Who decides what your house is worth?

SHARON — As revaluation notices go in the mail to homeowners in Sharon, some might be wondering about the company that conducted their property revaluation.

Vision Appraisal Technology of Northboro, Mass., provides appraisal services and software to towns and cities in eight states. According to their Web site at visionappraisal.com, the company is used by 78 towns in the state, including Barkhamsted, Colebrook, North  Canaan, Kent, New Hartford, Norfolk, Sharon and Winsted.

“We use a Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system, which conducts mass appraisals of properties all at once,†District Appraisal Manager Ken Rodgers said. “A full appraisal begins with a data collection where we send out appraisers in the field to measure the property. In their valuation they look at characteristics including the type of siding the building has, what kind of flooring and how many bedrooms and bathrooms there are. Basically, they look for things of that nature that would either detract or add to the building’s value.â€

Rodgers said the appraiser tries to contact the homeowner in order to conduct a full appraisal, which usually includes indoor inspections too.

“The second phase of our appraisal is consulting a market analysis, which looks at property sales that occurred in the neighborhood over a two-year time period,†Rodgers said. “We analyze those sales and we classify them into different types, whether it would be single-family or multi-family home sales. Then we analyze each property by different influence factors, including size, selling price, lot size.

“However, as every realtor would tell you, it’s location, location, location. Is the property near a place that would increase its value, or is it next to a place that would decrease its value, like a dump?â€

Rodgers said the valuation process, depending on the size of the community, can take anywhere from six months to a year. The data then gets placed on the company’s Web site, which lists each property including a sketch of the building, ownership history and how the land is used.

Kent and Sharon Assessor Patricia Braislin said that she would recommend the company to anyone.

“Their bids are usually the lowest for their services,†Braislin said. “Also, there are not a lot of companies that are certified or even allowed to do revaluations in Connecticut. It’s not like there are hundreds of companies to choose from. Revaluations are a lot of work.â€

Vision Apprasial’s online database of properties for Connecticut is at visionappraisal.com/databases/ct.