Bank Appraisal vs County Appraisal 6 months ago?

Do you think a bank appraisal would come in at the same number, possibly even higher on a home that was appraised by Nassau County back in September?

We are in the process of buying a house and I'm getting nervous that the bank's appraisal is going to be lower than what we think and we'll have to lay out money to cover the difference.

Is there a different set of criteria that a bank would use (aside from comps) to appraise a home vs. the county?

THANKS!!!!!!

Re: Bank Appraisal vs County Appraisal 6 months ago?

I assume you are talking about the assessed value for tax purposes? If so, that is completely different from the appraisal your bank will do. For the bank appraisal, they actually go into the home and see the interior, take photos, etc and compare to the most recent comparable sales in the area. The bank appraisals routinely come in above the tax assessment. That's not even a factor. If your assessed value goes down for tax purposes, it signifies the market value is going down. But the actual number itself is not indicative of fair market value.

Also, if the appraisal comes in below the contract price, why would you pay the difference? You would want to renegotiate the price, and have the seller come down. Also, if you are getting an fha loan, the low appraisal stays with the house (for 6 mos, I believe). So even if the seller wanted to try to sell to someone else, if they were an fha buyer, the original low appraisal would still stand.

Re: Bank Appraisal vs County Appraisal 6 months ago?

When the county "appraises" a house, they're not really doing an appraisal. They look at the info on the property card and the neighborhood in general and place a value on the property. It's a computer generated model. It's one of the reasons that Nassau's assessment system is so broken.

Trying to compare the bank's appraisal and the County's assessment value is worse than comparing apples and oranges.