What is the Difference Between a Real Estate Appraiser and a Real Estate Assessor?

A home appraisal is a report created by a real estate appraiser to determine value. The real estate appraiser will use recently sold residential real estate listings, while making adjustments for differences between the subject property and the comparable. The preparation of an appraisal involves research into appropriate residential market areas, the assembly and analysis of information pertinent to a property, and the knowledge, experience, and professional judgment of the appraiser. Appraisals are prepared for:

• Mortgage lending purposes
• Tax assessments and appeals of assessments
• Negotiation between buyers and sellers
• Government acquisition of private property for public use
• Business mergers or dissolutions
• Lease negotiations

The role of the real estate appraiser is to provide objective, impartial, and unbiased opinions about the residential real estate value — providing assistance to those who own, manage, sell, invest in, and/or lend money on the security of the real estate value. Real estate appraisers assemble a series of facts, statistics, and other information regarding specific properties, then analyze this data to develop opinions of value.

A real estate assessor is a person who makes assessments, usually for purposes of property tax. A house assessment is the value placed on a property by the town or city's assessor's office for the purpose of determining the real estate property tax. The assessor will be able to increase or decrease the assessments of a neighborhood or group of properties by applying real estate market trends to those properties. The assessment roll shows house assessments and appropriate exemptions. The assessor estimates real estate market value, which is how much a property would sell for in an open real estate market under normal conditions.

The assessor performs many other administrative functions, such as inspecting new construction and major improvements to existing structures. This ensures that the record of each property's physical inventory is current and that the appropriate improvements are assessed.