The Knox County Property Assessor’s Office says Helen Bruner’s small two bedroom, one bath North Knoxville home is worth $61,000.
She says “no way.”
The office also says the house she owns next to it on Lawson Avenue is valued at $60,500.
Again, Bruner disagrees.
“I think it’s about $10,000 over – I honestly do,” she told WBIR 10News. “The year that I appealed it – that was four years ago – they assessed it at $88,000. There’s no way this house would sell for $88,000 in my opinion.”
Bruner, who lives on a fixed income, says she needs every bit of money she can get.
Lowering the value of her property might mean an extra $100 in her pocketbook at year’s end, she said.
“It makes a big difference,” she said. “We make do, but it would help to have a little bit more. Maybe one of these days we will.”
Bruner, 67, is one of many county residents who has become the focus of those seeking the property assessor’s job.
The Republican primary is less than a month away, and the three candidates vying for the seat are embroiled in debate over whether the office is over appraising property and – if so – by how much.
- Candidate Andrew Graybeal says “nine out of 10 homes” are over appraised.
- John Whitehead, the assessor from 2000-08, says it’s bad but not that bad.
- And Jim Weaver, the office’s current chief deputy, says the county on average is actually under appraising property.
The primary is set for March 1. The winner will take over the position, since no Democrat qualified.
Phil Ballard, the current property assessor, is term-limited from running again.
“We’re trusting the Knox County property assessor that these values are correct, which they are not,” said Graybeal, a Realtor.
For weeks now, Graybeal and the candidates have attended local Republican club meetings and met with the media. Graybeal has printed out information from a number of properties that he says are over appraised.
He has used Bruner as one example. He’s also pointed to a home on the 800 block of Blows Ferry Road in West Knoxville that sold for $483,500, but was appraised at almost $663,000.
He has more examples, including a home on Whittle Springs Road that sold for $38,000 in 2011, but was appraised at $82,400 a few years later.
“Knox County residents are paying more than their fair share and I’ve watched it over the last seven years and it has escalated,” Graybeal said. “Knox County is receiving money that the homeowners should be keeping.”
His opponents, however, say he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
“He is not a certified or designated appraiser,” Weaver said. “He is an affiliate broker that’s only had three listings since January 2012 per MLS records. So, in essence you’ve got just an average citizen or someone out here saying: ‘Hey these are wrong. I’ve looked at these and these are wrong. But he’s not – he’s not designated and certainly not certified.’”
Whitehead agreed:
“Mr. Graybeal’s statement demonstrates he has neither the appraisal experience nor a basic fundamental knowledge of the appraisal system,” he said.
However, Whitehead also agreed, in part, with Graybeal. He said county appraisals are “riddled” with mistakes, but not the kind of “mass mistakes” that his opponent claims.
“No, I don’t think that’s even close,” Whitehead said.
He added: “There would be some over-appraised, I’m sure. You’ve got (195,000) parcels in Knox County. In 2008 when (Graybeal) was running as a Democrat he said everything is under-appraised, so I think it has a lot to do with him just trying to find something to run on.”
Every four years the county property assessor’s office determines the value of some 195,000 parcels throughout the county. Residents who disagree with the appraisals can appeal each June to a county board. If a property owners doesn’t like that decision, then he or she can also appeal to a state board.
Records show that from 2013 – the first year of the current four-year appraisal cycle – through 2015, property owners appealed the values of 6,293 parcel, which means 3.2 percent of the values of all county parcels were appealed.
“I’ve heard the term that nine out of 10 are not properly appraised and that’s just totally not true,” Weaver said.
The state every two years also looks at values and home sales and Weaver said that the last one – conducted in 2015 – showed the county was “about 4 percent low.”
“Now that’s an average number,” Weaver said. “That doesn’t mean that some homes are higher and some homes are lower because we’re looking at mass appraisal here.”
He added: “We do our best to get everything right, but as best as we can do we’re not going to get all (195,000) pieces correct. We have a five-step appeals process and people only need to appeal and one of our appraisers will go back and look at it.”
Weaver says his office “strives for perfection,” but “I wouldn’t be truthful if I said ever parcel is correct.”
Graybeal and Whitehead say if more people knew about the appeals process, more residents would appeal the values of their property.
Weaver said the county appeals board meets every June and property owners can argue their case then. He said the information to appeal is listed on the property assessor’s website and the department publishes a notice each year in the local newspaper of record.