Fair Market Value- Actual or Inflated

[Canesha Edwards]

Hello all, 

I am looking for my first deal and I have come across a few properties of interest. However, when I do a property search on the tax assessors website, many times the Fair Market Value listed by the county is much lower than the properties list price?  

My questions is, should I be using to Fair Market Value of the tax assessor as a starting point when making an offer? I'm curious to know how others determine the fair market value of a property. 

Best, 

Canesha