- Home
- Government
- Departments
- Assessor's Office
- Real Estate
Real Estate
Assessing Real Estate
The Cole County Assessor's office physically inspects all properties in the County on an ongoing basis; it usually takes several years to do a complete review of the entire county.
Appraisals
The Assessor's office utilizes a mass appraisal system to do an appraisal of each and every property in the County, utilizing the Cost and Market Approaches to value for most residences. The Income Approach to value is also used where applicable, mostly with multi-family and commercial properties.
Market Value
The Assessor is charged with assessing all properties at their "market value". A simple definition of market value is the price a property would bring when offered for sale by a person who is willing but not obligated to sell, and is bought by a person who is willing to purchase though is not forced to do so.
Assessment Process
Assessment office personnel wear name badges and will attempt to contact the property owner when inspecting a property. All of our measurements are from the exterior, and all other data is gathered by interviews with the property owner. If you are not home when we inspect your property, we will often leave an information card asking you to contact us if we have any questions. If the information card is not returned to us, we will have to estimate to the best of our abilities for any information that we are lacking.
The State Tax Commission
The State Tax Commission does a quarterly evaluation of our sales to determine how our values relate to sales occurring in the marketplace. The State Tax Commission also does their own appraisals on properties that have not sold and then checks their determined values versus the values we have on the books to see if our assessments are in line with statutory guidelines.
Three Classes of Real Estate Property
Please visit our FAQ's Page for answers to the most common real estate questions.
The Cole County Assessor's office physically inspects all properties in the County on an ongoing basis; it usually takes several years to do a complete review of the entire county.
Appraisals
The Assessor's office utilizes a mass appraisal system to do an appraisal of each and every property in the County, utilizing the Cost and Market Approaches to value for most residences. The Income Approach to value is also used where applicable, mostly with multi-family and commercial properties.
Market Value
The Assessor is charged with assessing all properties at their "market value". A simple definition of market value is the price a property would bring when offered for sale by a person who is willing but not obligated to sell, and is bought by a person who is willing to purchase though is not forced to do so.
Assessment Process
Assessment office personnel wear name badges and will attempt to contact the property owner when inspecting a property. All of our measurements are from the exterior, and all other data is gathered by interviews with the property owner. If you are not home when we inspect your property, we will often leave an information card asking you to contact us if we have any questions. If the information card is not returned to us, we will have to estimate to the best of our abilities for any information that we are lacking.
The State Tax Commission
The State Tax Commission does a quarterly evaluation of our sales to determine how our values relate to sales occurring in the marketplace. The State Tax Commission also does their own appraisals on properties that have not sold and then checks their determined values versus the values we have on the books to see if our assessments are in line with statutory guidelines.
Three Classes of Real Estate Property
| Class | Assessment Rate |
|---|---|
| Class I : Residential |
19% of Market Value |
| Class II : Agricultural and Horticultural |
12% of Market Value |
| Class III : Commercial, Industrial, Railroad / Utility |
32% of Market Value |
Please visit our FAQ's Page for answers to the most common real estate questions.