Book 4 - Appraisal Institute of Canada

Member profileFrom appraiser to assessorAyear and a half ago, after performingappraisals for Revenue Canadafor almost 20 years, Rob Kotchon,AACI, assumed the position of City AssessmentCoordinator for the City of Red Deer, Alberta. “Iwanted to try something different,” he explains.Kotchon eagerly embraced his new roleoverseeing the assessment of all non-residentialproperties in the City of Red Deer. While heexpected the shift to be a challenge – and it was– he was also pleased to find that, in performingassessments, he could rely on a solid base ofknowledge he had acquired as an appraiser.Over the years, his work in Revenue Canada’sreal estate division had involved all types ofproperties throughout southern Alberta, includingcommercial, industrial and residential real estatein both rural and urban settings. The knowledgeacquired through this exposure to such a widegamut of properties is proving to be invaluable inhis new position.At the same time, Kotchon is finding manysimilarities between assessment and appraisalwork. “You are still looking at the characteristics ofa property and how it compares to other propertiesin the same market,” he explains. “Factorsstill include improvements, the pros and cons oflocation, etc. You are still dealing with owners ortenants. The basic background information gatheringis still the same.”But, he does acknowledge that there are differencesbetween appraisal and assessment workas well. Elisabeth Dubeau, CRA, agrees. As anassessor with the City of Medicine Hat, she sees thetwo practices as diverging applications based onthe same background. “Being an assessor is quitea bit different from being an appraiser,” she says,“although we use the same tenants of understandingand underlying principles.”It was her grasp of these very principles thatmade Dubeau an attractive prospect when theCity of Calgary decided to digitize its condominiumassessment information in the late 1990s. She wasworking towards her CRA designation when sheaccepted a City of Calgary job that was supposed tobe an interim position, but continued well beyondits original timeline. At that point, she was so closeto obtaining her CRA that the department felt itwould be beneficial to keep her on. Then, whenthe City launched a market value assessmentsproject, Dubeau was selected for the position ofteam leader.“The first year Calgary started using marketvalue in its calculations, everyone was appealingtheir assessments,” she recalls. On the first day inher new position, Dubeau was handed the files for26 cases and asked to represent the City in court.It was at this point she realized that, althoughthere are many similarities between appraisaland assessment work, there are significantdifferences as well. “You have the luxury as anappraiser of looking at things very minutely,” sheexplains. “As an assessor, you have to put aside alot of those and focus more on the bigger picture.You have to treat everyone as a whole, ratherthan individually. Fairness and equity are thebuzzwords assessors use all the time.”While learning to appreciate these differences,Dubeau also relied heavily on the knowledgeand expertise she learned as a CRA, includingher understanding of the internal workingsof a building, her appreciation of what motivates20Canadian Property Valuation Volume 54 | book 4 | 2010 Évaluation Immobilière au Canadaclick here to return to table 0f contents