Why should I pay more than the Assessed Value on a home?

[Stephanie C.]

I am brand new to real estate and I am looking at a single family home for my first flip. Today I went down to a distressed property that seemed like an okay deal to take a look at the inside of the home. It needs some serious work which is to be expected and the realtor offered to come down in price by $35,000 right in the beginning because there was work done on the home with out a permit.  I plan on going back on Monday with my general contractor to get a better idea of what will be need to be done to make the home bank loan-able but when I was looking up the property I noticed that the house is assessed for even lower than I was going to offer. 

As someone who is new my biggest question at the moment is why should I pay more than the assessed value?