And the relevance of that is?
If you pay your mortgage every month, but committed mortgage fraud by lying about your assets it's still mortgage fraud.
Ask yourself this: if Trump thought he could secure either the loan or favorable terms for the loan with his actual assets, then why fabricate anything?
I think most businesses that go into a bank try to value their business as much as possible. With the tax assessment of well under $50 mil and Trump appraisal of $450 mil the bank should have caught this , the banks even were on Trumps side at the hearing saying he was a superb customer.
An article
From 2011-2021, the Palm Beach County Assessor appraised the market value of Mar-a-Lago at between $18 million and $27.6 million,” Engoron wrote in
his ruling.
The judge noted Trump valued Mar-a-Lago at between $426.5 million and $612 million, “an overvaluation of at least 2,300%, compared to the assessor’s appraisal.”
But it’s widely known that the tax assessor valuation is typically, though not always, less than what a property would command on the open market.
In other words, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.
“Appraisal values and market values are just not the same thing. It’s a well-known fact,” said Eli Beracha, chair of the school of real estate at Florida International University. “That’s especially true for properties that are unique. And it’s very easy to argue this is a unique property.”
Dina Goldentayer, executive director of sales at Douglas Elliman in South Florida, said in her experience in the ultra-luxury marketplace the tax assessor’s valuation isn’t considered when trying to value a property.
“He wouldn’t make a very good realtor,” Goldentayer said of the judge. “It’s so widely known that it’s not an accurate determination of market value.”
Goldentayer added, “If there is a ranking as to what would have the lowest valuation, it’s the tax assessor’s office, followed by Zillow and then the realtor’s valuation is the highest.”
It’s not correct to assume that a tax assessment and market value are the same thing, according to Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., a real estate appraisal company in New York City.
“They can be, in some markets they are the same thing, but in most others they are not,” Miller said.
