Posts from — July 2009

Yes. If there is an air conditioner at the subject property, it must be in working order for HUD to guarantee the loan. What if the air conditioner was stolen (that happens quite a bit with bank-owned properties)? If there is clearly supposed to be an air conditioner at the house, then it must be installed and working. Often times the owner or bank will install a new one before the close of escrow to meet this requirement. The gist is that FHA does not require an air conditioner in a house, but if one is there (or should be there), then it must work properly. Does that make sense?

If you have any questions, let me know. I am an FHA approved appraiser in the Sacramento Region and I can be reached at 916-595-3735 or www.LundquistCompany.com.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Does FHA Require the Air Conditioner to Work?

If you live in Yolo County and would like to see what the Yolo County Assessor says your property is worth for the 2009-10 property tax assessment, click HERE.

Remember, the assessment figures are supposed to be based upon the worth of your property as of January 1, 2009. If you think the Assessor didn’t get it right for your property, let’s talk soon and explore what your options are. If it makes good economic sense for you to appeal your property taxes, then we’ll be glad to provide our services to you.

By the way, per the Yolo County website, the Yolo County assessment Roll is over $20 billion and consists of more than 62,000 assessments.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com New Assessments Available in Yolo County for 2009-10 Tax Year

Here is a quick update for those interested in what is happening the “Anatolia” area of Rancho Cordova in the 95742 zip code.

There are currently 152 listings within the 95742 zip code. 45 of these properties are pending (in contract) and 77 of them are short sale actives, while the rest are typical active listings (some bank-owned and others not).

Over the past 90 days there have been a total of 70 sales in the neighborhood as shown in the following graph.

Real Estate Market Trends in 95742 Zip Code:

• 70 sales over the past 90 days (per MLS)
• Low Sale:  $175,000
• High Sale:  $495,000
• Median Price Level over past 90 Days:  $282,745
• NOTE: Most sales tend to hover around $400,000 or lower, but there is one straggler at $495,000.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the data above, the Anatolia market area, Rancho Cordova or other areas in the Greater Sacramento Region. I take pride in knowing local neighborhoods well and producing credible appraisals for estate settlement, litigation, purchase, refinance, loan modification, bankruptcy and more. Please see our company website at www.LundquistCompany.com and feel free to call 916-595-3735 or comment above for more information.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Anatolia Market Trends: 95742 Zip Code in Rancho Cordova – Past 90 Days

I wanted to put up a brief post to talk about neighborhood boundaries and how important it is to know the local market when appraising (or hunting for real estate). Often times it is obvious when a new neighborhood or housing niche begins because the style of homes change or there is a natural barrier such as railroad tracks, a main street, commercial property or a highway. Other times it is not so obvious to the unfamiliar eye.

The image below is a portion of Sacramento known as Tahoe Park South (blue), Tallac Village (green) and Fruitridge Manor (orange).

According to our uniform appraisal standards called USPAP, appraisers are to select the best available comparable sales when doing an appraisal. Lenders know this and so most of the time they have a standard requirement for the “comps” to be located within a one-mile radius from the subject property (NOTE: the best comps are not always located within a one mile radius). So when applying this lending guideline, in theory an appraiser can value a property location in the orange section (Fruitridge Manor) and then find comparables in the blue portion (Tahoe Park South), right? Well, not really because even though these housing areas are well within a one-mile radius of each other, they are actually much different market areas as illustrated with the data below.

Tahoe Park South (blue):

• 5 sales over past 90 days
• 32 sales over past 12 months
• Median price over past 90 days:  $225,000
• Current Actives:  11

Tallac Village (green)

• 20 sales over past 90 days
• 59 sales over past 12 months
• Median price over past 90 days:  $89,500
• Current Actives:  31

Fruitridge Manor (orange)

• 13 sales over past 90 days
• 66 sales over past 12 months
• Median Price over past 90 days:  $85,000
• Current Actives:  31

The most obvious difference above is the striking change once you head North of 21st Avenue from Tallac Village to Tahoe Park South. If one were comparing property values between the areas above, the median price levels alone tell you that property in the current real estate market in Tahoe Park South sells for a great deal more than Tallac Village or Fruitridge Manor. For more information on the Tahoe Park area, click HERE.

We can also see that Fruitridge Manor and Tallac Village have a similar median price level and so they appear more similar on paper. However, one important difference to note that comes from knowing the local market is that the bulk of houses in Tallac Village are block construction (yes, houses made out of block) in comparison to the typical stick-built houses in Fruitridge Manor.

Knowing local neighborhoods is important when buying a house, investing in real estate and definitely when appraising properties. This post is not meant to be exhaustive, but only briefly informative. If you have further questions or any real estate appraisal needs, you are welcome to contact me at 916-595-3735 or ryan@lundquistcompany.com.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com A Lesson in Neighborhood Boundaries: Tahoe Park, Tallac Village & Fruitridge Manor in Sacramento

Here is a video from Freddie Mac about which documents to gather before discussing a loan modification with your lender. What do you think? If you cannot see the video below if you subscribe by RSS feed, click HERE.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Tips from Freddie Mac on Which Documents You Need to Gather Before Calling Your Lender to Discuss Loan Modification

While in Newman, CA today on an appraisal inspection I snapped the following image of a vacant site that will someday be Hurd Barrington Elementary School. According to the Newman Crows Landing Unified School District (NCLUSD), ground for this school was broken in July 2009.

Vacant residential and commercial sites are fairly common in today’s market when considering developments that are newer in age (and ones that were not quite built out before the real estate bubble burst). Whenever I see an image as such, or even vacant residential lots, a “coming soon” sign for a neighborhood park or commercial area, I always think of the phrase “a sign of the times”.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Vacant Site in Newman, CA: Photo from the Field

If you live in Placer County and would like to see what the Placer County Assessor says your house is worth, click HERE. Please note that the aforementioned link to the Assessor website asks you to provide your parcel number in order to view your assessed value.

If you don’t know your parcel number or need some help looking it up, just give me a call at 916-595-3735 and I’ll look it up for you (or I can email it to you). I am happy to help where I can. Remember, the assessment figures are supposed to be based upon the worth of your property as of January 1, 2009. If you think the Assessor didn’t get it right for your property, let’s talk soon and explore what your options are. If it makes good economic sense for you to appeal your property taxes, then we’ll be glad to provide our services to you.

By the way, according to the Placer County Assessor: The 2009-2010 Placer County Property Assessment Roll consists of 174,088 assessments with a value of $ 56.5 billion dollars.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com New Assessments Available in Placer County for 2009-10 Tax Year

What does HUD say about water heaters? First and foremost, the water heater must work and must be able to do its job. This is not a revolutionary concept, but if there is no hot water coming out the faucet when there should be, then clearly there is an issue to be solved. Testing the water temperature and water pressure is something that appraisers do during an FHA property inspection. Secondly, if local code states that the water heater must be strapped, then HUD requires a strap. 

If you have any questions about FHA standards or FHA real estate appraisals in the Sacramento Region, give me a call at 916-595-3735 or shoot me an email at info@LundquistCompany.com.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com What does FHA say about water heaters?

Here is one quick tid-bit for FHA appraisal inspections:

Does FHA allow bare wood on the exterior of a house?  No. Regardless of the age of the house (pre-1978 or newer), wood must not be bare and exposed directly to the elements. This goes for both the house and any structure on the property (outbuilding, shed, barn…). 

Regarding required repairs, it is common for HUD to require repairs when there is bare wood, a defective paint surface (chipping, flaking, cracking or peeling paint) or evidence of active infestation by wood destroying insects. In these instances, the first step is to cure the defective paint surface or replace the damaged wood if applicable and make sure to properly seal the structure (sealant or paint). 

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am experienced with FHA appraisals and I am doing quite a few of them these days. Lenders, banks, loan officers, brokers and home owners can still choose their own appraiser for FHA deals and I would be very glad to be selected by you.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Does FHA Allow Bare Wood? – A Tidbit for FHA Appraisal Inspections in the Sacramento Area

I’ll be honest. As a father of two small children, it gets to me a bit to see toys and kid stuff left behind at properties I inspect. Since I do appraisals for companies that manage foreclosure inventory for banks, I often end up being one of the first people to enter a house once the previous owners are gone and new locks have been installed. It’s telling to see what people leave behind, and the various bits of rubbish and leftovers almost give a glimpse into what used to go on in the house. This is a job that someone has to do because the house needs to resell, but it’s a bit raw to see remnants of people’s lives.

There is so much talk about the economy and foreclosures. It seems easy to gloss over statistics about defaults, rising unemployment and a coming wave of foreclosures, but it’s important to keep in perspective that real people are behind the data.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Toys Left Behind at Bank-Owned Properties

What do you think of our new video? We help home owners in the Greater Sacramento Region appeal their property taxes and the video below is geared toward the Anatolia Neighborhood in Rancho Cordova. You can see our regional video HERE. Have a look below or view our YouTube page at www.youtube.com/lundquistco to sneak a peek at all videos.

We are glad to help home owners understand the process of appealing property taxes and we can take a closer look at your situation so that we can figure out if it even makes sense for you to dispute your taxes this year. We serve home owners in the following counties: Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Yuba, Sutter and Solano. We cover a wide territory and we’ve been getting a good deal of phone calls and business lately from curious home owners throughout the Sacramento Region.

Our phone number is 916-595-3735 and our regional tax appeal website is located at www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com. You are welcome to email us too at info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com How to Appeal Property Taxes in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Solano, Stanislaus, Merced, Yuba & Sutter Counties

It’s interesting to see how people find my website. I am able to see basic data every day for how readers get here. I only see the words people type in search engines – nothing more. I wanted to provide a bit more information for readers below from a few of the most recent search results:

“getting your house appraised for a loan”

Answer:  I don’t know exactly where you were going with this, but I’ll take a stab. For mostly any loan you will need a real estate appraisal (and therefore a real estate appraiser to inspect your property). Most of the time these days you will not be able to choose your own appraiser due to HVCC – see below (unless doing an FHA loan or a loan not affiliated with Fannie Mae). People ask me all the time what they should do to prepare for an appraiser to come to their home. Other than being greeted with fresh cookies, hot coffee and biscotti (just kidding), it’s not a bad idea to have your house semi-clean and make sure that the appraiser will have access to each room. If the appraiser cannot observe all rooms and spaces within the house and on the property, then there is a good chance the appraiser will have to come back for another inspection.

“date HVCC went into effect”

Answer:  May 1, 2009. To read more about HVCC, click HERE. “HVCC” stands for the “Home Valuation Code of Conduct” and there have been quite a few articles lately on the subject.

“FHA appraisal interior cracks”

Answer:  FHA appraisals are the rage in the marketplace right now. From a lending standpoint there are different guidelines for FHA loans as opposed to conventional loans geared toward Fannie Mae. This of course means that FHA qualified appraisers are mandated to follow certain standards set forth by HUD. Do interior cracks matter to HUD? Well, what do they look like? How big are they? Where do they come from? Could these cracks suggest a lack of structural integrity or are they simply evidence of an older house and/or depreciation? This is not an easy question to answer without observing the property personally. HUD is primarily concerned with safety, soundness and security, and so if there are any issues with the property that might compromise safety, soundness or security (or any of the very specific minimum requirements HUD has laid out), then the cracks could be something warranting further investigation. But then again, they could be no big deal at all.

“Rocklin Tax Assessor”

Answer:  People find this website on a daily basis by searching for items such as “Rocklin Tax Assessor,” “Rancho Cordova property taxes”, “Fair Oaks taxes” and more. Keep in mind that our local cities do not collect property taxes from us. The county in which the property is located handles property tax assessment and collection. In the case of Rocklin, that would be the Placer County Assessor. If you do happen to need help disputing your property taxes, you are invited to poke around our property tax appeal website HERE.

I hope these brief answers were helpful. I’ll continue to answer questions I find from search engine results, but I am more than happy to answer questions via email or phone too.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Search Engine Answers from the Sacramento Appraisal Blog