Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Neal Groover, Chief Appraiser of Effingham County, Georgia, to discuss his journey from a three-person office in rural Evans County to managing a 33,000-parcel operation in a fast-growing bedroom community near Savannah. Neal shares lessons learned transitioning commercial properties from cost to income approaches, the impact of Port of Savannah expansion on warehouse development, navigating Georgia's 40% assessment rate, and why the growing tangle of homestead exemptions has turned his department into a homestead audit shop.

• 00:01 – Introduction and Neal Groover's path into assessment work in rural Evans County, Georgia
• 01:02 – Running a three-person office with 6,500 parcels: splitting duties and learning by trial and fire
• 02:54 – The biggest surprise: how heavily law governs the assessment world
• 04:30 – Transitioning from Evans County to Effingham County and the differences between rural and medium-sized jurisdictions
• 06:05 – Valuing warehouses: moving from cost to income approach and tips for making the transition
• 09:00 – Port of Savannah's expansion as the driver behind Effingham's warehouse boom
• 10:49 – Explaining ratio studies to taxpayers and Georgia's 40% assessment rate
• 14:48 – The exemption mess: how homestead exemptions muddy the waters and undermine fairness
• 19:45 – Effingham as a "homestead audit department" — managing 15,500 homestead parcels
• 20:32 – Advice for new chief appraisers: know what you're getting into and commit fully