BonnerSprings.com

Bonner Springs — An Edwardsville man known for being a conservative gadfly now has his sights on the process through which residential properties are appraised in Wyandotte County.

Real estate agent John Altevogt, who formerly wrote a column for the Kansas City Star and now guest hosts on a local radio show, has collected data on homes sold in the last three months in Wyandotte County that he says show a clear tendency toward over-appraising properties. According to information Altevogt said was publicly available, in Edwardsville and Bonner Springs, for homes under $200,000, the total dollar value of the county appraisals over the actual sale prices of those homes was 23 percent more than the total of actual sales values: in Bonner, $946,289 in total sales from October to January, compared to $1,171,300 in appraised values.

In Edwardsville the appraisals for homes less than $200,000 came to $1,207,200 and actual sales came to $978,450.

In northeast inner-city Kansas City, Kan., Altevogt found the total appraisal values, $784,400 was 191 percent of actual sales totals, which were $410,150.

In contrast, according to data provided by Altevogt, the total for Johnson County-appraised values of recently sold homes costing $1 million and more in Leawood came to 68 percent of their actual sale prices.

Altevogt's own experience has colored his perceptions of the county's appraisals and the appeals process. His own Edwardsville home he said should be valued at about $125,000 was appraised at about $156,000. The difference means about $600 a year in property taxes. When he appealed the appraisal, Altevogt said the hearing agent from the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals didn't consider any of the information he submitted, and accepted without qualms the "fanciful" information Altevogt said was provided by the county. That included using as a comparative value tool a house in his area that was built of solid brick, and other houses in Piper.

"The system itself is arbitrary and capricious," Atlevogt said.

The hearing officer used a "boilerplate" analysis and didn't budge one cent from the county's appraisal, Altevogt said.

An acquaintance of Altevogt, retired newspaper editor Paul Barker, said he was forced to move out of his Kansas City, Kan., home near 82nd and Parallel streets when his yearly property taxes jumped from $800 to $2,000. He sold his house in 2003 and now lives in an assisted living home.

Barker is also head of the Taxpayers League in the county.

Barker said when he tried appealing his appraisal he was laughed at by clerks in the county's offices.

Altevogt said he thought most people don't appeal their appraisals when they seem high, "because people confuse appraisals with value."

That is, they think because the property has been appraised by the county for more money, they can necessarily sell it for more money, giving them a false confidence in their own equity.

But "they're just paying taxes on a fantasy figure," Altevogt said.

Altevogt said he wasn't imputing to the appraiser's office a deliberate scheme to over-appraise properties in order to raise more revenue, but did say he thought the county had little choice because it is so strapped for cash.

"This is a wonderful place to live," Altevogt said.

But the county has to "keep up the myth that they're lowering taxes" on the mill levy, he said.

The problem, as Altevogt sees it, is that the county is not "an economically viable political subdivision," and he thinks State Sen. Chris Steineger's proposal to consolidate with Johnson County should be considered.

Wyandotte County Appraiser Gene Bryant said if there was a pattern of over-appraising he didn't know about it.

"There's a lot that goes into the valuation of 70,000 parcels each year," Bryant said.

"My job is not to generate revenue - that's the levy - but to make sure everyone is treated fair."

Given that nailing the appraisal for every property would be an obvious impossibility, Bryant said under perfect, statistically circumstances his office would get about one third of appraisals just right, about one third appraised too high and the other third too low.

And it's pretty rare for someone to appeal an under-appraised home, Bryant said, though it does happen - usually when the property's sale is imminent.

The appraiser's office mainly uses sales of similar homes in the same area to valuate a home, Bryant said

That number is generally between 3,000 and 4,000 annually, Bryant said, but sales have dropped in the last year. That can affect appraisers' confidence in their valuations, because they have fewer data to use, but Bryant said, "you can still develop good evaluative models, as long as you're careful what sales you're using."

Bryant said the biggest factor in the last five to six years he's seen has been what he called "physical characteristics": the remodeling and renovation of homes, which causes property values to go up.

Complicating matters, though, "this market has definitely softened last year," Bryant said.

Bryant said the overall number of appeals hasn't changed, which is between 3,000 and 3,500 every year.

Appraisals will be sent out in March, and property owners will have 30 days to file an appeal. After that they can make a payment under protest.

Altevogt said his next step is meeting with a commissioner from the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals.