Sky high Jackson County property valuation? Use these 3 tips to challenge your assessment

Jackson County property assessments are reaching homeowners, surprising and frustrating many who received major increases compared to past years.

Gail McCann Beatty, the county’s assessment office director, told The Star in early May that assessments are likely to be around 30% higher than two years ago on average. But some Kansas City homeowners are seeing even greater increases of over 90%.

Anticipating an outpouring of appeals to reduce these assessed values, county assessors are offering “informal” reviews for the first time this year.

Located downtown at 1300 Washington Street, these meetings offer homeowners the opportunity to speak with realtors and county assessors about the possibility of lowering their assessed value.

Homeowners can make an appointment for a value review through the Jackson County Assessment Office’s website. You can log in to make an appointment here. However, appointments are not required. You also can walk in to the 1300 Washington location for a value review during its open hours of 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Armed with certain key information, you may be able to reach an agreement on your home’s assessment without launching a formal appeal. Here’s what experts say to bring along to your appointment.

The prices of comparable homes in your neighborhood

Similar homes to yours can help convince assessors that your valuation is out of line with the local standard, McCann Beatty said.

To get these comparisons — called “comps” in the real estate industry — ask a real estate broker for a few examples in your area. They shouldn’t charge you a fee, and will have access to more reliable information than the public can find on sites like Zillow.

A good “comp” to your home is one with a similar square footage, built around the same decade and with the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms if possible. It should also be geographically close to your house, since neighborhood can play a significant role in appraisal.

Realtor Jane Fowler also told The Star that a single listing — especially for a high-priced home — isn’t a good point of comparison for your own home’s value.

“It needs to be an apples-to-apples comparison,” she said. “The county should be using averages, not extremes, for comps. When Realtors sell a house, we don’t use extremes when we price it.”

Photos of any damage or unfinished areas of your home

Jackson County’s assessments are done by a computer program — not by human inspectors. Bringing in photos of the interior or exterior of your home can give the county’s human assessors a better idea of the state of your property.

If you’re hoping to get your valuation lowered, photos of unfinished areas of your house or any structural damage could help your case. This includes damage to the home’s foundation, roof leaks and other issues.

It’s also important to set the record straight if your appraisal notice lists incorrect information about your home.

For example, if your appraisal states that your home has a finished basement but your basement is really unfinished, this could get your assessment lowered. In this case, bringing in a photo of your unfinished basement could prove the county’s mistake and lead to an adjustment.

Any recent bills of sale or documentation of your home’s value

McCann Beatty noted that if your home is a recent purchase, bringing your appraisal or closing statement can help assessors correct your valuation.

The county outsourced its 2023 assessments to a third party company called Tyler Technologies, which used an algorithm to appraise values based on data like square footage, lot size, neighborhood and number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

But if a human appraiser has recently given your home a different value, the assessment office may defer to their judgment. If you have that documentation, bring it.

What if I can’t reach an agreement on my home’s appraised value?

If you can’t reach a consensus on your home’s value during the informal review process, there are several additional steps you can take to appeal the valuation.

The first is to file an official appeal with the county’s Board of Equalization. This appeal process will involve a hearing before three board members when you can present evidence that your assessed value is incorrect.

The deadline to file an appeal is Monday, July 10. You can start the process online here.

After your appeal is scheduled, you can also request an interior inspection of your home if your property value has risen by more than 15%. You can do this on the county’s website here.

If neither the informal nor the formal county review processes lead to a valuation you agree with, there is one more avenue to try: filing an appeal with the Missouri State Tax Commission. Learn more about that process here.

You won’t know for sure what your property taxes will be until your local taxing authorities set their tax rates in the fall. Taxing authorities include your local schools, fire departments, libraries, cities, counties and special funds like the mental health fund, the disabled services fund and the blind pension.

The tax rates set by all of these groups combined will add up to your final property tax rate — but that won’t happen until all property value assessments are finished later this year. That’s because each group can only collect an amount of money determined by its budget.

The Star’s David Hudnall contributed reporting to this piece.

Do you have more questions about property value assessments in Jackson County? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.