The Valuation of Real Property in Ontario County is done by the Town Assessors with the aid of either the NYS Office of Real Property or Ontario County Real Property Tax Office. Several towns have chosen to do the Annual Re-assessment, which is a commitment to keep the parcels at full market value annually. Most other towns and cities are on a tri-annual update to full market value.

The process of Valuation involves a great deal of time on the assessors. Clean accurate data collection of all the improvements to the land must first be completed. Once the information is verified, it is put into a database in the computer. The Sales File for the municipality receives great scrutiny. Due to the shortage of good sales, some assessors must take older sales for review or add sales from a neighboring similar town. The town or city is broken into "Neighborhoods" which are defined areas composed of properties with similar market influences.

The Sales File is tested to develop a mathematical model predicting value using coefficients derived from the market place. These coefficients are the closest statistical fit for a variable in real estate. The three methods of valuation, the market approach, the income approach and the cost approach can all be used to predict market value if there is good information in a Sales File.

Once a model has been developed and tested against the Sales File, the entire municipality is run for valuation using the model. Since the value is only a prediction, the assessor must go and visit the properties in each neighborhood looking at the data and driving by the parcel. The assessor will make adjustments to the predicted assessments due to variations out in the field that could not be seen by the computer. Once the values have been placed by the assessor, an impact notice is run. The impact notice shows an estimation of what the current taxes would have been if the new assessment had been in place at the time of running the last tax notices.

The Assessor holds hearings for property owners to discuss their assessments and have questions answered. Normally, a second letter goes out to anyone who visited the assessor during the hearings.

If the property owner is not satisfied with his or her assessment after meeting with the assessor in the hearing process, he or she may go to Grievance, a formal hearing process in front of an independent board of people. The residential properties have the option of continuing on to a Small Claims process and the others can file an article 7 known as a certiorari. Forms and booklets explaining the process can be found in every assessor's office or at the Real Property Tax Office in the County. The New York State Office of Real Property maintains an extensive web page that can be accessed at orps.state.ny.us. The Grievance forms can be found there as well as current assessment information and laws.

Valuation Support For Municipalities:

Revaluation Support: Contract price includes help with developing neighborhoods, model building, report generation for analysis, actual running of market analysis documents for assessors.

Market Analysis and Valuation Processing: $1.00 parcel per parcel.

Data Mailers
Inventory Review	.15¢ per parcel
Increase / Decrease Notices	.15¢ per parcel