I Need Your Help! HELOC Question Appraisal

[Juan David Maldonado]

Soo...long story short. My mother owns my grandmother's home now and it is paid off. She does not want to turn it into a rental property, but I talked her into using the HELOC on it for me. The home is currently valued at about 65k after checking the county appraisal website. However, the home is in poor condition. Major work to make it liveable.

My question is what do appraisal companies look at to determine the home value? And is this possible to do with a home in poor condition but has value and is paid off?