Assessment Matters by Valuebase.ai

Will Jarvis

Assessment Matters presented by Valuebase is a weekly show that delves into the world of real estate valuation and property assessment. Our expert guests share their insights on the latest trends and techniques in the field, and offer practical advice for professionals in the industry. Whether you're a seasoned appraiser or new to the field, you'll find valuable information and inspiration. From understanding mass appraisal methodologies to staying up-to-date on the latest technology, our podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in the world of real estate valuation.

  1. 1d ago

    83: Brad Elridge | Splitting the Pizza: Community, Exemptions, and the Case for Property Tax

    Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Brad Elridge, county appraiser in Lawrence, Kansas, to discuss the case for property tax and how to reframe it as shared community investment. The conversation covers the challenges of vertical equity and valuing properties at both ends of the spectrum, the administrative burden of exemptions and assessment caps, the impact of declining community bonds on public attitudes toward taxation, and lessons from states like California and Florida on what happens when tax policy goes sideways. 00:00 - Introduction and Brad's background spanning private and public sector appraisal04:22 - Rebranding property tax as shared community expenses06:42 - Why property taxes feel more painful than income taxes and the case for monthly payments09:47 - Progressive property taxation, vertical equity, and the challenge of valuing high-end and low-end properties13:43 - The problem with exemptions: administrative burden, unfunded mandates, and policy creep15:42 - Assessment caps, inequity, and lessons from California and Florida20:42 - The need for a property tax policy playbook for policymakers23:36 - Declining community bonds, cultural shifts, and their connection to anti-tax sentiment26:30 - Economic signals, retail sales trends, and navigating uncertain times29:20 - Brad's one-sentence pitch: splitting the pizza as a community

  2. 3d ago

    82: James Cusick | Land Value Tax, Henry George, and the Case Against Speculation

    Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with James Cusick, a former AT&T Bell Laboratories software engineer and adjunct faculty member at Columbia University, who found his way to property tax policy through the Henry George School in Manhattan. The conversation covers the principles of land value taxation, how a single tax on land could replace all other taxes at the local, city, and even federal level, the role of land value capture in transit-oriented development like New York's High Line and subway system, and the problem of speculative land-holding in cities like New York and Detroit. James also shares insights from Japan's public-private partnership model for rail and real estate development, and introduces the interactive tools he's built to help policymakers and the public explore Georgist economics. 00:00 - Introduction to Assessment Matters and guest James Cusick00:37 - James's background in software engineering at Bell Labs and Columbia University01:33 - Discovering the Henry George School and the concept of land value tax02:42 - Building a land value tax calculator covering all U.S. counties04:38 - How a single land value tax could replace all other taxes, including New York City's $125 billion budget05:53 - The pitch to policymakers: simplification, administrative efficiency, and reducing speculation07:42 - Land value capture examples: NYC subway system, the High Line, and Battery Park City09:33 - The problem of vacant lots and speculative land-holding in cities11:52 - Property tax as a "ticket to ride" for public services and the investment vs. affordability tradeoff15:33 - Henry George's anti-speculation philosophy and its modern relevance17:48 - Japan's public-private partnership model for rail and real estate development20:19 - Where to find the Henry George School's tools: LVT calculator, Global Georgism Viewer, subway land value tool, and AI Henry George avatar

  3. Jul 31

    81: Will Jarvis | The Big Picture: Why Property Taxes Matter for Economic Growth and How AI Is Changing the Office

    Join host Will Jarvis as he delivers a wide-ranging conference presentation covering the macro case for property taxes, the mechanics of AI and large language models, and what these technologies mean for assessment offices. Will draws on his background as a mass appraisal researcher and CEO of ValueBase to explain why property taxes are the most efficient form of taxation for economic growth, how the historical Georgist movement shaped American assessment practices, and why AI tools—from machine learning valuation models to LLMs—are poised to transform day-to-day workflows for assessors while requiring careful validation and human oversight. 00:00 - Introduction to the presentation and Will Jarvis's background in mass appraisal research and founding ValueBase03:24 - The big picture: total factor productivity, slowing economic growth since the 1970s, and why it matters06:35 - Why property taxes are more efficient than income and sales taxes for driving economic growth10:09 - Henry George and the historical roots of American property tax policy12:33 - Tax revolts, vertical and horizontal equity challenges, and the capacity crisis in assessment offices15:25 - Three revolutions in valuation: from the Sommer System ledger method to CAMA to the AI era18:00 - Why AI is happening now: cheaper compute, the Attention Is All You Need breakthrough, and how LLMs actually work24:24 - Sam Altman's Moore's Law for Everything thesis and its connection to property tax27:00 - The emerging core skill: managing AI models with real-world context and validating outputs30:14 - What LLMs are and aren't: not databases, not search engines, and not magic33:09 - Machine learning valuation models: gradient boosted trees, overfitting risks, and the big five property characteristics37:22 - Practical LLM use cases for assessors: drafting correspondence, summarizing, research, and brainstorming39:38 - Key pitfalls: hallucinations, math errors, out-of-date knowledge, and data privacy considerations

  4. Jul 23

    80: Will Jarvis | Community, Service, and the Case for Fair Property Taxes

    Join host Will Jarvis for a special impromptu episode recorded at a conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Jay — a Norfolk-based assessor and host of the Conversations in the Mirror podcast — flips the script and interviews Will. Together they explore how property taxes fund local communities, the regressive nature of current assessment models, tax abatements for large commercial properties like stadiums, practical AI tools for entrepreneurs and assessors, and what drove Will to build Valuebase from rural North Carolina into an $8 million-funded company serving assessment offices nationwide. 00:00 - Introduction and how Jay's impromptu interview came together at a Charlottesville conference02:00 - Will's background: growing up in rural eastern North Carolina and attending UNC Chapel Hill03:30 - The founder mindset: balancing arrogance with humility and outworking the competition05:00 - What kept Will going through the hardest startup moments: mission over money06:45 - What Valuebase does: building automated valuation models and tackling regressive property taxes08:30 - How property owners should think about property taxes as community investment10:30 - Property taxes as the foundation of local government revenue (65-75% of city budgets)12:00 - Tax abatements for stadiums and large corporations: who really bears the burden14:00 - Favorite AI tools: Claude, Grok, Gemini, Perplexity, and why specificity matters over AI hype16:00 - Practical AI advice: setting up Claude CoWork for daily workflows17:00 - How Will raised $8 million: podcasting, relationship-building, and asking for advice instead of money19:00 - Rapid-fire reflections: Will's definitions of success, service, and identity as a founder21:30 - The 10-year vision: Valuebase in 80% of U.S. assessment jurisdictions and the Jack Dangermond inspiration

  5. Jul 3

    79: Jamie Christensen | Reinventing the Counter: GIS, AI, and the Future of Local Government Software

    Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Jamie Christensen, founder of Civic Vanguard, a local government software company focused on geographic information systems. Jamie shares his nearly 30-year journey in GIS and local government technology, discusses how AI is enabling a reimagined "digital counter" experience for citizens interacting with their local governments, explores the misaligned incentives in government software procurement and how AI is disrupting legacy vendor lock-in, and outlines his vision for agentic AI tools that orchestrate GIS workflows across localities nationwide. 00:00 - Introduction and Jamie Christensen's background in GIS and local government technology02:47 - How AI and LLMs are transforming spatial information and the ability to get answers05:30 - Founding Civic Vanguard: Reinventing the local government "counter" experience with AI10:05 - What's gone wrong with state and local government software: misaligned incentives and vendor lock-in12:50 - How AI disrupts legacy software economics: lower costs, easier migration, faster innovation16:50 - Free tools and lead magnets: Civic Vanguard's Compass product and no-cost implementation model20:30 - Building trust and empathy with local government clients through content and partnership23:30 - Why founder-led companies are best positioned to navigate the AI transition25:45 - Civic Vanguard's growth plans: expanding beyond Virginia and building agentic GIS tools28:15 - Where to find Jamie Christensen online and closing thoughts

  6. Jun 28

    78: Robbe Demey | Land Value Tax, Vertical Equity, and Fixing Property Tax in Europe

    Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Robbe Demey, a statistician at Valuebase visiting from Belgium, to explore why property tax matters from both philosophical and economic efficiency perspectives. The conversation covers the Georgist case for land value taxation, the dire state of property tax in Belgium where valuations haven't been updated since 1975, and the persistent challenge of vertical equity in mass appraisal models. Robbe Demey also dives into how cross-validation and ensemble modeling techniques are pushing the frontier of property tax assessment, and what it would take to fix property tax across Europe. 00:00 – Introduction and welcome with Robbe Demey, a Valuebase statistician visiting from Belgium01:30 – Why property tax matters: the philosophical fairness argument and economic efficiency of land value taxation03:50 – Natural resources, property rights, and the philosophical case for taxing land versus labor and capital06:00 – Land, violence, and the Georgist proposal for peace through fair resource distribution08:45 – Land reform lessons from Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Asia — and why land value tax is a better mechanism11:20 – The state of property tax in Belgium: outdated 1975 valuations, second-toilet quirks, and government secrecy14:30 – What it would take to fix Belgian property tax through courts, better valuation, and public support16:30 – EU tax policy, VAT coordination, and why property tax works best at the local level17:30 – Vertical equity in property tax: why mass appraisal models systematically overtax low-value and undertax high-value properties22:45 – Cross-validation and holdout sets: why rigorous model testing is essential and underused in the industry27:15 – The frontier of mass appraisal: better locational data, ensemble models, and the wisdom of crowds approach31:30 – How to fix property tax in Europe: reducing income taxes, rallying support, and convincing landlords everyone benefits

  7. Jun 11

    77: Will Jarvis | Using Free AI Tools to Strengthen Your Cost Approach

    Join host Will Jarvis as he walks through practical, hands-on ways assessors can use free AI tools to improve their cost approach valuations. In this solo episode, Will demonstrates how tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and ValPal can be used to extract market depreciation from sales data, build effective age rubrics, standardize condition ratings, generate taxpayer-friendly explanations, and run ratio study checks — all with paste-ready prompts attendees can take back to their offices immediately. 00:00 - Introduction and overview of the session on using free AI tools for the cost approach02:22 - Why the cost approach breaks down: depreciation tables, effective ages, and condition ratings04:44 - How time constraints — not lack of knowledge — keep these inputs from being maintained07:00 - The free AI toolkit in 2026: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and ValPal compared10:15 - Ground rules for using AI safely: stripping identifiers, verifying outputs, and checking IT policy13:20 - The prompt pattern every example follows: role, data, task, and proof16:30 - Extracting market depreciation from your own sales in one prompt, with a live Florida county example20:00 - Effective age: replacing gut feel with a written rubric and using AI vision on field photos23:30 - Condition ratings: running outlier scans and drafting a standardized field guide with AI26:30 - Explainability: generating plain-English cost approach explanations for property owners28:00 - Closing the loop: running ratio study checks with IAAO formulas via AI30:00 - The 30-minute weekly routine, common failure modes to avoid, and concrete next steps

  8. May 14

    76: NYSAA | AI Tools for Assessors: LLMs, Prompt Best Practices, and Free Resources

    Join host Will Jarvis as he presents a live session at a NYSAA meeting on how modern AI tools can help property tax assessors work more efficiently. Will breaks down how large language models actually work, their strengths and weaknesses including hallucinations and privacy concerns, and shares best practices for prompting these models to get the best results. The session covers real-world use cases like drafting taxpayer correspondence, summarizing legislation, and processing refunds, and highlights free tools including ValPal, RatioPal, and other resources built specifically for assessors. 00:00 - Introduction to Will Jarvis and Valuebase's mission to build AI tools for assessors02:45 - What is a large language model and how the underlying technology actually works06:30 - Why LLMs mimic reasoning rather than truly reasoning, and what that means for users07:30 - Real-world use cases: refund processing, email management, and extending office capacity08:45 - Strengths of LLMs: writing, summarizing, researching, and brainstorming09:30 - Weaknesses: hallucinations, math errors, out-of-date knowledge, and privacy concerns12:45 - Best practices for prompting: clarity, context, examples, roles, and even flattery15:45 - Free tools recommended: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity18:15 - Practical use cases: taxpayer correspondence, legal document summaries, and reusable prompt libraries19:30 - Introduction to ValPal and its New York State property tax model21:00 - Audience Q&A: using AI to translate legislation and summarize new exemption laws23:00 - Overview of additional free tools: RatioPal, AgePal, AskDocs, and the depreciation table builder

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About

Assessment Matters presented by Valuebase is a weekly show that delves into the world of real estate valuation and property assessment. Our expert guests share their insights on the latest trends and techniques in the field, and offer practical advice for professionals in the industry. Whether you're a seasoned appraiser or new to the field, you'll find valuable information and inspiration. From understanding mass appraisal methodologies to staying up-to-date on the latest technology, our podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in the world of real estate valuation.

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