There are so many buzz words that fly around the real estate world that it can be difficult to navigate through what all of it means. We know that when we purchase a home the bank has an appraisal. You may or may not also know that each year the county does an appraisal on your home. These numbers are the same right? Maybe? Which one is accurate?

Lets first talk about tax appraisals. If you own a home each year the county does a drive by (if even that) by your property to make an assessment of what it could be worth, then they multiply that by the tax rate specified for your area, and voila, you have your yearly taxes. Now, here is the thing, you ideally want this number to be as low as possible. Provide comparable homes and contest this each year, keep it as low as possible! The higher it gets, the more you pay per year in taxes. So this number SHOULD be in a perfect world, lower than what you could sell your home for.

Home value appraisals are what happens when you purchase a home, and the bank requires an appraisal to be sure you are not over paying on a property. These appraisers do much more than your yearly tax assessor does. They go into your home, the measure each room, look at everything, windows property, paint exteriorly, the whole nine yards. They also pull comparable homes to yours that have sold ideally in the last 6 months within a 1/4th-1/2 mile radius, or if you’re more rural, counties similar to yours with properties similar to yours. It is a very in depth analysis, and hopefully is as high as possible, putting the most amount of money in your pocket.

These two things are often misunderstood, or assumed to be the same. Hopefully this helps break it down a little bit for you!