Riley County Appraiser

What's New

The Riley County Appraiser’s Office is updating both residential and commercial real estate records as part of the maintenance process for continuing reappraisal. The appraisal staff will also be conducting onsite inspections of all sales as part of the sales verification process. These processes are mandated by Kansas law. 

Residential Properties

Not all properties are due for annual maintenance inspection. Any homesites that need to be reviewed will receive a questionnaire in the mail. If you receive a notice, please fill out the green card and return it to our office by August 1st, 2023.  

Anyone who received a questionnaire in the mail also has the option to fill out an online form to submit the requested information. 

Please note, appraisers will also be out taking photos and performing onsite inspections of some properties as part of this process. Not all properties will be physically inspected. Any Riley County employees doing this work will be easy to identify.

Commercial Properties

The Annual Income and Expense Questionnaires will be mailed to commercial property owners in August 17th. These questionnaires collect rent, vacancy, and expense data. Any information submitted is confidential and will not be used to value your individual property. Instead, the information will be used to calibrate valuation models for Riley County. 

The Annual Income and Expense Questionnaires play a vital role in determining typical rents, expenses, and vacancies found in the local market. Please fill out the questionnaire and return them by mail to the Appraiser’s Office by September 8th.

The forms can be downloaded by clicking the real estate link on the left side of this page. They are located under Appraiser’s office Forms: Commercial. Please fill out the form completely and mail it to our office or email it to [email protected] or [email protected] . 

Riley County Employees:

  1. Drive vehicles with the Riley County logo
  2. Wear shirts with the Riley County logo
  3. Carry ID badges

Riley County staff will always be happy to show ID. Please contact our office at 785-537-6310 with any questions or concerns.

woman taking photos out of a window in a Riley County car


  1. Property Taxes
  2. Who are Appraisers
  3. Appraiser Discovery Process

video screenshot with text "Property Taxes"

Property Taxes

The work we do is really just the starting point for the development of each year’s property taxes. Once we certify our values to the County Clerk’s Office, they, in turn, calculate an assessed valuation for all taxing units, calculate mill levies and certify the tax roll to the Treasurer’s Office.

The Treasurer’s Office then mails property tax bills, processes payments of the property taxes and distributes the collected funds to the appropriate local units of government, school districts and state government.

While our work can be stressful and sometimes controversial, the values we provide are very important in maintaining fairness and equity in the property tax system!

What We Do

In general terms, the Appraiser’s Office must value all real estate and taxable personal property (business equipment, mobile homes, trucks, trailers, non-highway vehicles, watercraft, ATV’s, mopeds, golf carts, oil wells, etc.) in the county each year. 

In Riley County, that means we value more than 24,000 real estate parcels totaling over $9.6 billion and 3,400 personal property accounts totaling over $55 million. The resulting values are used in the calculation of property taxes for each property.

The values we choose are the result of an annual appraisal cycle consisting of on-site property reviews, analysis of property sales, collection of market data, market studies and statistical analysis.  

Our cycle starts immediately after certification of the current year’s values (May/June) and ends once we have held property appeals and certified values to the County Clerk’s Office (May/June the next year). 

In addition to setting values for all real estate and taxable personal property, our office holds real estate and personal property appeals each year. Typically, that means over 700 Informal hearings, 20 to 30 Small Claims hearings and 15 to 20 Board of Tax Appeals hearings. The Informal hearings are held in our office by our appraisers, while the Small Claims and Board of Tax Appeals hearings are more formal courtroom-type hearings