossary entry and our guide to appealing property tax.

Sources

• AppealKit — free over-assessment check
• AppealKit — How to appeal property tax
• AppealKit — Do I need a lawyer to appeal property tax?
• AppealKit — What is an over-assessment?
• California State Board of Equalization — Publication 30, Residential Property Assessment Appeals (adjusted comparable-sales method)
• OverAssessed home, FAQ, calculator, and "OverAssessed vs Ownwell" blog pages, as captured 2026-06-24 (competitor facts pending operator verification; not asserted as currently true)