Coy Johnson - Texas, Equity and Technology in Appraisal

The relationship between assessors and property owners has always been delicate. As Coy Johnson, Chief Appraiser at Kaufman CAD, puts it: "Most people have no idea what it is that I do for a living, but they're 100% sure they don't like it."

Yet over his 16-year career across three Texas appraisal districts, Johnson has witnessed a profession transforming itself through technology, data quality, and a commitment to education that's slowly but surely building public trust.

The Data Quality Foundation

"I do statistics for a living," Johnson explains. "I have real estate variables, but what I do is statistical analysis." This framing cuts to the heart of modern mass appraisal: it's fundamentally about translating known market behaviors into reliable valuations for properties that haven't sold.

The linchpin? Data quality. Johnson emphasizes that even the most sophisticated model becomes worthless when fed poor information. "I can build the best model in the world and if I feed it junk, it's going to spit out junk."

This focus on data integrity drives everything from field appraiser training to the adoption of new technologies. When your constitutional mandate requires hitting 100% of market value, as it does in Texas, there's no room for guesswork.

Technology's Quiet Revolution

The transformation Johnson describes over the past two decades reads like a before-and-after case study in operational efficiency. He and his commercial director recently reflected on starting their careers "right at the beginning of these CAMA software programs that really have some amazing functionality."

Moving from paper spreadsheets to visualization tools that map data spatially has fundamentally changed how assessors understand and communicate value. Services now mine deed records for insights that would have taken days to uncover manually. Aerial imagery and street-view photography narrow the focus for field reviews.

But perhaps most importantly, these tools enhance explainability, a critical factor when, as Johnson notes, property owners are "expected to know the ins and outs of every law that's written in the property tax code" despite only dealing with the system twice yearly.

The Shift from Market Value to Equity

Here's where Johnson's observations get particularly interesting for the profession: as mass appraisal has gotten more accurate at hitting market values, the battleground has shifted.

"Most people are shifting gears and protesting under that equitable statute," he observes. Property owners increasingly focus on horizontal equity, whether similar properties in their neighborhood are valued consistently, rather than whether their individual valuation matches market reality.

This shift represents both a validation of improved accuracy and a new challenge. While assessors have gotten better at the "what" of valuation, they now face increased scrutiny on the "how" and whether their processes treat similar properties uniformly.

Education as Core Competency

Johnson's approach to this challenge? Radical transparency through education. Drawing from his mother's 35-year career as an educator, he sees teaching as inseparable from assessing.

"So much of what we do on a daily basis is to me in that education sector," he says. This isn't about convincing property owners to like their tax bills, it's about helping them understand the process is fair, methodical, and grounded in market reality.

This educational mission extends internally too. Johnson conducts extensive in-house training to ensure his staff can effectively communicate the "what" and "why" of their work. The goal isn't agreement, it's understanding.

Building for the Long Game

Texas appraisal districts are "only about as old as I am," Johnson notes, referencing their creation in the late 1970s to separate valuation from revenue collection. Those old "horror stories" about assessment practices were "100% true," he acknowledges, but the profession has spent decades building credibility through consistency and professionalism.

His advice to newcomers reflects this long-term perspective: "Don't expect to come in, no matter how intelligent you may believe you are... and know everything that there is to know." Some aspects of the job only reveal themselves through years of exposure to edge cases and market cycles.

But he also emphasizes finding personal meaning in the work. His mentor saw herself as ensuring funding for children's education, an oversimplification perhaps, but one that connected daily tasks to community impact.

Key Takeaways

For Assessors: The shift from market value protests to equity appeals signals both success and new challenges. As our accuracy improves, so must our ability to demonstrate consistency and explain our processes.

For Leadership: Investment in data quality and education pays compound dividends. Every improvement in data collection or visualization enhances both accuracy and explainability.

For the Profession: We're still overcoming decades of historical baggage, but the path forward is clear: transparency, accuracy, and patient education. As Johnson says, the best outcome we can hope for is that property owners "understand that we do have processes" and "we are attempting to be as fair as possible."

The evolution from paper spreadsheets to AI-powered analytics represents more than technological progress, it's about building a profession that can explain itself, defend its methods, and ultimately serve the public trust. That transformation, still ongoing, defines the future of mass appraisal.