What’s New

My name is Victor Garcia, and I am an Application Developer for Property Valuation Services. In my five years with the company, I have learned a lot about how the business side operates, and I have also expanded my skill set in other technologies by working on various projects during my time here.

My main responsibilities include implementing requested features for our company’s application, PVSpts. All requested features require something different, which means I could be working in the IDE for PVSpts some days and other days, making changes to the database with SQL. It is always something different, and that is the best part of the job! As for additional responsibilities, I work on any errors reported by users they encounter in PVSpts, and I fix them immediately. I also handle requests for website modifications when they occur.

At work, I dabble in a bit of everything, so when I get home, I like to relax. Usually, that means hanging out with my wife and two kids, going somewhere like the park or the movies, or just staying in. Reading fiction books, news articles, and tech articles is another thing I do to relax. I also enjoy building model kits or playing video games with my son when I have spare time.

My name is Karlie Cook, and I am one of the new Property Tax Support Group (PTSG) Team Leads here at Property Valuation Services. I am coming up on my fourth year with PVS. Over the years, I have assisted in collecting values and tax bills from assessors and collectors as a PTSG team member. Now that I am moving into my new role this year as a team lead, I will be helping our PTSG team perform these tasks by answering their questions, making sure they have as many resources as possible, running queries, etc. so that we can ensure we get the correct information to our clients as quickly as possible. 

A little about me: I am originally from Tennessee, I guess you could say I’m a Southern belle at heart. In my free time, I enjoy hanging out with my boyfriend, watching movies or shows, going for drives in the country, listening to music and taking small road trips. I also enjoy hanging out with my family, cooking, reading and being outside (when the weather permits). I am also a cat mom of one, and she is a handful. 

I truly enjoy working at PVS and hope to be here for many years to come.

My name is Katie McGee, and I am a consultant and supervisor in the real estate department at Property Valuation Services. In my five tax seasons with PVS, I have been part of the new client team, obtained my Texas Property Tax Consultant license, and am now working toward a CMI designation. 

My introduction to commercial real estate began with analyzing assessments of grain elevators and senior living facilities. I have since had the opportunity to work a variety of property types, but my current focus is long-term acute care hospitals and surgical centers. Here at PVS, our consultants are not limited to one region or property type, which allows each of us to be well-versed in various markets and valuation methodologies. 

Our real estate department is currently switching gears from processing tax bills and updating parcel records to our primary focus, assessment analysis and appeals. We will soon begin sending information requests in anticipation of the upcoming assessments, and by mid-spring, appeal season will be in full swing. 

Much as our work varies from season to season, so do my hobbies. During winter, I spend evenings either at obedience training with my dogs — Dakota, a husky, and Stitch, a chow — or at my local boxing gym. Once the weather starts to warm up, I’ll be camping, hiking, paddle boarding and likely over-committing myself to a vegetable garden. I am especially looking forward to my wife returning from an overseas tour this fall.

I appreciate you taking the time to learn a little about me and my time with PVS. I look forward to another year of advocating on behalf of my clients!

Hello, my name is Christine Walker, and I started working at PVS five years ago. As a member of the Systems Administrative team, I assist in all aspects of our system’s data as well as creating and sending out contracts and authorizations.

After working in a county appraisers office — where I made sure everyone was valued equally and I even got growled at on occasion — it’s refreshing working at PVS, where we make every effort to lower property taxes. Dare I say, it’s the friendliest group of people ever. There isn’t anyone here that isn’t willing to help at any time.

My husband and I have been married going on 34 years. We have three sons, three daughters-in-law, eight grandkids, two dogs and 14 chickens. (Eggs, anyone?) When I’m not working, I love spending time with my grandkids by going to every ballgame and school program I can possible make. I also like fishing, boating, camping, hiking and woodworking. I have also added taking care of my mom for the last couple of years to the list, as I’m lucky enough to still have her around.

I am Tyler Tackett, I have been the software developer and information technology consultant for Property Valuation services for 16 years. I enjoy working at PVS because as a company they have embraced the use of technology to improve the quality of work while also improving the quality of life for employees. They have accomplished this by reducing the potential for user errors, streamlining processes and allowing for better work-life balance. This enables us to offer better service to our clients with more accurate and timely deliverables.

I have worked on most aspects of our information technology during my tenure here. We support both the real estate and business personal property department needs for software, hardware and web services.

As a software developer during my time here, we have implemented many features into our internally developed software solution. These features include document management, system-generated emails, client web access, e-filing of tax returns, integrations with Anybill and automating various processes while reducing user errors.

My personal hobbies include traveling, scuba, food, racing and spending time with my children.  We have traveled to the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Belize, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica and Grenada. Our favorite place to visit is Cozumel, Mexico, for scuba diving and sling hunting for lionfish when we are not playing on the beach with the children or enjoying great Mexican cuisine including the delicious huitlacoche. My wife and I both have racecars that we drive in the Big Bend Open Road Race in west Texas. We compete in the 145 mph class, which tries to average that speed over 120 miles on closed public roads between Fort Stockton and Sanderson near Big Bend park. Growing up my family owned restaurants, so we love trying the local restaurants when we travel. The most adventurous thing I have eaten is what the Belizeans call the “royal rat,” as it was once served to the queen. Its true name is the gibnut, and it could be described as a forest rat.

Property Valuation Services is continually looking for ways to improve our processes to better serve our clients.  If you have any suggestions please let your consultant know.

My name is Jesse Cox, an account executive for the PVS sales team. My career at PVS started in 2018 as a lead generator before I became the lead generator manager a couple of years later. I was promoted to account executive in 2021.

 As an account executive, I reach out to prospective clients whose situations may require our expertise in property tax reduction, for both real estate and business personal property taxes. Our prospects span the country. 

 Account executives also act as onboarding liaisons and continued resources for our clients.  More importantly, we learn more about who our clients are and their specific needs. We want to ensure this is not only a good fit but a great relationship.

 As most companies are winding down this time of year, PVS is ramping up its efforts to expand our clients. As an account executive, I know the spring tax season doesn’t leave a lot of room for error, and waiting for a tax notice to arrive before having a strategy in place can be detrimental to a proper reduction. That’s why autumn is a great time for us to start a conversation with prospects. Providing this perspective and understanding for prospects who may feel overwhelmed by the process is one of my favorite parts of the job. And if I can’t provide the answer, I have a team of knowledgeable experts who can.

Outside of the office, I enjoy wood carving. I also am an avid mountain biker who enjoys the expansive trail system around the Kansas City metro area. My 6-year-old daughter joins me on quite a few of those outings, as she just learned to ride this year. My wife doesn’t indulge in our two-wheeled adventures, so we find other family activities.

My name is Ben Kogei, and I am a new supervisor for the multi-specialty team in the business personal property department at Property Valuation Services.  I started working at Property Valuation Services in 2012. Prior to being promoted as a supervisor, I was working as a senior personal property tax consultant in the hospital team.  I have had the privilege to work in every team in the personal property department, which includes the hospital, dialysis and multi-specialty teams.  

As a team lead, I lead a team of property tax consultants, whose primary functions are to analyze and identify property tax-savings opportunities. We also prepare and ensure that the business personal property tax returns reflect the technical accuracy of our clients’ books and records. What makes us unique in the multi-specialty team is that we handle personal property tax responsibilities across many different industries, which include healthcare (specifically surgical, oncology, diagnostic imaging and behavioral health segments), industrial, communications, manufacturing and hospitality.

At this time of the year, my team is working on filing appeals, negotiating reductions of values, resolving issues on values or tax bills with assessors or tax collectors and working on personal property tax audits.  Our mission is to ensure compliance across our accounts, while also working to ensure that we are working to achieve the lowest possible taxes for our clients.

Here at Property Valuation Services, I enjoy working with my awesome co-workers — a team that is highly knowledgeable and good at what we do!  Working together, we are able to get the job done.

Outside of work, I love spending time with my wife, my daughter and my son.

Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me or anyone in our personal property department.  We always like to hear from our clients!

My name is Jeri Wells and I am a real estate consultant for Property Valuation Services. I previously spent eight years with Deloitte & Touche in their Carlsbad, CA office working as a real estate consultant. I have worked in most aspects of tax consulting from personal property to real estate, from sales and use tax to outsourcing development. I have assisted with the development of accounting software and processes so companies are capable of producing on a mass scale.

Currently, I work as part of the renal dialysis group specializing in medical offices. Though I have primarily worked for the health care industry, I have experience in all property types in the United States and parts of Canada. I am licensed in Texas and recently returned from attending several hearings throughout Tennessee and Oklahoma. On the west coast, I specialized in direct assessment evaluation. I also worked at the forefront of innovating processes dealing in assessment appeals and personal property filing to help clients, companies and counties move into the more technological age.

I have worked my entire life as an accountant in one form or another, but I graduated from Pittsburg State University in Kansas with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I have been drawing and painting for as long as anyone who has known me can remember. I am also an avid traveler having driven to all four corners of this country. I have been to over 30 states and more than 13 countries. I tend to rent RVs in foreign countries and drive throughout for extended periods so I can get a real feel for the environment. I was raised in Kansas on a cattle ranch that my family has lived on since the 1850s. I spent 15 years on the west coast in Portland, OR and Carlsbad, CA.

Though I started consulting with a large firm, I am ecstatic to be working in a smaller company. Only in this environment can one get a deep sense of the companies and properties we work on. With PVS, we can get a better feel for our clients and truly understand what it is they need from us. By working on a more personal level, we can be more successful in our endeavors.

My name is Catherine Murray and I am the director of the property tax support group (PTSG) here at Property Valuation Services. I am so excited to be celebrating my 20th year here with PVS this coming December! I started out with PVS as an administrative assistant and over the years have assisted both the real estate and the business personal property divisions in various degrees. With the help of an assistant, I make certain all your parcels and accounts are in our system as well as ensuring we have all the correct assessing and jurisdiction information and deadlines. This includes making certain that everything is set up correctly in our invoicing system. I oversee the creation and sending of the property tax summary reports that are sent to our clients twice per year, as well as various other reports that are requested throughout the year.

The Property Tax Support Group consists of 11 members who collect values for both the business personal property and real estate parcels and accounts in our system. We have tracked over 43,000 parcels in our system over the past year and are currently in the middle of the busiest time of year for assessment notifications and appeals. Not every assessor will send an assessment notice on every account each year, so our goal is to contact the assessing offices to obtain the current proposed values in time for our consultants to review and file appeals on your behalf. We can do this because of the extensive database we have that helps us track parcel and appeal date information.

Later this summer, we will start seeing an increase in property tax statements being issued and the Property Tax Support Group team will switch gears from collecting values to collecting, reviewing and creating tax bill approvals. Our office has approved over 28,000 tax bills over the past year — the majority between the months of October and January. We rely heavily on the expertise of our real estate and business personal property consultants and managers to help us ensure that all the data on your property tax approvals is accurate and we have a multi-step review process with a goal of 100% accuracy.

The last couple of years have seen a change in the dynamics of the job we do. Dealing with short-staffed government offices, delays in mail and working remote have challenged us but the PTSG department and PVS have remained strong.

Working for PVS over the last (almost) 20 years has never been dull. I am constantly learning new ideas and concepts and look forward to the next 20 years!

My name is Abbie McWhirter, and I am a supervisor of the renal dialysis group in the real estate department at Property Valuation Services. My career path at PVS started over 7 years ago and has included multiple positions and areas of specialty.

A glimpse into my daily work life would show continuous correspondence with clients on specialized projects, valuation preparation and work for ongoing property tax appeals. As a supervisor of our renal dialysis group, I work in tandem with real estate directors and consultants to review annual commercial property tax assessments for our clients, prepare and handle assessment appeals, and review real estate tax bills.

My introduction to ad valorem taxation began in the role of administrative assistant in the real estate department. While I enjoyed the position and collecting data, I was curious and desired to know more about the valuation side handled by our consultants, which aligned with my college degree. When an opening became available, I applied and became a real estate consultant myself in 2015. Through multiple positions in the real estate department, I’ve worked with all types of commercial real estate — from hotels to nursing homes to ice skating rinks — learning property-specific information to use in my valuations and appeals. For the last several years, I have worked specifically with our renal dialysis clients. PVS’ real estate department oversees roughly 3,700 real estate renal dialysis tax parcels across the entire U.S., and I currently supervise the team handling these parcels.

The renal dialysis market has continually shown to be a low-risk, high-reward investment property, with blue-chip tenants and long-term leases. But what might be a high-reward investment to a new owner is not rewarding to the tenant, who must pay the higher property tax bill spurred by the real estate’s sale price. Our renal dialysis department works diligently to mitigate our clients’ property assessment increases due to these sales, which are often bulk portfolio transitions, sale-leaseback situations or a developer/tenant purchase — none of which show a true arms-length, fee simple sale price. Our expertise in the renal dialysis market and real estate is reflected in our dialysis clients’ ultimate savings on property tax. 

As much as I find fulfillment and exhilaration in my day-to-day work, I also thoroughly enjoy our fantastic sports teams in Kansas City. At PVS, we’ve celebrated not only the 2015 World Champion Royals but have been spoiled with Kansas City Chiefs’ back-to-back playoff wins and becoming Superbowl champs. On days when I’m off work and not enthralled with sports, I enjoy time spent in the garden, reading a great book and spending time with friends and family. I also don’t mind the occasional vacation getaway!

No matter the sector, the commercial real estate market is dynamic, but our clients’ property taxes don’t have to be. At PVS, we pride ourselves on expertise, a high level of teamwork and communication to bring maximum tax savings to our clients. We are always a quick call away for all your real property and personal property tax needs.