Tax year 2012 Notices of Valuation will be mailed to owners of taxable real property located in most Colorado counties in spring 2012. The county Assessor is required by law to establish values for all real property by considering market information from the 24-month base period from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010. The valuation date, or the date on which the Assessor must estimate the value of real property, is June 30, 2010, reflecting the physical condition of the property as it existed on January 1, 2012. If you are unhappy with the Assessor’s valuation you will have the opportunity to contest it.
I have always had an issue with how county Assessors determined values for real property. In the not too distant past evaluations were subjective, with the Assessor hand selecting properties that would be used in comparisons. This really made it hard for a property owner to contest the Assessor’s valuation as it would be the owner’s choice of properties verses the Assessor’s. Additionally I felt the county Assessor spent little or no time reviewing an owner’s appeal and rubberstamped a rejection letter knowing that most owners would not pursue the appeal process further.
With county Assessors now using computer programs to analyze properties it has become more difficult to be critical of the valuation process. Instead of selecting three or four properties to compare the Assessor’s office can now choose a much larger sampling of sold data. What is a real property owner going to be able to do now to effectively protest the Assessor’s valuation? It appeared that with the new tools the Assessor’s office possessed there would be little recourse for a property owner who could still only hand select a few sold properties they felt accurately reflected their home in the marketplace. That was true until recently when the National Association of Realtors introduced the Realtor Property Resource (RPR) giving Realtors exclusive access to the most accurate valuation estimate tools available.
While the average real property owner does not have access to RPR they do have access to their local Realtor. I would suggest that real property owners contact the Realtor that represented them in the purchase of their property and ask for their assistance in contesting the Assessor’s valuation. Most Realtors will be happy to help you and are interested in establish an ongoing business relationship with you because their real estate business is built upon repeat and referral clients. If you don’t currently have a Realtor now is the time to establish a relationship with one.
Edward Boyle
CEO, Employing Broker
Katchen Company
Katchen Company, founded in 1962, is an integrated real estate company with its corporate headquarters in Lakewood, Colorado. The company offers real estate development, redevelopment, property management, brokerage, consulting services, construction oversight and maintenance services to individual and institutional real estate investors throughout the greater Denver metropolitan area in Denver with satellite offices in Chicago, Las Vegas and Miami market areas.
