What Is Appraised Value?
Both a home appraisal and a home assessment are relative measures that the real estate industry considers when determining the value of a home. But they aren’t one and the same.
Your home’s appraised value is determined by a state-licensed real estate professional known as an appraiser. Appraisers are typically engaged at the order of the financial institution (bank, credit union, etc.) with which you hope to obtain a home mortgage loan. In effect, an appraisal is a property valuation that’s determined based on recent sale prices of properties in your area and other deciding factors.
Appraisals (which can influence a home’s ultimate sales price and the amount of mortgage you can obtain) are conducted as a safeguard that helps ensure you don’t overpay for a home, and that lenders don’t extend loans for more than homes are worth.
At the same time, take note: It’s usually the home buyer’s responsibility to pay for an appraisal assessment as part of the process of applying for a home loan. Under typical mortgage lending scenarios, the buyer will go to a lender to obtain a mortgage, and the chosen lender will ask a licensed professional to consider all property details (interior and exterior) to arrive at a home appraisal value. Getting this home appraisal is an essential part of the mortgage approval process, and you'll need to complete this step before getting final approval from your lender.
Bank Appraisals
As above, a bank appraisal is conducted by your financial lender, who will not lend any more money to you than what the property is worth (based on the appraised value that your lender has ultimately arrived at). Note that in the event your bank appraisal comes in under the amount of mortgage you have applied for, it’s common to seek out a second opinion if you feel the first home appraiser’s findings are too low.
Tax Assessments
A tax assessment is completed to determine a property’s assessed value, which is a relative measure of its value that is utilized to determine the amount of property taxes that the government will levy on the building. Home appraisals are based on a more in-depth analysis than tax assessments, being a fundamental part of the mortgage underwriting and due diligence process.
Tax assessments are completed by government tax assessors, who are employed at the instruction of cities, municipalities, towns and other local government entities. These professionals review property data and visit local homes to determine their assessed value. A variety of factors such as home inspection findings, historical property data and comparative market analysis will be considered as they work to arrive at a property’s assessed value.
Rest assured that having a home appraisal conducted won’t raise your property taxes, as the tax appraised value is determined by the county assessor’s valuation (performed using a different methodology).
What Is Market Value?
Market value refers to the actual value of your property when placed at sale on the open market. It’s determined by buyers and defined as the amount they are willing to pay for purchasing the home.
Regardless of appraised or assessed value, market value is essentially the amount that buyers are willing to pay for your property and what they think the value of the home is.
Many different scenarios might come into play when it comes to the home buying process and reaching a fair market value – however, as a general rule, the more competitive the market, the higher the market value you might expect to see on a home.
In other words, the government can think your home is worth a certain amount, the bank another and buyers still less or more than your property’s appraised or assessed value.
Determining How Much You Can Afford
If you’re in the home buying process, make sure you go in knowing how much you can afford. One way to do this is to make getting approved the first step in your home buying journey. With an approval letter in hand, you can be sure you are only looking at properties that are within your budget. Then, once you find your dream home, you can confidently put in an offer that takes your approval amount, market value and appraised value of the property into consideration and can help ensure you don’t overpay for your new home.
