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I believe so. Texas is a nondisclosure state which makes commercial property hard to appraise. Generally speaking commercial is 50-70% of true value. While, on the other hand homeowners are taxed nearer to 95% of value. Most homes are comparable in a neighborhood and they have access to MLS. This tax law is a boom to investors of apartment and office buildings since most ownership is held in general partnerships, thus tax exempt.

This tax law is a boom to investors of apartment and office buildings since most ownership is held in general partnerships, thus tax exempt.

This is not correct. In a general partnership, each general partner is "jointly and severally" liable for all of the debts of the partnership (i.e. up to 100% liable, even if they only own 1%). No sane human being wants to be a general partner.

Limited partnerships are different - the limited partners are akin to shareholders of a corporation, in that they are only liable to the extent of their investment. They also have no voice in running the partnership. There must be a general partner, but that is almost always a limited liability company (LLC), which typically owns 1% and is (under what is now the former law) subject to Franchise Tax. Since only 1% of the partnership's income is subject to the tax, it is effectively wiped out. Most commercial real estate is owned by limited partnerships or other entitites that limited liability to the amount invested.

P.S. I am a lawyer, though I don't play one on TV. Oh, and I've helped set up many LPs of the type described above. There'll be less of that now, but people will still use it some in order to reduce estate taxes (limited partnership interests can be discounted for gift and estate tax purposes); mostly people will use LLCs.

Right now I believe our commercial property is appraised at around 80-85% of its market value which is the reason we are now trying to sell it. The property was inherited by my family but I've had my doubts about the property's tax valuation ever since we've owned it. The fact that we've had very little interest in seven months of having the property listed seems to confirm my doubts. And yes, the realtor and I had a devil of a time trying to figure out the offering price for the property. In this small west Texas town, the only time property moves fast is when its being picked up and carried away by the spring winds. LOL! Seriously though, I fully expect to take two to three years to get the property sold. It will all be interesting to see how this new law affects things but I would have to see the current Texas property taxes drop dramatically to want to keep the property.

Muleteam1

Texas is a nondisclosure state which makes commercial property hard to appraise. Generally speaking commercial is 50-70% of true value. While, on the other hand homeowners are taxed nearer to 95% of value. Most homes are comparable in a neighborhood and they have access to MLS. This tax law is a boom to investors of apartment and office buildings since most ownership is held in general partnerships, thus tax exempt.

Most commercial property is held in a limited partnership, not a general partnership. Many law firms are limited partnerships as well. Homeowners are not taxed a 95% of value. Much less. Not sure where you got your 50-70% value for commercial property valuation. That is low in my experience.