This story is part of our February 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.

After dealing with multiple errors, David Webb takes property taxes personally.

In 2017, while serving in the military, he paid the same property taxes on his single-family home as a similar home a mile away, even though his property was next to a railroad with trains running at all hours. In another instance, a fourplex rental he owned had a portable shed mistakenly listed as a permanent structure, which he blames on the county assessor’s “drive-by appraisals.”

“I called the county and said, ‘This is a shed. This isn’t a garage,’” he says. “They came by, took a photo and said, ‘That’s our mistake.’ They gave me a refund, but only for that tax year. Why do I have to pay for your mistake?”

These errors were two of several examples that pushed Webb to start LowPropTax in Sacramento. He wanted to make sure California homeowners weren’t getting stuck in the same knots of the appeals process, which usually requires a lawyer or tax specialist.

“Traditionally, property tax appeals are very hard,” he says. “The counties all across the United States make it very difficult for a homeowner, an investor or a property owner to do an appeal. There’s lots of forms and anywhere from 15 to 40 different fields you have to put information.”

A missing field, he adds, is a common reason applications get rejected. At that point, an appeal is invalid. In the appeals process, a homeowner might have to present their argument in front of a board. But most people don’t have time to put together a well-structured case, he says.

While working in cybersecurity for the U.S. Air Force, Webb saw the opportunity to automate and untangle that cumbersome process. His platform, powered by AI and reviewed by licensed appraisers, guides homeowners through filing, he says.

LowPropTax is looking to raise a $1.2 million seed round after securing $300,000 from a side contract. With a team of 11, Webb wants to ramp up and increase the accuracy of the AI models, which requires funding to train.

“He’s assisting real estate owners, both commercial and residential, with information gathered from various sources to negotiate their county property tax assessments,” says Jim Corbett, a veteran entrepreneur and real estate expert, who founded the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy in 1986.

Webb was a student in the Academy last year, where Corbett first heard his pitch during the program’s 20-week run. Over the past few years, Corbett has noticed a clear trend toward AI-driven businesses coming through SEA to create, write and present their business plans, receiving critical feedback from mentors, board members and alumni of the Academy.

“I created the Academy to help young people who want to become something special in this world,” Corbett says, “satisfying the needs of various customers.”

For LowPropTax, Webb has identified residents affected by wildfires as a key customer group. Last year, he worked with a client on a wildfire property tax appeal. The client’s home had been completely destroyed, but the client was still being charged a $13,000 property tax bill on a house he couldn’t live in. He had to relocate to a different house while his was being rebuilt while receiving a full tax bill for the entire year.

“There’s pretty much nothing done from the county side,” Webb says. “They don’t go and view the structures or anything to adjust the property taxes automatically for all the smaller fires that burned land the burned structures. Their systems don’t tell them what’s been destroyed and what hasn’t.”

Webb doesn’t blame the assessors so much as the old systems and tools that create problems. The burden of appealing rests with the homeowner.

“And if you’re not a savvy real estate person,” he says, “you would never know that you can get your property taxes reduced because they do not actively market property tax appeals or teach you how to do it.”

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