What's the difference between appraised value and assessed value?

In Ross township, Allegheny County places an assessed value on all real estate. So you may be asking yourself, what does this value mean to me, and how can I use that value when I go to sell my home? With all of the talk recently about assessed values that have gone up (particularly 27% on average in Ross Township) many homeowners are left wondering what that means to their actual market value of the home, or what your home could actually sell for. 

For starters, since your assessed value is the value that your taxes are calculated by then naturally you want that value to be as low as possible. Some Ross township homeowners are successful at keeping these values low, through appeals and other methods. If you feel that your assessed value is higher than what you can actually sell your home for, then an appeal is the proper thing for you to do. 

Unfortunately having a lower assessed value can sometimes hurt you, since this information is public. I can't count how many times my team is working with a buyer who wants to put an offer on a home and looks up the assessed value. Since these values are found on a government run website and seem 'official' buyers viewing them automatically think that this is what the house should actually sell for. Its a very confusing process. Until 2013 homes in Allegheny county were working off of a 2002 assessed value. Since a lot can happen in 11 years it's easy to see that these values don't accurately represent what a house should sell for in 2014. That's where appraised values come in. 

Since most buyers that purchase homes are obtaining some form of financing to secure the purchase, an appraisal has to be conducted. Appraisals are ordered through third party appraisal management companies who send a licensed appraiser to the property to conduct an inspection. The appraiser then uses comparables (in most cases) that have sold in the previous 12 months or less, and that closely match the characteristics of the home you are selling/buying. Appraisals are a much more accurate way of determining true market value of your home. 

If you are looking to buy or sell your home in Ross Township call us today to get a FREE Equity Evaluation of your home to determine an accurate sales price.