Brent Jones - Land Rights and Property Taxes

Working in property assessment means dealing with the fundamental building blocks of our economy, and few things are more fundamental than knowing who owns what. Yet as Brent Jones reveals, the systems we rely on to track property ownership are shockingly outdated, even in the United States.

Living in the 1850s (With Computers)

Here's a sobering thought for those of us working in property administration: we're essentially running an 1850s system that we've digitized but never truly modernized. As Jones puts it, "We haven't re-engineered, but we've duplicated old processes."

Think about your daily workflow. You're still searching grantor-grantee indexes, reading documents, making opinions on those documents, and then, because we don't trust those opinions, insuring them. The result? Transactions that are costly and slow, despite all our technological advances.

Among the world's 30-40 modern economies, the U.S. land system ranks "pretty close to dead last." Let that sink in for a moment.

The Complexity We Navigate Daily

Those of us in assessment understand complexity, we live it every day. But consider the scale of what we're dealing with:

• 3,641 land registries
• 6,000 parcel mapping jurisdictions
• 15,000-17,000 valuation jurisdictions
• 50,000 government entities

Each with their own standards, processes, and quirks. When the Department of Agriculture asked Jones if he could identify all foreign-owned agricultural land in the country, his response was telling: "I suppose I could, but it would cost you a lot and take you a long time."

This fragmentation isn't just an administrative headache, it's a fundamental barrier to economic efficiency.

The Global Perspective: It Gets Worse

If you think our challenges are significant, the global picture is staggering. According to Jones, "70% of the world does not have a person-to-property relationship that's documented."

The implications are profound. Without secure land tenure:

• You can't get a mortgage
• Businesses won't invest in long-term contracts
• Children miss school because they need to physically occupy property to maintain ownership claims

Jones shares a revealing example: Starbucks wants to contract with a Colombian coffee farmer for 15 years. Everyone's ready to sign, until Starbucks asks for property documentation that doesn't exist. "So everything's devalued from that point."

Technology as Leapfrog, Not Catch-Up

Here's where it gets interesting for those of us thinking about modernization. Traditional surveying requirements in some former British colonies would require "more concrete than exists in the world" to properly monument boundaries.

The solution isn't to replicate old systems with new technology, it's to leapfrog them entirely. Jones describes work in Colombia where 15 million properties need documentation following the FARC peace treaty. They're using smartphones connected to external GPS units and GIS systems, "very lightweight, low cost tools" that can map and secure rights without centimeter-level accuracy.

As the International Federation of Surveyors recognizes through their "fit for purpose" approach: you don't always need survey-grade precision. You need something that's "more correct" and reflects the physical reality on the ground.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Property Taxes

Here's something we all know but rarely discuss openly: property taxes are the foundation of civilization as we know it. As Jones notes, "Land rights are created out of taxation... The exchange of property tax to a person is the government saying you kind of own something."

Almost every major modern economy has property tax, and for good reason. These are the revenues that "make our life nice", parks, trash pickup, snow plowing, paved roads, schools, police. We may not like writing those checks, but we certainly like the services they provide.

The behavioral economics are fascinating: people hate property taxes more than income taxes largely because they have to actively pay them rather than having them withheld. But as economists have long recognized, property taxes are actually "the good tax", essentially a wealth tax that actually works.

Progress in Small Steps

Despite these challenges, Jones sees reason for optimism. The big change? "People, the large masses, are beginning to understand the importance of a functioning cadastral system."

Some jurisdictions are making real progress:

• Recording systems are speeding up
• Some counties are connecting registries to parcels, enabling parcel indexes instead of grantor-grantee searches
• States are beginning to aggregate data, though unevenly

The key lesson from decades of international development work? You can't impose a European cadastral system on Africa or anywhere else. Solutions must be built from within, respecting local culture and existing practices while modernizing them.

Key Takeaways

For assessors and appraisal professionals:

• The systems we work with daily are fundamentally outdated, but incremental improvements are possible and happening
• Technology offers opportunities to leapfrog traditional limitations, but only if we're willing to rethink requirements
• Property taxation isn't just revenue collection, it's the foundation of property rights themselves

For the profession:

• We're not just valuing property; we're maintaining the infrastructure that enables trillions in economic activity
• The complexity we navigate daily is real and deserves recognition
• International perspectives can inform local improvements, but solutions must be culturally appropriate

The work we do in property assessment and administration isn't glamorous, but it's foundational to modern society. As we push for modernization, we should remember that we're not just updating technology, we're reimagining systems that date back to the 1850s. That's both a massive challenge and an incredible opportunity.