Sterling represents commercial property owners across Virginia, Texas, Missouri and Kansas — reviewing assessments against real market evidence and carrying the appeal through every rung that is worth climbing.
Norfolk
City · VA · FIPS 51710
Assessor review
May 8, 2026
Board of Review
May 29, 2026
Circuit Court
Dec 31, 2029
Computed from this locality's governing ordinance — not a copied list.
VA · TX · MO · KS
computed from statute
and expanding
no residential work
The problem
Mass appraisal is built for coverage, not accuracy on any one parcel. The burden of proving it wrong sits with the owner — and the window to do it is narrow.
Assessors work at scale from mass-appraisal models. Those models rarely see your vacancy, your actual rent roll, or the capital you are about to sink into a roof.
An over-assessment left unchallenged does not reset. It carries into the next cycle as the baseline, and in biennial localities it is locked in for two years at a time.
Virginia runs assessor → board of equalization → circuit court. Texas adds an appraisal review board, arbitration and SOAH. Missouri requires counsel for entities at the state commission. Kansas has a payment-under-protest route entirely of its own.
Appeal deadlines are statutory. Miss one and the assessed value stands for the year, whatever the evidence would have shown. Some localities never publish theirs at all.
How we work
Evidence first, then a decision about whether an appeal is worth bringing, then representation through the ladder.
We pull the assessment, the comparable sales and the locality's own ratio study, then build an opinion of value. You get it in writing.
Nothing is filed until you have signed. We handle the locality's specific requirements — notarization, letterhead, corporate resolutions, copy counts.
Informal review, the local board, the state body, and arbitration or court where the numbers justify it. We appear; you do not have to.
Why Sterling
The firms that file everything win on volume. We would rather be right about the parcels we take.
Read our processEvery date on our calendar is derived from the governing statute or ordinance for that parcel, and carries an audit trail back to the rule it came from.
A weak appeal costs a year and invites a closer look at the parcel. If the evidence will not carry, we say so before you spend anything.
Each deadline is labelled with how well it is verified — confirmed on the assessor's own page, derived from statute, or awaiting confirmation by phone.
Income and expense records are confidential under Va. Code § 58.1-3. Documents are encrypted at rest and never sit behind a public link.
Where we practise
An appeal that is routine in Virginia can be procedurally impossible in Missouri. We hold the statutes, the ladders and the filing requirements for every jurisdiction in all four.
VA
133
counties and independent cities
Virginia assesses at 100% of fair market value, which means an over-assessment is a direct, provable error rather than a question of ratio. The practical difficulty is that appeal windows are set locality by locality — not by the Commonwealth — and many localities do not publish theirs at all.
Read the Virginia guide →
TX
254
county appraisal districts
Texas has no state income tax, so property tax carries a heavier load and rates are correspondingly high — commonly above $2.00 per $100. The protest system is also the most developed of the four states we practise in, with a formal appraisal review board, binding arbitration and a SOAH route above it.
Read the Texas guide →
MO
115
counties and St. Louis City
Missouri assesses commercial property at 32% of market value, then applies the levy to that figure. Because the state reassesses on a two-year cycle, a successful appeal in an odd year generally holds for the even year as well — which doubles the value of getting it right.
Read the Missouri guide →
KS
105
counties
Kansas quotes rates in mills rather than dollars per hundred, and assesses commercial property at 25% of appraised value. It is also the only one of our four states with a genuine alternative route: payment under protest, which runs on an entirely different clock from the ordinary appeal.
Read the Kansas guide →
Asset classes
Mass appraisal applies one model to a whole class. The argument for a reduction is almost always specific to how your asset type really earns.
Vacancy, lease-up assumptions and tenant improvement allowances. Post-2020 office is the clearest case where mass appraisal models lag the market badly.
Anchor loss, co-tenancy clauses and percentage rent. A dark anchor changes the economics of an entire centre long before the assessor's model notices.
Clear height, dock ratios and functional obsolescence. Older stock is frequently assessed as though it competes with modern distribution space.
Actual rent roll against market assumptions, concessions, and the gap between gross potential and effective income.
Business value embedded in the assessment. Hotels are the classic case where the assessor is taxing an operating enterprise, not real property.
Street-rate versus achieved-rate gaps, and the management intensity that distinguishes storage from passive real estate.
Specialised fit-out that rarely transfers at cost, and reimbursement pressure on tenant covenant strength.
Component valuation where retail, office and residential elements each carry different risk and different market evidence.
We do not take residential work. Commercial and investment property only.
Common questions
If what you need is not here, call (757) 287-6000 and ask a person.
We review commercial property assessments and, where the evidence supports it, represent the owner through the appeal process — informal review, the local board, the state body, and arbitration or court where the numbers justify it. We work across Virginia, Texas, Missouri and Kansas.
Our fee is contingent on the tax saving achieved, so there is no fee where no reduction is obtained. The percentage and the basis on which it applies are set out in the engagement agreement you sign before any work begins. Third-party costs such as filing fees or arbitration deposits are separate and are always flagged in advance.
Three tests usually settle it: what comparable properties have actually sold for, what the property earns under the income approach, and whether it is assessed in line with similar properties in the same jurisdiction. Our desk review runs all three and comes back with a written opinion of value.
We say so, in writing, and we do not file. A weak appeal costs a year and in some states invites a closer look at the parcel. Telling you not to proceed is part of the service, not a failure of it.
The assessment notice first — several deadlines run from its date and we cannot compute them without it. Beyond that, a rent roll and an income and expense statement where the income approach applies, plus any recent appraisal, purchase documents or photographs showing condition.
No. Appeal deadlines are set by statute or local ordinance and are not extendable. Missing one generally means accepting the assessed value for that tax year regardless of the evidence. This is why we track every deadline for every parcel we hold.
No. We work exclusively on commercial and investment property — office, retail, industrial, multifamily, hotel, self storage, medical and mixed use.
Usually not. A registered agent may appear for the owner at the assessor and board stages in all four states we practise in. The one firm exception is the Missouri State Tax Commission, where an entity owner must be represented by a licensed attorney.
An informal review can resolve in weeks. A local board typically sits within the same tax year. State-level appeals and arbitration commonly run into the following year, and court longer still. We tell you the realistic timetable for your jurisdiction before you commit.
Yes. Income and expense records supplied for assessment purposes are confidential under Va. Code § 58.1-3, and we treat them as confidential in every state we work in. Documents are encrypted at rest and are never placed behind a public link.
Get started
Tell us the parcel and the assessed value. We will come back with a written opinion of value and a plain answer on whether an appeal is worth filing.
Or call (757) 287-6000