Door-to-door inspections of all properties in Cherokee County, Iowa, have been under way since September as part of a reappraisal project approved in 2014 by both the county conference board and the county assessor. The Assessor’s Office is assisted in this project by Vanguard Appraisals, Inc. of Cedar Rapids at a contracted cost of $709,000.
According to the Assessor’s Office, money for the project was set aside beginning in 2014 to fund the appraisals.
“Periodic inspections and reappraisal of properties are necessary as all types of properties do not increase or decrease in value at the same rate,” Cherokee County Assessor Greg Zarr told the (Cherokee, Iowa) Chronicle Times. “Some properties physically deteriorate faster than others, and in many instances similar buildings located in different areas of the county will differ greatly in value due to economic factors.”
Data collectors are making interior and exterior inspections of all residential, agricultural dwellings, commercial and industrial properties. They are compiling information to be used to estimate the fair market value of each property such as type of construction, type of interior finish, physical condition of the property, age of structures and exterior measurements. A complete sales analysis, local construction costs and economic conditions are also considered. No estimate of value will be given at the time of inspection.
The project is scheduled for completion by Dec. 31, 2017.
“Appraisals were going well and that just 5 percent of residential property owners and a couple commercial properties refused to allow access to the appraisers,” Zarr told the paper. “In such a case, the appraisers then focus on the exteriors and estimate on the interiors based on previous knowledge of the property from the Assessor’s Office.