Spokane County gets iPads, cloud app to streamline property valuations

The Spokane County Assessor’s Office has acquired 22 new iPads and a cloud-based app to streamline the process of inspecting and valuing real estate.

Assessor Tom Konis said the CAMACloud Mobile Assessor app will spare appraisers the tedious task of driving back to the office to manually upload photos and input notes on thousands of residential and commercial properties.

“This will eliminate all of that,” Konis said. “Everything we have on our desktops will be available to us on our iPads.”

Spokane County officials have considered purchasing tablets for appraisers since at least 2017, when property valuations were delayed by several months because of staff turnover.

Konis said valuation notices were sent to property owners in late May, on track with a schedule set by the state Department of Revenue. Appraisers are now focused on new construction in the county.

Startup costs for the new system, including the purchase of an iPad for each of the office’s 22 appraisers, will total about $245,000, Konis said. Over five years, the app subscription will bring the total cost to about $465,000, he said.

When appraisers work in rural areas without internet, their notes and photos will be saved offline and then uploaded once a connection becomes available, Konis said.

“I talked to nine different assessors across the country who have this, and not one of them had anything bad to say about it,” he said.