Introduction to Assessment Matters podcast 00:00

John’s background 00:35

Derrick’s experience in broadcast journalism, government, and assessment

The importance of property taxation/assessment in funding local government

How has the field changed in the last 10 years? 2:04

Unexpected exogenous shocks: global pandemic, inflation

Overheated housing market

Commercial vs residential — how WFH has changed the market

The future of commercial real estate 4:58

Downward trend

The difficulties of commercial to residential conversions

What can we do about housing affordability? 6:12

Identifying opportunities for new housing to address immediate needs

Streamlining housing permitting and construction

New building techniques and products

Derrick’s IAAO panel: “See More From the Air” 8:33

The benefits of aerial imagery: accuracy, efficiency

Comparing aerial vs ground observation

Identifying potential novel land uses

Assessing damage from natural disasters

Competition in the aerial imagery industry 11:14

Balloons, drones,  etc.

Improved cost-effectiveness 

Other technologies 12:18

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Data beyond evaluation and assessment 

Advice for industry newcomers 14:29

Parting advice 15:21

Introduction to Assessment Matters podcast 00:00

Derrick’s background 00:35

Derrick’s experience in assessment, management, and team-building

Assessment practices and ratio study standards Nebraska 2:56

Nebraska being a market value and full disclosure state

What is COD (Coefficient of Dispersion)?

What is PRD (Price Related Differential)?

Approaches to assessing agricultural land

How has the industry changed in the past 20 years? 5:42

The widespread adoption of technology by assessors

The availability of technology to the general public

Public trust in the era of wild market swings

Building good teams and work cultures 7:25

What does a good culture look like?

What does a bad culture look like?

Broader meaning crisis — how to get people to feel purpose?

Bridging generation gaps between industry veterans vs newcomers

Handling conflict 15:12

Patience and understanding

Identifying deeper problems and grievances

Avoiding overlaps in duty

How egos mess up work cultures

The future of the assessment industry in the next two decades 19:34

“Hard” skills: Technological advancement

“Soft skills” — the human element of explaining valuations to taxpayers

Advice for industry newcomers 20:30

Investing in yourself

Delivering and receiving constructive feedback 21:45

How to reach Derrick 22:48

Introduction to Assessment Matters podcast 00:00

Samantha’s (and Dan’s) background 00:23

Samantha’s background in real estate brokerage, real estate valuation, tax representation, and elected office

Important innovations 6:19

Working with old CAMA systems and moving towards upgrades

Automation to handle high volume (of appeals)

Moving towards automatic evaluation models 9:08

The need for more consistently updated data

Difficulties and challenges when properties are not consistently (re)delineated and reassessed

What is uniformity and why is it important? 11:46

Vertical vs horizontal equity

Long term plans 13:30

Property appraisal is a long-term project

Developing a better culture for the office

What drives the high number of appeals in Cook County? 15:10

Attorney requirements

Profit in the appraisal industry — bad incentives and lack of transparency

Overcoming a history of corruption and lack of government trust in Illinois

Parting advice 17:05

Getting involved with IAAO

How to reach Sam

Introduction to Assessment Matters podcast 0:00

Monica’s bio 00:51

Falling into an “accidental career”

20 years in various assessment tracks

How has the assessment field evolved over the past two decades? 2:26

Inclusion of technology

More attention paid to what assessors do; discussions on transparency

Last few years of property markets 4:05

Explosively rising prices

Challenges explaining how this affects property assessment

What does transparency mean? How is it an industry challenge? 5:11

Internal vs External

Explaining what people are paying for

Explaining the difference between assessment and taxation

Big career lessons 7:56

Getting started by being willing to learn

Best practices in the Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment 9:02

Encouraging personal and career growth

Cultivating and picking talent

The future of Philadelphia 12:11

Contending with the fact that housing affordability can get worse for both renters and buyers

Possible solutions

Monica’s IAAO panel: “Assessing in 2023 and Beyond” 14:10

Workforce transition — aging assessors

Data and transparency — privacy concerns

Integration of technology and assessment — pros and cons

How has Philadelphia changed? What is “gentrification” and its implications? 18:06

The pros and cons of neighborhood improvement and change

“Gentrification” can be both good and bad

What should those in power do?

Educating people on the why and how of change and its impacts

Parting advice 19:42

How to reach Monica

Jim’s background 0:01

Introduction to Assessment Matters podcast

Jim’s background in real estate valuation and architecture

The founding story of Patriot Properties 2:32

Difference in technology back in the 1980s

The development of CAMA (Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal) systems as a way to scale up assessment

Where the CAMA market is going 4:23

Speed of technological development vs government change

Transition towards cloud-based computing and automation

Transparency and availability of information

The fragmentation of the CAMA market 8:49

Variation of property assessment and taxation by state

Patriot Properties’ expansion from Massachusetts to the rest of the US

How to think about growth 9:28

Horizontal (more states) vs vertical (more cities within states)

Strategy

Advice for assessors buying a new CAMA system 10:25

Having an open mind about workflow

How to adapt to new technology

Accommodating existing vs introducing new practices

Parting advice 12:39

Russell’s background 0:01

Introduction to Assessment Matters podcast

Russell’s background in real estate valuation.

What is needed from leadership to better and more efficiently keep up with rapid growth?

Russell’s bio and big ideas for the future 2:31

Entering office as an elected official without much technical experience

How government can succeed in serving business

Experience working in freight brokerage

How being a church pastor can prepare someone to be a leader

Additional challenges beyond growth 7:44

Managing a growing staff in the midst of a global pandemic

Adapting to new technology

Be willing to try new things, experiment, and “fail forward”

Big opportunities in the next decade in the assessment field 8:40

Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a source of unknown factors and potential capabilities

How generational turnover and technology will impact the assessment field

In office vs remote vs hybrid working 9:51

How local constituent needs affect workplace arrangements

Trends towards more things being done on the Internet

Learning on the job, especially for new leaders 11:10

How can someone who doesn’t have as much context/experience in assessment, do a good job?

Understanding the difference between staff versus leadership, and what leaders need to do

What happens when something goes wrong?

The importance of communication

Best practices 18:54

The importance of mission statements and core values

How to use education effectively?

Training new leaders and setting people up for success

Parting advice 24:33

Be a student

Be ready for change — embrace it, be a part of it, create it!

Jimmy’s background. 0:01

Introduction to Jimmy Williams

Jimmy's background and background in real estate valuation.

Land impacts everything.

The value of land. 4:07

Land is a big deal.

Location is more important than dirt in land.

Land is still land even in major cities.

How it affects education and criminal justice.

The neighborhood lifecycle of property value. 7:03

Philadelphia is a city of the haves and have-nots.

How land affects the economy.

The neighborhood lifecycle and why it's so important.

The best and worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

The housing crisis has hit national discourse. 11:01

The housing crisis has really hit the national discourse.

Philadelphia is a super local place.

Boston is the cheapest big city in the northeast.

Post-pandemic, prices are going up.

The problem with long term mortgages. 14:18

Housing shortage in the us.

Philly is changing to accommodate the housing shortage.

What do you see for housing in philadelphia? 16:13

The next 10-20 years for philadelphia.

The hard dichotomy between housing being cheap and cheap.

Why housing works as an investment.

The behavioral economics of real estate.

How he got interested in mass appraisal modeling. 21:00

The evolution of the mass appraisal division in philadelphia.

How shante got started in the profession.

Opportunities in the valuation technology and explainability. 23:15

The biggest issue in the valuation space.

The conflict between accuracy and explainability.

Importance of being able to explain the model.

Opportunities in the modeling space.

Advice for people just getting started in the industry. 27:09

Everything goes back to the land.

Advice for someone just getting started in the industry.

Connections between the lane and everything else.

Where to find Jim online.

Brent’s background. 0:01

Introduction to assessment matters podcast.

Brent's bio and big ideas for the future.

How is the digitization of land records in the Us? 1:44

In the United States, the 1850 system has been digitized.

The challenge of standardizing the process.

Lack of standards across state to state. 3:21

Lack of standards across state to state and within states.

Value structures using the cost method.

What is the state of property rights in cadastral systems? 5:20

The state of cadastral systems across the world.

The downsides of having a title insurance.

What is the big barrier to land rights? 7:55

Securing land rights in the british colonies.

Adoption of technology is key.

Mapping the farc in Colombia. 9:52

The farc colombia peace treaty and repatriation of 15 million properties.

Fit for purpose mapping.

Where are the low hanging fruit? 11:23

The low-hanging fruit of real estate taxes.

Taxation and real estate tax.

Why people don’t like property taxes? 13:09

Why Brent thinks property taxes are underrated.

How Brent originally got into cadastral work.

What are you most excited about in the next 20 years? 15:23

Excited about the next 20 years for cadastre.

Building a cadastral system in developing countries.

Where to learn more about Cadastral. 17:30

Where to learn more about Brent's work and Cadastral.

Where to find more information about cadastral