The town of Harpswell is preparing to conduct a townwide property revaluation with help from an appraisal firm.
In late September, the Harpswell Select Board voted unanimously to enter into a $394,000 contract with Massachusetts-based Vision Government Solutions to conduct the revaluation in concert with the town’s assessing department.
The revaluation will be carried out in multiple phases over roughly 18 months, ending in July 2026. Vision will perform neighborhood outreach, send surveys to homes and businesses, and have appraisers visit every property they can access.
In a revaluation, an assessing firm visits every property in a municipality to collect up-to-date information about buildings and land. The firm reviews information about local real estate sales, then establishes new values for every property in town.
The process serves “to equalize the valuations so that no one taxpayer pays more or less than their fair share of the tax burden,” according to Maine Revenue Services.
For its revaluation, Harpswell will use up to $175,000 from its “unassigned fund balance” and $150,000 from taxes. With $75,000 set aside last year, there is $400,000 to fund the project. The fund balance consists of unspent funds rolled over from previous years.
Through its outreach, Vision will attempt to contact local residents and schedule in-person site visits at each address. For businesses and nonprofits, it will also try to gather relevant information from owners — such as revenue data — to inform the property’s appraisal.
“A revaluation project is not a small project, and it takes some time to do,” Patrick Donovan, Vision’s director of appraisal sales, told the Select Board at its Sept. 25 meeting.
Residents aren’t required to allow an appraiser into their home, but officials said doing so would result in more accurate valuations. Even without indoor access, Donovan said Vision’s appraisers will do their best to assess each property’s value based on an outdoor site visit, survey responses, and other available data.
The last time Harpswell conducted a door-to-door revaluation was about 20 years ago, in 2005, said Town Administrator Kristi Eiane. While the town hired Vision for that project, she said choosing them again wasn’t a foregone conclusion.
“The town went through a request-for-proposals process,” Eiane told the Select Board. “We received two responses. … In the end, we recommended Vision.”
Eiane said Vision was the vendor best suited to perform the work. The 40-year-old company has 65 appraisers in New England, most with at least 20 years of experience.
There are unique challenges to conducting a townwide revaluation in Harpswell, local officials said. The town has roughly 4,250 residences, many of which are difficult to access. It also has more than 100 businesses and nonprofits.
Town Assessing Agent Debbie Turner said Harpswell has about 100 islands, roughly half of which are inhabited. When possible, the town will use municipal boats to ferry Vision’s assessors to otherwise inaccessible properties.
Donovan said the key to a successful revaluation is consistency. Vision’s assessors will follow a strict methodology that combines data analysis with “boots on the ground,” he said.
Property owners will be given the opportunity to review the information Vision has gathered about their property and request corrections if needed.
If Vision cannot access a property, it will use whatever information is available to assess its value as accurately as possible, Donovan said.
“You still try to do your due diligence to appraise the property to the best of your knowledge based on the data you’ve gathered,” he told the board.
