Shoud I appeal as Lender's Appraisal value is 40K less than County/Property tax Appraisal value

Hi Friends,

I was  trying a REFI and went with  CITI Mortgage and the Appraisal value came as $630K. During the same month local county did our home Appraisal and it came out as $710K. I tried several lender prior to CITI but all the lenders gave an ESTIMATE Appraisal value of  less than $630K.

Per my request to reasses the apprisal the county sent a mail saying that the NEW Appraisal value is $670K and I was given 60 days to APPEAL in case if I don't agree with county's latest value of our home.

After we brought our home in 2006 we spent around $30K for entire home COPPER re piping,2 baths remodel and hard wood floor upgrade etc

CITI appraiser  mentioned the above upgrades in our  Appraisal report also. I've a copy of the Appraisal report.

But I'm sure county is not aware of the upgrade as its not required to inform any upgrades to them.

I'm in dilemma whether to APPEAL or keep quite with the latest county apprised value.

I've below questions

1.What do you suggest/recommend?

2.Should I take any attorney help OR should I take it on my own?

3.What are the DOs and DONT etc

4. Any other suggestios?

Thanks in advance for your help and time.

J

I would appeal the county appraised value and use the appraisal that you paid for to do so.  Just because you spent money to upgrade your home doesn't necessarily means that it translates to a higher value.

I would look at comparable homes that have sold within the last 6 months to get an idea of value.  The upgrades that you have done will not mean much when it comes to value.  I run into this all the time.   

Did you get permits for upgrades that needed permits? this will haunt you at some time or another. If you got permits then just appeal, it shouldn't be a big deal it is a declining market and they are taking a hit like everyone else.

Happy Friday and thanks to everyone for your advice/suggestions and time.

You guys are really helpful and awesome.

For the copper re piping our city requires a permit so we got the permit and I've all the city permit approval paper work etc.

For bath remodelling and hard wood floor upgrades we don't need a permit hence didn't get one.