Who is Pro*TE$T?

The Pro*TE$T Team started in the early 90's in the basement of building in sw Arlington. Two real estate brokers, Randy McKechnie and Tracy Stanley, had just completed terms on the Tarrant County Appraisal Review Board. They were determined to find a way for the small residential property owner to protest their property in a successful manner. They  begged Gloria Van Zandt into letting them use one of the old bank vaults as an office and Pro*TE$T was born.

As members of the ARB they heard thousands of property owners lose their appeals because of poor evidence. They knew the best evidence to warrant a reduction was a CMA or Comparable Sales Analysis of similar property located in the neighborhood of the subject. They also knew gathering sales prices is almost impossible for the public because sale prices are not public record. Texas is one of the few states whose law prevents the disclosure of a sale price. This means the average property owner cannot find the best evidence!

The owners who consistently received reductions were commercial property owners who had agents representing them. Where were the agents for the residential owners? The answer was not apparent until a commercial tax agent told Randy the answer... "There's no money in it. You spend just as much time on a $150,000 house as I would a $7 million office building!

FYI: The majority of sales prices come from the local real estate community- the MLS, aka North Texas Real Estate Information Service, whose members are REALTORS. A special relationship exists between NTREIS and TAD that allows TAD access to the MLS sales. Even though TAD has the same MLS sales we do, they will only disclose those sales it intends to use in the protest hearing. Because Randy and Tracy, are Realtors and Tracy subscribes to the MLS, you too, may benefit from the sales reported to MLS when you hire Pro*TE$T.

The first year, they filed about 250 residential protests on behalf of home owners. Annual residential reviews exceed 1,000. Last year, Pro*TE$T had to tell many of their inquiries that they just could not handle their case because of the time constraints.

Telling home owners we are unable to take their case is not our goal. Helping them is. Please call as soon as you think you may have a case.