Appraisal protest
Many of us have probably already had our informal hearings, but I just had mine today.
As others have mentioned, having a list of necessary repairs and estimates plus photos, is not only helpful, but it was essential in our successful protest.
I went around the house creating a punch list of things I would need to repair/replace in order to come up with a Market Value compared with other sold properties.
I took photos of *my* house. The appraiser said I was the first person he's had this year that brought in photos of my own house. He said people have been bringing in photos of their neighbor's houses - and that it isn't helpful. (I labeled the back of photos with the area of the house, and the needed repair.) I left the photos with him, because they scan them, and because it sounds like his informal decision is reviewed by others, so the photos back up his recommendation.
I had a carpenter give me fair bids about materials and labor for the things he could do. This information was added to my punch list on an Excel spreadsheet. For the work that he does not do (like paint or carpet), he referred me to an excellent website: Homewyse.com which calculates project costs. It gives a high and low range by zipcode. For other projects needing materials, he gave me his labor cost, but suggested I just get material costs from Lowes online. Other work is considered specialized (chimney flue and cap) and I wasn't able to get estimates.
Finally, a realtor provided information about home sales in the area. She provided a couple reports with property value ranges, then gave me an "as-is" value for my house. She wasn't able to put anything in writing, but I did mention the amount verbally to the appraiser.
Once I subtracted the necessary repairs to our home from the proposed value, all the dollar amounts were very close to what I expected. The appraiser suggested an amount we could agree on, and we both signed off. Formal Hearing averted.
In the future, I might just do what others have recommended, and that is to protest each year - even if the dollar difference is small, say $1000 or so, instead of waiting until a large jump.
Hope this helps someone!