Swartz + Associates Launches Blog, Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary, And More!

Post written by Donald Swartz, President and Principal at Swartz + Associates, Inc. | Lover of Chiefs, Royals and golf | Avid “Cruiser” | Poker Enthusiast

Welcome to my first effort in the blogging world. I thought this would be an appropriate time to try my writing hand at blogging and make a more conscious effort to become more connected to the the world of social media.

A Little Bit About Swartz + Associates

Swartz + Associates, Inc. will celebrate our 1-year anniversary on June 1st. For those who aren’t as familiar with our services, we specialize in the review and analysis of business personal property and commercial/industrial real estate valuations for property tax purposes.

Clients from around the country engage us to review their annual assessments placed upon their property and rely upon our expertise to determine if the values are fair and equitable.

And expertise is what we provide. EVERY analyst has at least 10 years experience in the field and most of us have 25+ years experience. (YIKES, that makes me sound old, so let’s just say we’re……seasoned)

I was fortunate to be able to lead the property tax group at CBIZ and Mayer Hoffman McCann for almost two decades when I was provided the opportunity to purchase my property tax practice. While I appreciated and created many great relationships and friends at CBIZ, my personality and way of conducting business is much more suited to the entrepreneurial, small business way of thinking. That said, we represent several publicly held companies and Fortune 1000 entities as well as the smaller independents. So far, so great…and we’re just getting started.

This Blogging Thing

As a proud graduate of the University of Iowa, I went to school in the go-go 80s; power red ties, white shirts and business degrees. Really, was there anything else? Of course my problem was I loved to write. And while my fellow classmates were taking electives in financial derivatives, advanced probabilities, options and lessons in the financial markets, I was selecting English courses.

Who knew that someday I would be able to take advantage of this by combining my writing skills (or you may say, “lack of writing skills”) with owning my business? Seems like the best of both worlds to me, so I’m anxious to see where this takes us.

Back To Business

Missouri counties are in the process, or have recently mailed out valuation notices for 2015.

This is the first reassessment since 2013, and don’t be surprised to see commercial values on the rise. Various counties have been slow to increase values since the 2008-09 downturn in the economy. The same situation is occurring in Colorado and the deadline to appeal values is quickly approaching.

Several states re-assess property values on an annual basis with varying appeal deadlines and it makes good business sense to monitor these values, which are the basis for your annual property tax expense.

If you’re an owner of property (machinery and equipment or commercial/industrial real estate), take a look at your notices or tax bills and give me a call at (913) 766-8761. I’d be happy to talk with you and learn more about your holdings and how we might be able to help.