AAOM is excited to host Malcolm Stadig as a special guest during our 2013 Great Minds Symposium. Malcolm is currently a Property Valuation Specialist for the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation in Ontario. In April, Malcolm will facilitate a workshop based on his 2011 IAAO technical paper, “Estimating Depreciation for Property Assessment Purposes”, which was published in the Journal of Property Tax Assessment and Administration. Recently, we talked about his career in assessment.–Rick Sherrin
Hello, Malcolm. Would you explain what you do for a living, and why? 
I’m a property assessor in Ontario. I can’t imagine that too many youngsters aspire to become an assessor, and I was no exception!
My aunt used to work in an assessment office and she helped me to obtain a summer job at the office when I was 16 years old. It appeared to be an interesting job, and I liked the idea of spending some time at a desk, as well as some time in the field.
Back then, my friends were heading off to a college in Belleville, Ontario for a 3 year program. At that time, I didn’t want to go to college for 3 years, so I looked at 2 year programs. Much to my delight there was a 2 year diploma program in Assessment and Appraisal, which began my assessment education.
It’s been almost 25 years since my first summer job, and I’m still an assessor- and I expect that to be true for the rest of my working days.
What motivated you to publish an article for the IAAO? I actually wrote the article for my coworkers to help them to better understand depreciation. I never imagined it would be read by anyone else. A director at MPAC was impressed by the article and suggested that I submit it to the IAAO. I was skeptical, but sent off the article.
Much to my surprise, they accepted it with virtually no edits, and it was even nominated as technical article of the year.
Sadly, it wasn’t selected- but I still am very proud of my accomplishment. It has inspired me to write some more articles.
What feature or characteristic defines an excellent assessor? I firmly believe that an assessor must be competent and impartial. We must also acknowledge that there in not only one possible value for a property but rather a range of value.
What idea are you excited to bring to Winnipeg? I’m excited by the opportunity to help the assessors of Manitoba to better understand how to identify and quantify depreciation.
I would also like to build relationships between assessors in Ontario and Manitoba – if we share ideas, everybody wins.
What is your specialty, or area of expertise? My area of expertise is the valuation of special-purpose manufacturing plants. I have assessed automobile assembly plants, pulp and paper mills, chemical plants, food processing plants among other similar types of properties.
However, since the publication of my paper I have also become involved in the mass appraisal of fast food restaurants and billboards.
Thank you, Malcolm. We look forward to your presentation!
