Property Reassessment

September 3, 2008

Barr: Data collectors had extensive training

Included courses required to become a licensed Pa. evaluator, company rep says.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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The widespread perception that reassessment data collectors hit the streets with little training is inaccurate, says reassessment company representative Tim Barr.

Luzerne County officials have asked Barr to shed more light on the topic because property owners continue to question and complain about the accuracy of data.

Barr said his company, 21st Century Appraisals Inc., wanted to try to hire local data collectors to put some of the project costs “back into the local economy.”

After background checks and driver’s license verification, applicants were interviewed and had to pass a basic math test to make sure they could calculate property dimensions.

Applicants who survived interviews were admitted into a training program.

The program included two weeks of courses about mass appraisal. The courses, approved by the state Board of Certified Real Estate Appraisers, are some of the same ones required to become a state-licensed certified Pennsylvania evaluator, Barr said.

The state does not require reassessment data collectors to have such training, but Barr said 21st Century wanted the workers to understand the “big picture.”

Tests were administered at the end of the courses.

“Only one-quarter of the participants made it through. ” Barr said.

Randy Waggoner, who taught some of the courses here, said Luzerne County’s data collectors received more training than required.

“From what I saw, the training was better than average,” said Waggoner, who is Perry County’s chief assessor and also president of the Assessors’ Association of Pennsylvania.

After passing the courses, applicants received training on the roughly 100-page data collection field manual, which sets rules for gathering property descriptions. The county and 21st Century developed the manual in advance, with independent review by the International Association of Assessing Officers, which was the county’s outside consultant.

The data collectors then started gathering property descriptions in the field. A supervisor would typically oversee five collectors, and the supervisor initially revisited all properties to see if the collectors made any mistakes, Barr said.

“If they missed anything or anything was done in error, the supervisor forced them to correct it,” Barr said.

The percentage of spot-checking gradually decreased as supervisors developed confidence in the data collectors’ work, Barr said.

Barr said a few of the data collectors hired later in the process did not complete the two-week course.

“We switched to apprenticeships later in the process, once we had a solid crew of data collectors out there,” he said.

The more recently hired collectors received a shorter classroom course and on-the-job training by visiting properties with experienced data collectors, Barr said.

“They didn’t go out on their own until a supervisor checked their work and was satisfied they could do the work on their own without error,” Barr said.

21st Century’s computer software also flagged “missing or unreasonable data” after the information gathered by data collectors was entered into the computer system, Barr said.

“This process will never catch everything, and that’s why before any valuation occurred, we asked for taxpayer involvement,” Barr said.

Property description questionnaires were left at properties if someone was not home, and property owners later received a written summary of the information that had been collected, allowing for corrections.

The data collectors did not determine the design quality, “effective age” or condition of the properties – three of the top factors used to come up with the new assessed values, Barr said.

Those three factors were handled by the certified Pennsylvania evaluators who set the new values, Barr said.

Certified evaluators are trained to handle mass appraisals for taxation purposes. They must complete 90 hours of courses and pass a state licensing exam. The evaluators did not visit the properties but relied on photographs, maps and other information. Barr said certified evaluators are not required to physically visit properties.

Barr said some people are confusing evaluators with general and residential appraisers, who focus on obtaining values of individual properties. The two types of appraisals are governed by different legal requirements, he said.

21st Century employed 28 certified evaluators to work on Luzerne County’s reassessment, Barr said.

The county also has 14 certified evaluators on staff in the assessor’s office, and three of them were “involved heavily in the determination of value,” Barr said.

Barr said the data collectors did not have “quotas” on how many properties must be visited.

“They had goals, but the goals were governed first by quality control,” he said.

Bonuses were offered later in the project to “encourage retention of employees who exhibited both excellent quality combined with good efficiency,” Barr said.

“But if the quality dropped, they were no longer eligible for the bonus program,” Barr said.

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