Posted on: 31st Aug, 2009 02:09 am
Hi there… I have a doubt and I hope someone here can help me. Few months ago, I inherited a house. The county tax office assessed the value of the property but it's around $120K lower than the market value. I'm telling this based on an independent survey of comp homes in the neighborhood. I checked out with others and they told me that the county's appraisal for tax purposes is much less than the actual market value of the property. I need to know if it's true or not. Can anyone help?
As far as I know, the tax assessment values do not have any resemblance to the fair market value. However, when you sell off the property, you should take into consideration the market value of the property. Tax assessments are mainly done in order to levy the property taxes.
It may also depend on how properties are assessed for taxes in your market. For example, here in GA, the tax assessment is based on 40% of market value. It may be the same where you live. The opinion of market value can also differ between appraisers, especially between independent appraisers and tax assessors. This is mostly contributed to the methods used by the appraisers to develop their opinions. Independent appraisers typically will use a direct sales comparison analysis as the primary approach to value while tax assessors typically use a mass appraisal model. If you want to get an accurate appraisal of your home, I would advise you to hire a reputable, independent appraiser in your area.
I am sure if you wanted your assessment to be higher you could ask the county to re-assess and if the county feels the value to be higher and you agree I dont see why they would not raise the value. With that said, WHY THE HECK would you want to do that? As said before in the above post, it is mainly for taxing purpose, so the higher the value the higher your taxes. I would be happy with what you have now until next re-assessment period and that depends on the county how often that is done. In short you have nothing to worry about at this time, now if your assessed value is more than the appraised value you may want to consider re-assessment if the county would do that. Hope this helps your understanding.