Commercial Property Tax Appeals in Colorado and across the West
Argued by an experienced principal. Priced differently. Free initial review.
I’m Charlie Young. After thirteen years at the nation’s largest property tax consultancies, most recently as a Managing Director, I build and argue every appeal myself, in Colorado and across the West. Send me your notice and I’ll tell you in writing, free, whether it’s worth filing, including when it isn’t.
Or call me directly: 720-722-2911
Member: IPT (Institute for Professionals in Taxation) · ULI · CREDA
One building?
A $95,000 tax bill over-assessed by 10% is $9,500 a year back; you keep about $7,600 of it after my fee, and a win holds for both years of the cycle. Not sure it’s worth filing? Read should you appeal your Colorado commercial assessment, or send me the notice and I’ll tell you.
Free Assessment ReviewFree: no account, no sales call.
A few buildings?
Each one is reviewed and priced on its own based on the original tax liability. Send me the notices and I’ll tell you which ones are worth filing and which aren’t. Sign up for annual review and I will review your property annually, delivering my recommendations weeks ahead of any deadline. Never appealed? Years you did not protest can be reopened by abatement for up to two years. The review checks 2025 and 2026 as well as next year.
Send the NoticesEvery property reviewed and priced on its own.
A national portfolio?
Carve Colorado, or another state I cover, out of the book and test one specialist for one cycle. One letter of authorization scoped to that state’s parcels, your incumbent keeps the rest, and you judge me on the 2027 results. Five or more properties get a written per-property schedule at or below the published matrix.
Single-State PilotFull fee matrix published, no call required.
Six Questions, Answered Plainly
The answers a first email usually asks for.
When is the Colorado commercial property tax appeal deadline?
Notices of Valuation mail about May 1; the protest to the county assessor is due June 1 for the 2027 cycle (SB26-046 moved it from June 8). County Board of Equalization appeals follow: July 15 in most counties, September 15 in the nine large counties on the alternate procedure. Business personal property runs its own calendar: declarations April 15, notices June 15, protests June 30. From 2027, counties using the alternate protest procedure (the nine over 300,000 in a reappraisal year) move those to July 15 and July 31.
What do I charge?
Nothing unless the tax bill goes down. My contingency fee is 8% to 20% of realized savings, set per property by that property’s annual tax bill and quoted in writing before signature. The Free Assessment Review costs nothing either way.
Is it worth appealing?
Only when your value benchmarks well above same-type, same-size peers and the two-year savings clearly outrun the effort; the statewide record puts the feared “they’ll raise me” outcome at 8 of 8,058 state-board filings. The four-step framework is on should you appeal your Colorado commercial assessment.
Who argues the hearing?
I do, on every file: the person who quotes the fee is the person in the hearing room. I personally handle the full protest season: filings, extensions, hearings, and business personal property protests. A backup practitioner is named in the engagement letter before signature.
Can I get the review without hiring anyone?
Yes. The Free Assessment Review is written and signed, and every memo is written so your own team or your firm of record can file and defend each finding without me (asset line, authority, and math included). Nothing is filed and no one at any county is contacted without your written instruction.
I file my own equipment declaration. Will you check it?
Yes. Sign an agent authorization so I can pull the full property record card from the county, send your fixed-asset ledger, and I re-read the account in writing, free. The annual declaration only shows that year's adds and deletes; the record card and the ledger together show what the county is actually taxing. The written declaration memo follows within 30 days of receiving the county's property record card and your fixed-asset ledger, or by a written date ahead of your county's personal-property protest deadline (in Colorado, June 30, or July 31 from 2027 in alternate-procedure counties), whichever is sooner. Colorado business personal property review.
A Fee Structure Built for You
Most property tax consultants charge a flat contingency, a fixed percentage of your savings, regardless of the size of your property. I think that's unfair. My fee matrix is different by design, and every rate in it is stated per property.
Contingency Fee Matrix
Each property's rate is set by that property's own annual tax bill, and it decreases as the bill grows. Larger, higher-taxed properties pay a lower rate, because a fair fee should reflect the full picture, not just the savings number.
No Windfall Rates
The bigger the tax bill, the lower the rate. Where the old model takes a flat 25% on even the largest appeals, my matrix drops as low as 8%, so a major reduction never becomes a windfall fee.
Nothing saved, nothing owed.
The fee is a share of realized savings, set per property by its own tax bill, and the more tax a property carries, the lower its rate.
Big-Firm Experience, Working for the Taxpayer
I'm a commercial property tax consultant based in Highlands Ranch, in the Denver metro, working across the West and Midwest. I founded Strategic Valuation Advisors in 2026 after thirteen years at the nation's largest property tax consultancies, most recently as a Managing Director, and I represent owners across the commercial spectrum, from office, retail, hospitality and multifamily to data centers, mining, high-tech manufacturing, and agricultural and food processing operations.
The data behind my appeals is public (19,939 Colorado properties benchmarked from county records and 8,058 state-board cases analyzed), so you can check my work before you hand me any. See the research →
Meet the FounderBig-Firm Method
Thirteen years inside the largest national property tax firms: the same methodology and rigor, applied by the person who signs your engagement.
Contingency, at a Better Number
Your current firm is on contingency too. The difference is the rate. My matrix runs 8%–20% per property where the industry default is a flat 25%: same alignment, better math.
Principal-Led, Start to Finish
I work your file: analysis, filings, hearings, reporting. Never a rotation to an associate you have never met.
The Honest No
Every engagement starts with a Free Assessment Review, in writing. If your assessment is already fair, that's the answer you get, signed, at no cost, with no pitch attached.
Core Services
Real property appeals and the business personal property schedule, with the written status memo and three written checkpoints described below. All of it comes from me, the person who argues the case, not an account team.
Business Personal Property
If your business files an equipment declaration each April, I'll re-read the account free: equipment you no longer own but still pay on, assets fully depreciated on your books but still trending up on the schedule, software taxed as hardware, and piping, electrical and HVAC the county already taxes as part of the building. For business personal property I need two things: a signed agent authorization so I can pull the full property record card from the county, and your fixed-asset ledger. The annual declaration only shows that year's adds and deletes; the record card and the ledger together show what the county is actually taxing. The written declaration memo follows within 30 days of receiving the county's property record card and your fixed-asset ledger, or by a written date ahead of your county's personal-property protest deadline (in Colorado, June 30, or July 31 from 2027 in alternate-procedure counties), whichever is sooner.
Colorado Business Personal Property ReviewAssessment Appeals
Grounds analysis through the assessor protest, the county board and the state board, with the written status memo and three written checkpoints described below, so nothing slips because nobody looked. I argue every hearing myself, and nothing is filed in your name without your written instruction.
Colorado Commercial Property Tax Appeals Guides for All Twelve StatesAssessment Review
The assessor's value against the market evidence for your property: in Colorado, same-type, same-size peers from the 19,939-property Colorado benchmark database and sales and income as of the June 30 level-of-value date; in the other states I cover, county records and comparable evidence; and, in any state, your own rent roll and operating history if you send them. You get a signed memo (defensible or not, with the two-year dollars and the exact per-property rate) before anyone talks about filing.
Free Assessment ReviewHospitality
Hotels turn on methodology. Colorado's tribunals have settled the Rushmore method for pulling intangibles out of the income approach (Gaylord Rockies), and the Supreme Court has held that income earned off the parcel does not belong in the value (Lodge Properties, 2022 CO 9). Rooms rented thirty consecutive days or longer by the same party are residential under the assessor's own manual, at the residential ratio instead of the commercial-classed lodging rate. My largest hotel result came from proving a significant share of F&B was handled off-site.
How I Work Hotel CasesData Centers & Equipment-Heavy Operations
Data centers pay on two rolls. The line between them is decided by function, not attachment (Del Mesa); software is exempt intangible property; equipment still in shakedown on January 1 is exempt for the year; and the state's own tables give servers three-to-four-year lives with no cost trending; the common county error is coding them into a general 8–12 year category. Most declarations get none of this right.
Data Center & Equipment Tax: A Closer LookPortfolio Management & Reporting
A written status memo every month a file is active (parcel, county, stage, next deadline, value protested, value achieved, tax at stake) and a written checkpoint at each of three points: before anything is filed, before any settlement is accepted, and after every decision. A year-end tax figure for your books arrives on your close calendar with the method attached, researched and signed by me. For a national or multi-state book, the same reporting runs on a single state's parcels under the single-state pilot: Colorado first, or any other state I cover.
Single-State PilotAlso on the desk: pre-acquisition due diligence & multi-year tax forecasting · exemption & abatement filings · complex real/personal property review · expert witness & litigation support
Where the Extra Work Paid Off
More than $2 billion in assessment reductions across engagements at prior national firms, in Colorado and other states across the West. Four of them below. The common thread is that every one was won by work most consultants skip: walking the property, understanding the business, and building the valuation model the case actually called for.
The prior consultant had never set foot on the property; the valuation ran straight off the income statement, something any firm can do. Touring with stakeholders and dissecting the operation revealed that a significant share of the food-and-beverage business was actually handled offsite. Savings: $630K a year, four years running.
How I Work Hotel Cases Won by knowing the businessThe county had valued deeded timeshare weeks like whole condos, using whole-unit sales from the surrounding market. Understanding the deeded-week structure, and building a valuation model specific to how those weeks are allocated, cut the assessment by 60% and saved $790K over the two-year cycle.
Won by building the right modelTwelve years after construction, a site tour and a detailed walkthrough with the onsite manager surfaced what the assessment had missed: one of the property's three data cells had fallen severely behind modern spec. A documented cost-to-cure presented to the assessor delivered $110K in annual savings.
Won by walking the propertyIn 2021, at a prior national firm, I was early to quantify COVID's impact on a large call center, then held firm on that valuation through a market with no sales to point to. When the case finally settled in 2025, the client recovered years of savings in a single $700K refund.
Won by holding the valuation through 2025Results I achieved across my thirteen-year career, all at prior national firms. SVA's first full Colorado appeal cycle as a firm is 2027. Results from SVA engagements will be published here with client consent. Every property and jurisdiction is different; past results do not guarantee future outcomes, and engagement details are published only where they cannot identify a client.
Colorado First. The West and Midwest by Engagement.
Based in Colorado, working across the West and Midwest. I represent commercial owners in every state below, and the Free Assessment Review runs in every one of them. I personally appear in Colorado and Utah; the other states are handled by me personally, case by case. Every state below has a full appeal guide on this site (deadlines, ratios, procedure, caselaw), written as reference material for owners and their existing counsel, and so you can check my homework before you hand me any.
How an Engagement Works
No retainers, no minimums: four steps from first email to final invoice. Questions first? Call me directly: 720-722-2911.
Free Assessment Review
Send your notice of value, or the address and county. I acknowledge within one business day. Real property: a written read within one week of receiving the notice (file or don't, with the two-year dollars and the exact per-property rate). Business personal property: a written declaration memo within 30 days of receiving the county's property record card and your fixed-asset ledger, or by a written date ahead of your county's personal-property protest deadline (in Colorado, June 30, or July 31 from 2027 in alternate-procedure counties), whichever is sooner.
Engagement letter, fee fixed in writing
Each property's contingency rate from the published matrix appears in the letter itself, before signature. No minimums, no retainers, and nothing is filed without your written instruction.
I file and argue it personally
Assessor protest, county board, state board: every filing and every hearing, handled by the person who signed your engagement. Escalation decisions are made with you, never for you.
You pay only from realized savings
The fee is a percentage of the tax actually saved. If the taxes don't go down, there is no invoice. Then it repeats: every year, every property, recommendations weeks ahead of the deadline.
The fine print (the communication commitment, the coverage answer, what I need from you, and every term in the engagement letter) is on How an Engagement Works →
Start With a Free Assessment Review
Send me your notice of value, or the address and county, for a commercial property in Colorado or any other state I cover, and I'll tell you in writing whether an appeal makes sense. Already have a firm, or file in-house? Keep them. Every review is free either way, and every memo is written so your own team or your firm of record can file and defend each finding without me (asset line, authority, and math included). Nothing is filed and no one at any county is contacted without your written instruction. If you ever do choose to move a file, it is one signature on a new agent authorization.
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129