26: James Aros Jr. - Careers and Assessments in Philadelphia

In this episode, we're joined by Chief Assessment Officer James Aros Jr. from the Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment to talk about Philadelphia’s valuation methodology, technological advancements, as well as making one’s career in the assessment industry.

We cover:

• Introduction to Assessment Matters podcast 00:00

• James’ background in real estate and assessment 00:35

• How has the industry changed over the past two decades? 1:38

• Modernization via technology

• Assessment becoming less of an “accidental profession”

• Selecting talent 4:34

• The right candidate can be molded and trained

• COVID-era real estate values and market movements 6:33

• Post-COVID normalization

• Philadelphia’s valuation methodology 8:44

• Sales vs income vs cost

• Residential vs commercial models

• Determining land values for cost approaches 10:12

• Difficulties in areas with sporadic and irregular sales (and therefore data)

• The industry’s direction in the next ten years 11:19

• Uncertainties regarding Machine Learning and AI

• Leveraging the power of technological advancement

• More frequent assessments

• Advice for newcomers 12:58

• Take—or make—every chance to learn as much as possible