Property Assessment

Tip of the Week: Suggested Book on the Power of Questions

Ask a Question and Open a New World of Possibilities

Property Assessment Recommended Books includes "The 7 Powers of Questions: Secrets of Successful Communication in Life and at Work" by Dorothy Leeds.  I personally recommend this book, having read it in 2002 shortly after it was published in 2000.  While the book has merit on many levels, I have included it in recommended books for professional property assessors because it can be a tremendous help in doing your job, advancing your career, and is a tool for surviving controversial issues that may arise.  Stop for a moment to think of how useful questions are in assessment administration.  Here are just a few that came to mind while I was writing this post:

• Interview questions for potential candidates for assessment positions
• Questions that you will want to ask as a candidate for an assessment position
• Questions to ask as you are learning your new position or advancing in your career
• Questions to ask property owners before an assessment appeal
• Questions that can be used to defend an assessment in an assessment appeal
• Interview questions for gathering market information (comparable sales, income and expense experience, ownership, etc.)
• Questions to include when verifying sales conditions to determine whether a sale is an arm's-length transaction
• Fact finding questions when writing a letter or e-mail to a property owner or agent
• Hypothetical questions you will want to ask before approving a final draft of a report or public relations effort (does this address the needs of the planned audience and what anticipated questions should be addressed now?)
• Questions to ask yourself when developing long-term goals and what you want to achieve during your upcoming job evaluation period or during your career

What are your three most important questions?

Richard L. Sanderson

Assessors: Plan the Best Defense Now for 2010 Assessment Appeals

Add This Exercise to the Routines to Follow Before Completing the Reassessment Process

Imagine yourself sitting before the Board of Equalization or Board of Assessment Review and hearing the various cases brought forward in astonishing detail for each type of property in your community.  Now imagine the Board wrapping up its cases for the year and adjourning.  As though in hind-sight write out your responses to the following questions:

1. Could specific public relations efforts have addressed some of the issues raised as part of the hearings and perhaps even have eliminated some of the appeals? For example, could a mailing or online notice have explained how property transfers as a result of foreclosures were considered by your office have saved telephone calls or appeals? Could reminder letters to the owners of income-producing properties have brought in more income and expense statements to support rental rates, vacancies, and operating expenses?
2. Could targeted presentations to the Board have addressed some of the issues raised as part of the hearings? In the past I have urge the Board to hold a public meeting each year that functions as an organizational meeting to discuss meeting dates and times, procedures, and protocols and to hear a presentation by the assessment office concerning changes in values for each class of property as a result of the reassessment. As part of this overview I stress the important valuation issues that I thought might come before the Board during their hearings. If your Board cannot hold a separate meeting ask them to set aside extra time before the first hearing for each major class of property where staff can present this same kind of overview. Ideally, the presentations would be mentioned in any public announcement of the Board meetings so that interested property owners could also attend.
3. What valuation issues were hardest to defend before the Board? For example, if you envisioned a large number of owners of income-producing properties appealing their assessments, did you spend the appropriate amount of time before the completion of the reassessment supporting your positions relative to the rental rates, vacancies, and capitalization rates used? Similarly, were sales organized and summarized in a manner for ease of use by the Board?
4. What evidence or information could you or your staff have developed prior to the hearings that could have helped your defense? For example, if you choose to follow specific procedures concerning the use of foreclosures or bank-owned property sales, did you document how you developed your procedure, perhaps from International Association of Assessing Officers guidance and talking to assessors in neighboring jurisdictions?
5. Could various exercises or mock staff preparations have improved your ability to defend the assessments? Especially with president setting appeals you may have wanted to develop departmental positions that were consistent throughout the Board hearings. Having a 10 minute discussion before the hearing with the staff appraiser who will defend the assessment before the Board can be very productive. It is also helpful to develop standardized presentation documents for staff use before the Board (i.e., sales verifications, sales listings by property class, comparable assessments and comparable sales spreadsheets, etc.).

These are only a few ideas as your visualization may be quite different depending upon your unique circumstances.  This exercise can help you defend assessments for the upcoming reassessment as well as improve other assessment administration programs (i.e., data collection, public relations, Board relations, etc.) that lead up to the hearings.

Richard L. Sanderson

Want more tips and suggestions?  Subscribe to our E-Alerts.  Property Assessment E-Alerts are sent no more than once per week notifying you of new articles, and the availability of timely subscriber-only white papers and reports.

Getting to Yes on Budget Approval for Critical Needs

Effective Property Assessment Administration Programs Need Essential Funding

The Challenge
Getting budget approval to fund critically needed assessment program improvements has gotten more difficult in the last two years given declining local government revenues.  While declining assessments have been the prime reason that revenue shortfalls are occurring, assessors must do everything possible to keep current with changing markets and increase program efficiencies.  The outlook for revenues increasing is unlikely in the near future, especially when taxpayer sentiment will not tolerate increased taxes.  So how do you convince those in the position of recommending that items be included in your departmental budget that your specific needs should be funded?

The Strategy
What follows is a suggested strategy that has proven to be effective in getting budget approval for property assessment program improvements.  While this article addresses the process from the viewpoint of property assessment administration, this same strategy could apply to many other sectors as well.  Here then are three strategic steps for securing budget approval.  The steps are laid out in chronological order but if have already placed one or more items in motion, good for you!

1. Develop Measures and Indicators
First you will need to have numbers or a well documented account of how the desired program improvements will enhance your existing program and/or address critical needs that have been identified.  In other words you need to spell out the justification necessary to convince others why you need the requested funds and how they will be used.  As assessors we already know the convincing nature of well presented data that supports our positions relative to property values, now shift to supporting why your program needs to be funded.  Many of the measures and indicators that you are currently using to track the quantity and quality of work and public relations efforts may be useful here.  But if you need to design and implement new measures and indicators make sure you keep the bigger picture in mind, making sure that they also contribute to operational improvements or insights.

2. Utilize Available Resources
As soon as possible seek out the advice of the budget analyst, budget director, or finance director who works with your departmental budget.  Mention that you will be seeking budget approval for a new or enhanced program as part of the next budget process, but for the time being you need guidance on how the request needs to be presented, sample written requests for new programs, and what will need to be submitted for justifying your request.  If you are met with discouraging comments that include why it's a bad time to request additional budget requests, politely agree but convincingly state that you would like to go through the motions anyway.  While budget and finance directors are well informed of the local government's financial health and the political realities of the community, no one knows more about the needs of your assessment office than you do.  Assure others that you will only send forward budget requests that are critical to your operations.

In larger jurisdictions your budget request may need to be pre-approved or recommended by a committee (e.g., technology committee for computer hardware and software) before being considered as a budget request.  Find out what approvals may be needed and what documentation they are looking for before giving their blessing to a proposal.  While the budget or finance director can give you advice here, you may also want to ask the advice of directors or department heads that have recently received budget approvals that passed though the same committee. 

3. Present the Request and Follow-up
From the advice offered in earlier strategy steps that may include written samples of successful budget requests, prepare your presentation being sure to include supporting measures and indicators.  In addition to the normal proofreading ask someone outside of your office to review the request.  Ask someone who is completely unfamiliar with assessment administration.  Cut out jargon or wordy explanations that are not essential.  If you will need to orally present the request practice several times before a live audience so your presentation is polished.  Develop a list of anticipated questions and well thought out responses.  You have put too much work into your budget request at this point to be dashed by a poor response to a question that should have been anticipated.
 
Don't be discouraged if you don't get approval the first time around.  You may need to include your request in more than one budget year.  Other needs may take priority in the current budget, but if higher priorities can be satisfied this year your request may be nearer the top in next year's effort.  Keep positive and may all your critical requests get budget approval.

Primary Property Assessment author Richard Sanderson has been the deputy director or director of property assessment offices since 1977.  He has sought and received budget approval for many new and enhanced program areas of property assessment administration.

 

Recommended Website of the Week: Bloomberg News - Real Estate

An occasional series that recommends useful websites to our readers as discovered by Property Assessment authors or suggested by readers.

Finding the Best the Internet Has to Offer

Bloomberg News, Industries, Real Estate
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/industries/real_estate.html

Professional property assessors are required to keep current with an ever changing real estate market.  While that last three years have emphasized this fact, monitoring real estate trends and markets is a tradition in property assessment where cyclical reassessments are mandated by state tax law.  Keeping up with changing markets is a challenge during normal market conditions, and exceptionally time consuming in today's market.  At the present time we find ourselves concerned with residential property foreclosures and declining values for income-producing properties where vacancy rates, rental concessions, capitalization rates, and other factors must be carefully observed.  Bloomberg News - Real Estate has proven to be a reliable source for monitoring the market. 

Accessing their website on October 27, 2009, featured news included Case/Shiller, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research reports on the residential market, and two stories related to the commercial property mortgage market.

Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

According to their website, Bloomberg News has more than 1,500 professionals in 145 bureaus.  They publish over 6,000 stories on the average day, syndicating to over 450 newspapers worldwide.

I highly recommend this site to the busy property assessor who wants to keep up with key issues affecting real estate valuation in today's market.

Need Expert Advice or Help With a Project?

Service Providers Can Lend Valuable Assistance to Local Property Assessors

Every year professional property assessors hire consultants and vendors for a variety of reasons.  Listed below are consultants and vendors listed on the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) Vendor & Consultants Directory website.  The listing of a firm or organization on the IAAO website or on the listing below is not a specific endorsement.  Property assessors or others needing the help of service providers are encouraged to:

1.  Read the IAAO Standard on Contracting for Assessment Services (December 2008) available from the IAAO;
2.  Check with your purchasing agent about the procedures that need to be followed in seeking specific services; and
3.  Talk with other assessment professionals who have had similar services performed, asking them about lessons learned and for suggestions or recommendations.

Accent Business Services, Inc.
http://www.accent-inc.com/
Leading provider of software selection consulting services for enterprise property tax software

Almy, Gloudemans, Jacobs & Deene
http://www.agjd.com/
Property Taxation and Assessment Consultants

Colorado CustomWare, Inc.
http://www.coloradocustomware.com/
CCI provides CAMA, GIS, Field Collections, and Collections software to state and local governments

ESRI
http://www.esri.com/
ESRI® leads the global software industry in geographic information system (GIS) technology with annual sales of more than $660 million

Greenfield Advisors LLC
http://www.greenfieldadvisors.com/
Client-specific solutions to complex real estate situations

iLOOKABOUT
http://www.ilookabout.com/
Geo-coded images you can trust for accuracy and authenticity

International Association of Assessing Officers
http://www.iaao.org/
Consulting and technical advice on a broad range of assessment issues

J. Wayne Moore, PhD, LLC
http://www.jwaynemoore.net/
Advisory Services

Local Government Services International*
http://www.localgsi.com/
Property Assessment Administration Consultant

Manatron
http://www.manatron.com/
Leading provider of property software solutions and services

Marshall & Swift Government Services
http://www.marshallswift.com/ms-GovernmentServices.aspx
Building cost data and estimating methodologies for the assessment of real property for ad valorem

Patriot Properties, Inc.
http://www.patriotproperties.com/
CAMA software solutions

Pictometry International Corp.
http://www.pictometry.com/
See, Measure, Plan™

qpulbic.net
http://www.qpublic.net/
...the public access network

Radiant Software, Inc.
http://www.radiant-software.com/
Innovative GIS from Radiant Software!

The Sidwell Company
http://www.sidwellco.com/
GIS solutions for cadastral mapping and land-records management, aerial photography, photogrammetric, and software development

True Automation
http://www.trueautomation.com/
True Automation is the premier provider of property tax and appraisal solutions

Tyler Technologies, Inc.
http://www.tylertech.com/
Assessment & Tax / CLT

Vision Appraisal Technology, Inc.
http://www.visionappraisal.com/
Leading provider of CAMA software and revaluation services

Yotta MVS, Inc.
http://www.yottamvs.com/
Industry leader in street-view imaging and field data verification

*Note: The principal author of this article, Richard L. Sanderson, is the sole proprietor of Local Government Services International listed above.