La Plata County property owners who have recently purchased a home or applied for building permits to add new construction or improvements can expect a visit at some point from an appraiser at the La Plata County Assessor’s Office.

Always out and about, county appraisers are often not able to get in contact with property owners before they stop by for their appraisal. For that reason, residents are not always expecting an assessor to show up.

“In the past couple of weeks, we’ve had a few property owners ask us, ‘Why are you here?’ So we’re just trying to get the message back out and let people know why we’re there,” said La Plata County Assessor Carrie Woodson.

One of the major duties of the Assessor’s Office is to value property.

“To appropriately value property we need to see the property,” Woodson said.

Appraisers go out in teams, and drive La Plata County-marked vehicles. They wear county-issued identification, and always knock on the door before taking any measurements or photos. If no one is home, a door hanger announcing the purpose of the visit is left and the appraisers begin the measurement and photos of the property.

“We do get some property owners who are not happy about that. They don’t want strangers showing up on their property,” Woodson said. “We’re trying to give notice to the community that this is us and we’re out there.”

The Assessor’s Office is currently reviewing sales that occurred since July 1, 2020, and will be doing this through June 30, 2022, Woodson said.

“Every two years we have to re-evaluate the whole county using the sales that occurred the two years previous,” Woodson said.

Woodson said the number of homes purchased has almost doubled compared with what the county has seen in previous years.

Through the county’s last two-year survey period for home sales, ending in June 2020, Woodson said there were about 2,000 property sales. The current period, ending in June 2022, has already exceeded 2,000 property sales, Woodson said.

Woodson said the increase in sales stems from people moving away from denser population centers during the pandemic. She said the county is seeing a substantial increase in some areas.

“People are coming from other places, and bringing their equity with them,” Woodson said.

County appraisers also sometimes make visits while working on issues related to building permits and agricultural permits, among other issues.

“We look at properties because they sold, or they have building permits, or if something has changed on the property,” Woodson said.

When new construction occurs, the Assessor’s Office needs to appraise properties based on what was built, when it began construction and where that construction was as of Jan. 1 of each year.

All new construction and improvements are compared with blueprints when possible for accuracy.

njohnson@durangoherald.com