For the first time in over a decade rural residential properties were reviewed for valuation in Washington County by the Assessor’s Office.
At Tuesday’s Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting, Assessor Christy Tinnes said the goal of the assessments is to get residential properties to close to market value. The county office only has one full time appraiser, so Tinnes hired Vanguard Appraisals of Cedar Rapids to do the rural residential review, “This valuation involved having a lister come around and make sure things were listed accurately. Basically, you know, we did send out a press release in October of ’16 to kind of let people know that if you live out in the country there will be somebody coming to your house, they’ll be looking at type of construction, type of interior finish, physical condition of the property, the age of the structures, exterior measurements, and then they use sales analysis, local construction costs, and economic conditions. The end goal is to come up with market value.”
The rural residences hadn’t been reviewed since the early 2000s. She says if anyone has questions or concerns about their 2018 property assessment to call the assessor’s office because it is best that they be reviewed on a case by case basis.