A sweeping revaluation of properties in Sampson County is nearing the backstretch, as the schedule of values has been approved and new tax bills are slated to be mailed out in a mere two months, a process that is often followed by a caravan of informal and formal appeals by property owners.

State law requires counties to undergo a revaluation of real property a minimum of every eight years. Sampson’s last revaluation became effective Jan. 1, 2011 and the current revaluation will become effective January 2019. The purpose is to assure all properties reflect current market value and to promote equity and fairness within the tax base.

The current reval process began with the award of the bid for revaluation services to Pearson Appraisal Service in December 2016. Fred Pearson of Pearson’s Appraisal Service and Robert Ezzell, project manager for Pearson and the supervisor for Sampson’s 2019 appraisal.

They spearheaded the Sampson reval, which included visits to approximately 50,000 total parcels in this county. The appraisers collected basic characteristics of the property, such as building dimensions, total square footage, type and quality of construction, type of heating and cooling, plumbing, age, condition, desirability, usefulness and other characteristics.

As part of the reappraisal process, uniform schedules of values, standards, and rules to be used in appraising real property at its true value and at its present-use value are prepared. Those have to be reviewed before Jan. 1 of the year they are applied. The proposed schedule of values were delivered on Nov. 5, and the required public hearing was held on Nov. 26.

The Sampson Board of Commissioners signed off on them earlier this month.

“This schedule of values contains the base rates, adjustment tables, depreciation factors — the actual tools that we’ll need, as appraisers, to assess property for the next eight years in Sampson County,” said Tax administrator Jim Johnson. “We anticipate at this point in time that the (tax) notices for 2019 will be mailed some time around March 1. That will give approximately two months for Pearson to hold informal appeals prior to the Board of (Equalization and Review) convening and having their appeals and their verdict.”

In Sampson, the Board of Commissioners acts as the Board of E&R, hearing appeals from property owners.

Revaluation covers all residential and commercial land and structures, such as homes, apartments, and office buildings, stores and warehouses. It does not include what is known as “personal property,” such as cars, boats and airplanes. The values for those are adjusted annually.

Property is appraised at “fair market value,” which is the most probable price a property would bring in a competitive and open market. Property values for revaluation are determined by comparing sales prices for similar properties, what it would cost to replace a property, the potential income for a property and many other factors.

At the beginning of this year, according to the North Carolina Department of Revenue, the most recent sales ratio study listed Sampson County as just over 100 percent of market value. Pearson’s appraisers said some properties will go up in value, meaning higher tax bills, while some may decrease.

“There will be areas where we will have a little bit of an increase, there will be some areas that go down and a lot of areas will remain very close to the same,” Ezzell said earlier this year, speaking to Sampson’s revaluation. “Our job is to make it as uniform and as equitable as we can, not overtax anybody and try not to undertax anyone.”

New tax bills to be mailed in March; appeals follow

By Chris Berendt

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Managing Editor Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 2587.