Beaufort County property owners will likely see a change in their property taxes come 2018.

At the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Nov. 7, Fred Pearson, one of the owners of Pearson’s Appraisal Service, updated commissioners on his team’s progress visiting every property in the county.

“You have about 45,000 parcels of real estate. We’ve visited about 38,000,” Pearson said.

The tax revaluation, orchestrated by the Beaufort County Tax Assessor’s Office, comes every eight years; the last one occurred at the apex of a real estate boom in the area. Considering that the revaluation is based on real estate sales during the two years prior to the revaluation, Pearson said some of those property values could change.

“Some properties have been over-assessed and will have to come down,” Pearson said.

Currently, property owners pay an ad valorem tax of 55 cents per $100 valuation of property, a 2-cent increase approved during the 2016-17 budget process.

Pearson told commissioners that since his assessors do not physically go inside a property, homeowners with interior issues they feel would affect the property’s value should contact his team.

“Any property owner with any problems … come talk to us,” Pearson said. “When we go by, we don’t do any type of interior inspections. If they have problems with interiors they need to let us know.”

Preparation for the revaluation began in April and the new valuation will go into effect Jan. 1, 2018 and will be reflected in billing for 2018. In a previous interview, county tax assessor Bobby Parker said that his office is always willing to answer questions about the process.

In the past, representatives from the county tax office have addressed civic organizations, and Parker is offering the same service with the 2018 revaluation in process.

Once the revaluation goes into effect, property owners have three opportunities to appeal any change in property value.

For more information, call the Beaufort County Tax Assessor’s Office at 252-946-2511.