Deputy Assessor

Before you can understand this job, you first need to know what an Assessor does. An Assessor is the person hired or elected by a county to decide the worth of each piece of real estate in the area. As you can imagine, this task takes quite a bit of time, and that’s where the Deputy Assessor comes in. As a Deputy Assessor, you’re appointed by an Assessor to help with their duties.

Just like an Assessor, you visit homes, businesses, and properties to decide how much they should be valued at. The information you find is put into what’s known as an “assessment roll,” and is used by Auditors and Tax Collectors to determine the amount a person owes in property taxes.

Deputy Assessors come up with an assessment by looking at things like the value of the land, the value of the house, or the amount of business done in the store or factory on the land. You’re different from a Real Estate Appraiser because you don’t look at the market value of the house (that is, how much the house would make if sold). Instead, you look purely at things like the cost of building materials or the cost of the land.

There are some exceptions to the rule, however, and they’re given to certain groups, like the elderly or veterans. These exceptions influence the assessment and the amount of tax owed. Part of your job is to stay aware of all new legal exemptions, and decide in each case if they apply.