Reserve vs. the traditional model.
Every established property tax firm follows the same template: a consultant reviews your properties, picks the ones worth contesting, and takes 25% to 35% of what the appeal saves. Reserve was built to do the first half of that job differently. This page explains where the two models diverge, and where the traditional firm is still the right call.
| Reserve Tax AI | Traditional consultant | |
|---|---|---|
| Screening | Every parcel in the portfolio is run through the valuation model against its assessment before anything is filed. Parcels with no case are cleared in writing, so you know what was looked at. | A consultant reviews the assets the client flags or the ones large enough to justify the hours. Small parcels, out-of-footprint parcels and long-held parcels are often never examined. |
| Fee | 18% of first-year realized savings, paid once after the reduction is enrolled. No retainer, no fee without a reduction. Published on our pricing page. | Typically 25% to 35% of savings, in some engagements for two or three years of savings, with hourly or flat fees for hearings, appraisals and litigation support. Quoted per engagement. |
| Software | Reserve Intelligence is part of the engagement: portfolio exposure, every appeal tracked from drafted to filed to settled, deadlines by jurisdiction, evidence and e-signatures in one place. | Status by email and periodic spreadsheets. Where a client portal exists it is a reporting layer over the consultant's work, not the screening engine. |
| Coverage | 3,000+ assessing jurisdictions in the data layer; filings in every state as coverage allows, through Reserve Tax Group and engaged local counsel. | Deep in-market presence in major metros with local hearing experience. This is the traditional model's real strength. |
| Minimum engagement | None. One parcel or one thousand. Burger King franchisees receive the program rate on their whole portfolio. | Large firms concentrate on institutional portfolios. Mid-sized and small owners frequently cannot get attention in filing season. |
| Turnaround to a filing decision | Days. Parcel list in, flagged list with projected savings out, authorization to sign. | Weeks, driven by consultant availability during the busiest filing months. |
| Where the other model wins | A single trophy asset with a complex valuation dispute headed to a contested hearing or litigation. Reserve engages appraisers and counsel for those parcels, but the traditional firm's in-house bench for that one case is deeper. | Breadth across a whole portfolio at a published fee. The hours-based model cannot economically model a thousand parcels, so it does not. |
Descriptions of the traditional consulting model reflect industry-standard contingency ranges and engagement practices as generally understood, not the specific terms of any firm. Always compare written proposals on screening method, fee and what is included.
The traditional model was built for one building.
Property tax consulting grew up around trophy assets. A consultant who knows the local assessor, a fee appraiser, and a hearing officer who has seen them before is a good way to contest one large valuation. The economics work because the parcel is big.
They stop working on a portfolio. If reviewing a parcel costs a consultant several hours, a firm cannot afford to review a thousand of them to find the two hundred worth filing. So it reviews the obvious ones and leaves the rest. The savings that go unclaimed every year are mostly on the parcels nobody looked at.
Reserve inverts that. The model values every parcel first, in days, at a cost that does not scale with headcount. People then do what people are good at: evidence, negotiation and the hearing, on the parcels that deserve it.
A cleared list, not just a filed list
Every parcel comes back flagged or cleared, with the modeled value and the gap. You can see which assets were examined and why some were left alone.
One number, published
18% of first-year realized savings. The same for a 5-parcel owner and a 500-parcel fund. No retainers, no multi-year tails, no hourly add-ons for the hearing.
Deadlines watched, not diarized
Every parcel mapped to its jurisdiction's window. Florida's 25-day TRIM clock, California's November 30, Texas's May 15: the platform tracks them so your team does not.
Moving from an incumbent
Send the current engagement letter and the parcel list. We identify which parcels have open appeals with the incumbent, avoid duplicate filings, and pick up the rest. Owners have done exactly this mid-season.
What owners ask when they are switching.
Compare on your parcels.
Send the parcel list. You get a flagged list, a cleared list, and projected savings on each flagged parcel. Put it next to any other proposal.