Charlie Young, Property Tax Consultant, Colorado and the West
Senior experience. A fee structure built for taxpayers.
Charlie Young
I spent thirteen years at the nation's largest property tax consultancies, most recently as Managing Director for the West at DMA, representing commercial properties across the western United States.
I formed Strategic Valuation Advisors in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. As I've done throughout my career, I represent commercial taxpayers across the West and Midwest.
I left the big firms because of what I watched the model do to the people paying for it: flat fees on properties of every size, six-figure contingencies on minor corrections, and an industry that had quietly stopped competing on price. My fee scales with the size of the tax liability, charges a materially lower rate on larger bills, and is quoted per property, in writing, before you sign. The schedule is published.
The second rule is structural: every engagement is filed, modeled, and argued by me. That is the standard I held as a Managing Director, made structural here rather than left to chance: no account teams, no hand-downs, and no case reaches a hearing without the person who built it in the room. How I cover a full protest season is set out on how an engagement works.
The Resume Behind the Firm
How I Work, and How You Can Check It
Most firms in this business ask for trust. I would rather be checked. The research on this site is the method I use on every file, published so you can test it before you hire me.
The 2025 county-board results compile more than 12,000 decided petitions across eight Front Range counties. Commercial success rates ran from 6% in Adams County to 44% in Larimer, and the biggest driver was whether anyone argued the case rather than which county heard it. In the one county that records the difference, owners who argued won 68% of the time, against 25% across all petitions, so I argue every hearing myself.
The win-rate study analyzed all 8,058 commercial Colorado BAA appeals for tax year 2023: the market settles 61%, the two biggest filers ran 49% and 57%, and the prettiest win rates belong to the firms that file the least. A win rate measures selectivity, not results, so you will not find one advertised here, and the Free Assessment Review tells you in writing when not to file.
The benchmark database holds 19,939 Colorado commercial properties (hotels by value per key, offices and industrial buildings by value per square foot, apartment communities of 50 or more units by value per unit), built from certified county assessor rolls and ranked within property type and size band. It is the first screen I run on a Colorado property, and you can run it on yours; for properties in the other states I cover, the review runs on county records and comparable evidence.
The Industry Stopped Competing
A majority of the largest property tax firms have been consolidated over the past fourteen years. The result is an industry with fewer players, less pricing pressure, and a status quo that hasn't been seriously challenged in twenty years.
Meanwhile, property tax has become concentrated, dramatically more efficient to consult on through technology, and more lucrative for firms. Yet contingency fees haven't budged.
I built SVA to correct that. Two principles govern everything I do: scale should benefit the taxpayer, not just the consultant, and fees should reflect the work performed, not simply the windfall delivered.
Start with the Free Assessment Review
Send me your notice of value, for a commercial property in Colorado or any other state I cover, and I will tell you in writing whether an appeal is worth filing, and exactly what I would charge, per property, if it is. If the assessment is already fair, the review says so. Every request is acknowledged within one business day.