County keeps MLS deal intact

COEUR d’ALENE — A 10-year-old memorandum of understanding between the Kootenai County Assessor’s Office and the Coeur d’Alene Multiple Listing Service questioned by a county commissioner will remain intact.

Commissioner Marc Eberlein said he has concerns that the MOU gives the county an unfair advantage to sales data during property assessment appeals when the burden of proof is on the homeowner complainant.

"We serve the public and that information is not as readily available to the public," Eberlein said. He added that he’s awaiting a legal opinion on the MOU, would be in favor of it being discontinued and plans to bring the topic up at a meeting of other county leaders.

Eberlein said homeowners would have to tap a real estate agent to have access to the same data the county has readily available.

However, commissioners Chris Fillios and Bob Bingham sided with the Assessor’s Office and MLS, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors, to keep the MOU in place.

"I’ve never seen data availability as an issue," said Fillios, an appraiser and real estate agent. "I don’t see a problem with the MOU. Once again, this is a question of being practical or ideological (less government)."

Assessor Mike McDowell said the public has an opportunity to access sales data through his department if they question their assessment.

"If a property owner wants to see how we arrived at our estimate of their value, we gladly share with them all the sales data we used to develop the value as of Jan. 1," McDowell said. "They have access during that appeal process to the same sales that we used and would use to defend the value before the BOE (Board of Equalization, which consists of the county commissioners)."

McDowell said losing the MOU would be taking a big step backward.

"Leading into the 2008 agreement, we spent more than two years working with the MLS on something that would be mutually acceptable," he said. "It is the most efficient way we can access the sold data for real estate transactions. It allows us to be as fair as possible with the information we have. Having that in an efficient, automated information is key for us making a fair valuation of the property."

The MOU states that the county will provide to the MLS a quarterly download of all assessment records for all properties within Kootenai County. The MLS provides the county all records of sales that occur as recorded and maintained by the MLS.

Tom Torgerson, president of the real estate agent group involved with the MOU when it was approved, said the MOU and data sharing is critical to his industry.

"The data, I believe, is in my best interest both as a taxpayer and Realtor," he said.