ValueAppeal founder Charlie Walsh has a pretty easy story to tell. After all, who doesn't like to save a little money on their taxes?

Walsh's company generates customized reports on behalf of home owners so that they can reduce their property tax bills. That concept certainly resonated with Seattle and San Francisco angel investors when Walsh made his pitch in recent weeks. The company -- founded 11 months ago -- just scored $650,000 in startup capital.

In fact, investors were so impressed that the deal was sealed in the middle of the holiday season. And Walsh is keeping the round open in case additional investors want to jump in.

"As it is a tough fundraising environment, it is testament to the pain point that we are addressing," said Walsh, who previously led the Bothell-based ISSI Data.

The new money will be used to expand the geographical footprint of ValueAppeal, which currently offers its customized reports in five counties in Washington, California and Nevada.

By July, Walsh tells us that he wants to have the service operating in more than 20 counties. In the next five years, the goal is to roll out the service in 700 counties throughout the U.S. The staff also is growing, with plans to double this year to 10 employees.

The company charges $99 to create an appeal document, which includes a list of comparable properties that are supposed to reflect the true value of the home. It also offers a money back guarantee in case you don't win your appeal.

Since the company is still in its first year of operation, Walsh said it is too early to know the percentage of appeals that are rejected.

One of the challenges --as we noted in our story back in July -- is that each county has a different template for putting together property tax information. Possible competitors include Laguna Hills, Calif.-based CA PropertyTaxSavers and Lynnwood's LowerMyAssessment.com. San Diego-based EasyTaxFix also is a player.

Walsh said that he's most concerned about customer acquisition and improving conversion rates.

"Competition isn’t as big a concern as you might expect yet because the online property tax appeal service space is still so new," said Walsh. "I’ve never had a potential customer ask me to explain why they should use my service instead of a competitor’s service. I wouldn’t mind if I did get that question, because we easily win that side by side comparison every day of the week."

Here's a video of how the ValueAppeal service works: