Kuipers question assessed value of 'super' home

A 57-percent increase in their home’s assessed market value for 2023 prompted Greg and Margaret Kuiper of rural Luverne to question the valuation process used in the county at the June 28 Board of Equalization meeting.
“There seems to be some discrepancy as a home is appraised or assessed as far as I am concerned,” Greg Kuiper said. “I just want to see it being an equal process.”
County assessor Rachel Jacobs took over as director of the Land Records Office in August 2021 when Tom Houselog retired after 21 years in the position.
Jacobs noticed Houselog had granted the Kuiper home an “economic obsolescence reduction,” which lowered the market value originally by 19 percent. In subsequent years the reduction grew, and in 2021 it amounted to more than 30 percent.
Once the obsolescence reduction was removed for 2023, the market value of the Kuiper home increased significantly.
“He (Houselog) only gave that (reduction) to you and one other person in the county,” Jacobs said.
“I can’t increase everybody else and not increase our large overbuilt homes just because we don’t have a market for it or that houses are not on the market.”
The Kuipers built their 6,500-square-foot home on 5.2 acres in Magnolia Township along County Road 4 in 1998.
The prior assessed value was $552,200.
For 2023, the original valuation notice sent to the Kuipers was $863,300. However, the online version of the same notice states that the valuation is $816,000 for 2023.
Jacobs said a third-party company prints and mails the valuation notices without oversight from the Land Records Office. She suspects the error occurred when the spreadsheets were electronically sent to the company.
Beginning next year, the valuation notices will be printed and mailed by her office to avoid errors.
 
What is a
‘super’ home?
In Rock County, any home with more than 3,200 square feet of total living space and grade of 7.5 or higher is considered an overbuilt or “super” home.
A total of 22 township properties currently match the overbuilt home criteria that will be used by the Land Records Office for future assessments.
This list will change as future assessments take place in the county.
Only one overbuilt home has sold in the seven years that Jacobs has worked for the Land Records Office.
That home, located in Magnolia Township and owned by Kristi Knutson, has 3,300 square feet and sold for $780,000. It was built in 1998, the same year as the Kuipers’ home, and its market value in 2022 was $460,000.
As a result of the sale, Jacobs increased the valuation of all oversized township homes by 23 percent.
When “obsolescence reduction” was removed from the Kuipers’ parcel, the increase was higher than similar properties.
“When Tom (Houselog) was singling out just you, he shouldn’t have done that,” Jacobs said. “If he was doing it to you, he should have done every home like yours.”
 
How market
value is determined
“We do mass appraisals (by state statute),” Jacobs said. “That means we do appraisals across the whole county. If we change one property, we change all like properties the same way.”
Parcel sales from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30 of the previous year are used to determine whether market values increase or decline for similar properties. Assessed market value stays between 90 and 105 percent of the sale price of comparable parcels or jurisdictions.
With six or more sales within a jurisdiction, that jurisdiction receives its own percentage increase or decrease.
Within each jurisdiction, market values are further differentiated through a grading system.
The grading system assigns each parcel a numeral from 3 to 10, with 10 being the best.
“The highest is currently a 9 in the county because there could always be bigger and better,” Jacobs said.
The lowest grade in the county is a 3.5.
The grade takes into account building materials, amenities such as finished basements or a second story, and other factors.
A manual outlining the grade system will be finished this year.
“We’re putting little bits and pieces together as we get out and assess properties,” Jacobs said.
“We’ll have every potential home in our county on a grading scale … If you have seven bathrooms, you get so many points, if you have a five-stall garage attached to your home, you’ll get extra points — just different things that you have, like a brick facade gets extra points.”
In Rock County an average ranch-style home with a finished basement and a double garage is graded at 5.5 to 6.