I am looking at a few houses in Omaha and I have a question about Tax appraisal versus the selling price. Should the asking price on a newer home (5 years old) be around the actual Tax appraisal? I am looking at a house for $155k although the Tax appraisal is only $138k – any advice would be appreciated.
In my experience, my tax appraisals have always been less then the market value of my home. See if there is county website for the county you are looking to buy in. There may be a page where you can see that type of information for the house you are looking at. In addition, there may be comp values for houses that are selling in that area.
The real indicator of whether your getting ripped off or not will be the appraisal of the home...which is done in the process of buying the home. This takes into account what similar homes have sold for in the neighborhood, the condition of the home, and the location. If that appraisal is less, or significantly less, than the selling price of the home, then the home is likely overpriced. The tax appraisal is how much of the land and home is to be taxed...which is usually somewhat less than the appraised price of the home. For example, a home may appraise at and sell for $195k. However, the tax appraisal on that property may only be $175K. In my case, the appraised(not tax) value and selling price of the home was exactly identical.
County tax appraisals are usually made up amounts bases on specific formulas and USUALLY have absolutely nothing to do with the actual market value of the home. They try to say it is the fair market value, but how can that be judged with a measuring stick from the outside of your home?
Your realtor (if you have one) should give you info of the houses sold in the same sub-division/areaon the last 6 month, which usually is the best information you would get.
