Here’s Some Guidance on Appealing the County Assessor’s Valuation of Your Home

Normally, I’d advise you to make your appeal in person, but this year the Jeffco Assessor is using Covid-19 as a reason to deny in-person appeals, and the online method being offered at his website, http://assessor.jeffco.us, is not as intuitive or helpful as it was two years ago.

This year, instead of sending a full-size letter to each property owner, the Jeffco assessor sent a fold-over postcard which only asks you to provide your own dollar valuation of your home and state a reason. The full-size letter of prior years had a place to enter up to three qualified comparable properties sold during the 24 months prior to June 30 of last year which justify your lower valuation of your property. That letter-size form can be downloaded and printed from the assessor’s website. I’ve posted a link for both the Jeffco and Denver appeal forms at www.JimSmithColumns.com.

Both counties allow for online appeals, but the online forms do not have a place to enter the “Qualified Sales” on which your appeal is based, which is surprising and disappointing. However, you can print out the letter-size Jeffco form with those three comps and attach it as a scanned document to your online filing. The Denver form can be completed online, so you don’t have to print it out and scan it.

You can find those qualified comps (defined as homes similar to yours sold in the 24 months between 7/1/2018 and 6/30/2020) by clicking on the “Sales” tab on the web page for your own home on the assessor’s website.  Good luck!

Author: Golden Real Estate, Inc.

Golden Real Estate is a prominent member of the Denver/Jefferson County real estate scene. Based in Golden, we service both Denver and Jeffco, representing both buyers and sellers. We're well known for Broker Jim Smith's weekly "Real Estate Today" column published in the Denver and Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section each Thursday. The column also appears in several weekly newspapers and is archived at www.JimSmithColumns.com. We have nine agents, all of whom are Realtors and EcoBrokers. Our office is Net Zero Energy since December 2017, and several of us drive electrics cars. Known for our sustainable practices, we accept polystyrene (aka "Styrofoam") for recycling, keeping 200 cubic yards per year out of area landfills.

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