Posts from — June 2010

I’m doing some research for a duplex in South Sacramento. I thought readers would be interested to see a trend graph of all sales over the past twelve months for 2-4 unit properties (duplex, triplex, fourplex) within the South Sacramento & Fruitridge market area. It’s amazing to see how low prices have come down. In 2005, for example, something would have been sincerely wrong to see a residential-income property selling anywhere near $100,000 (or below). For reference, 67% of the sales below were REO and 19% were Short Sales.

What do you see? Also, how have you seen the decline in property value impact rents in the Sacramento area? 

If you woke up this morning itching to see a macro glance at the real estate market in Roseville, you’re in luck. I’m doing some research in the city of Roseville and I wanted to give a glimpse into sales over the past 18 months as well as current listings.

What do you see? Does anything stand out to you? What does it look like the market has done at the high and low end?

Is this still considered a built-in microwave? It’s a marketing feature too, right? Just be careful when taking out your Lean Cuisine or Hot Pockets because they might slide out to splatter you.

There is often a stigma for properties that are listed as “foreclosures”, so it’s no wonder that bank-owned homes tend to sell for less than regular non-distressed transactions. However, consider too that many times REO properties need things like interior paint, carpet, and even new microwaves (and kitchen repairs) like this Sacramento area house. So foreclosures will sell for less than typical arms-length transactions in many cases, but not just because of the REO stigma, but due to obvious condition issues.  

This is a quick reminder that new property tax assessments will be coming out for Sacramento County on July 6, 2010. The Sacramento County Assessor will post them on their website here. Make sure to check out your property to ensure the Assessor has your house valued correctly. These new assessment figures should be based on the value of your property on January 1, 2010. Please let me know if you have any questions and see my property tax appeal website if you think you might be a candidate to dispute your property taxes or if you’d like us to investigate your property further (for free).

By the way, I just got word last week that the Assessor agreed to reduce property taxes by 28% for a local home owner I helped last year. That’s what I like to hear!!!

Last week I headed to Kansas City for the All-America City Awards as a part of the delegation from the City of Rancho Cordova. I am very pleased to announce that Rancho Cordova is now recognized by the National Civic League as an “All-America City”. This prestigious award means a great deal for the community at large and it was an incredible honor to be involved. It was a fantastic bonding time for the team too, and so nice to meet many great citizens from across the United States.

I made three videos while in Kansas City as a way to stay in touch with everyone back home (and a total of 7 videos over the past week). It was neat to see so many people using YouTube, Twitter & Facebook to include others in the All-America City quest. This shows again how social media is changing the way we are able to communicate.

You can see our team’s presentation here, some of Andy Gee’s photos here, several videos I shot here, and follow the #allamericacity twitter stream too.

Online All-America City Articles (added 06-29-10)

• Rancho Cordova Post
• Sacramento Press
• Sacramento Business Journal
• Cordova Community Council
• City of Rancho Cordova Website
• Grapevine Independent

We had our final All-America City team meeting last night before our Rancho Cordova delgation makes the trek to Kansas City over the next few days. We’ll be competing with about 25 other finalists for the honor of being crowned as an “All-America City.” We’ll give a 10-minute presentation on Thursday morning, so wish us luck. I put together a fun one-minute “Rocky” video from our team gathering last night. What do you think? Watch below or here. I’m so excited for this week. Once I knock out a couple days of work, I’m out of here.

Here is some helpful information on condominiums for FHA/HUD, whether you are in the Sacramento area or elsewhere. I wrote previously about FHA condo issues here. This is straight from HUD:

Effective on Monday, June 14, 2010, all condominium inquiries, telephone and email, must be submitted to the FHA Resource Center at: (800)225-5342 or by email at info@fhaoutreach.com. The FHA Resource Center will provide responses to general inquiries received from consumers and industry partners. Responses requiring technical knowledge will be escalated to the jurisdictional Homeownership Center for review and response.

Before contacting the FHA Resource Center, it is recommended that you use
the following resources to search for answer(s) to your question(s).

1. Check to see if your question is already included in the Condo FAQs currently posted on the web here (pdf).

2. To determine if a project is on the FHA Approved List or to obtain the FHA concentration please visit this web page and input the condominium project name or the Condo ID. It is recommended that only the first few letters be entered to return a complete list. If the project is not listed it will require FHA approval.

3. FHA provides the FHA Concentration percentage information on the Condo List Screen. If the percentage is not identified or incorrect, provide documentation to the jurisdictional Homeownership Center so that the system can be updated. This information would include the first two pages of the appraisal or a letter from the HOA providing the number of units in the project.

4. What is the process for obtaining project approval? For documentation and processing requirements, please refer to ML 2009-46B and ML 2009-46A, which can be found on this website (or directly as a PDF here and here).

Good luck everyone. I hope you find what you’re looking for. Make sure to read all the information from the above links. Keep me posted if there is ever anything I can do.

As I mentioned previously, I’ll be heading to Kansas City next week as a part of delegation from the city of Rancho Cordova for the All-America City Awards. I wanted to invite you to follow this exciting journey next Wednesday through Friday through videos, Facebook & Twitter. Technology is going to help us connect!!! It should be great fun. Watch the videos below or here and here.

I’ll be posting from Kansas City mainly from my Twitter account @SacAppraiser and I’ll be getting some videos up at www.facebook.com/Project680 (directly on my YouTube page at www.youtube.com/lundquistco). The official hash-tag on Twitter is #AllAmericaCity (note it is not “American”, but “America”). I’d love to hear from you during my stint in Kansas City. Your support will be a huge encouragement.

This is a real honor for me to represent Project 680 and my city. Go Rancho Cordova!!!!

This morning I enjoyed a business meeting at the Sheraton Grand in Downtown Sacramento that was largely focused on technology. This was a California Association of Realtors YPN meeting . It was nice to see a few Realtor friends, connect with some new faces, and be resourced with new Android phone apps I was not previously aware of. Check these out and let me know what you think.

Evernote: This app allows you to “create text notes, snap photos, and record audio.” It might be useful for snapping a quick photo of a business card and keeping it stored on file, a reminder to call someone, or maybe an audio note to not forget to pick up the pasta from the store on the way home.

Calendar Pad: I should have had this app already, but I never came across it. Calendar Pad is great because it syncs with my Google calendar, so I can very easily run my schedule no matter if I’m on my PC or Droid. Very nice.

COL Reminder: This app is great for remembering certain important details, whether a parking time, telephone call to make, appointment, etc… While the speaker at C.A.R. YPN was talking early this morning, I downloaded this app from the Android market and then put it into use to help me remember that my two-hour parking was going to expire at 9am. I like that I can make this app work for me by sending me a reminder anytime I want – a few minutes, an hour, or a few days from now.

Gist: I’m interested to test drive this app to see if it’ll work out for me. As explained on the app website, “You can now see complete business profiles for your contacts including updates from social networks like Facebook and Twitter, mentions in the news, and email correspondence across inboxes.” I’m not sold that this app will really fit my style, but what I do like is that if I want to keep up with what just a few friends or clients are doing on social media, I can make that happen with Gist. When you first join a social network, it’s easy to keep up, but then when you get a few hundred friends on Facebook and Twitter, it’s not too hard to lose track of certain people because they get lost in the haystack so speak. You can see a video for details.

What phone apps do you use for business and life? Have you come across any new really useful (or fun) apps lately?

If you live in the Greater Sacramento Region and you’re wondering how to lower your property taxes, you’ve come to the right place. Here is my advice though. Before you make a decision to hire someone to help you reduce your property taxes (including my tax appeal company), wait until new assessments come out to determine if there is a real savings to be had. If you live in Sacramento or Placer County, for example, the Assessor has not yet posted their latest assessments yet, so it doesn’t make much sense to dispute your taxes until you know what their assessment is going to be for 2010.

Why am I telling you this? Because I am committed to being honest with you about the property tax appeals process and how you can save money. If it looks like the Assessor has your value wrong, I am glad to partner with you to help the Assessor understand true market value. My company’s fees are very reasonable too. On the other hand, if it looks like the Assessor has your property assessed accurately, you don’t need to do a thing.

If you want me to send you an email reminder when new assessments come out, click “contact” in the upper right hand corner of my tax appeal website, and I’ll get in touch with you soon. For now, if you have any questions about appealing your property taxes, or if there is anything I can do for you, let me know. Thank you.

By the way, the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office typically publishes their new assessments in the month of May, but right now they are expecting to get this information out at the very beginning of July. You can expect Placer County to get their information out in July also.

Sacramento Region Property Tax Appeals
TEL: 916.595.3735
FAX: 916.361.1964
www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com
info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com

NOTE: This advice is good for a traditional “decline in value” tax appeal only (it’s not applicable to a base year appeal or calamity reassessment….).

I had to run an errand in between typing reports today and I came across this gem near Bradshaw Road and Highway 50 in Sacramento. I took a double take and this definitely gave me a chuckle. What do you see when you first glance at the website? Do you think it might have been an advantage to have the “d” and “e” capitalized.

What marketing lessons can we learn here?

If you have not been to the Sacramento Central Farmers Market, I highly recommend it. This weekly market takes place on Sundays between 8-12pm off of 8th and W Street near Downtown Sacramento. There are some really great deals for organic fruits, veggies and meat, especially if you go toward the end of the day. We came home with bags full of stuff yesterday for only $20.00. Other than the savings and fresh food, what I appreciate about this market is the location directly under Highway 50. Yes, it’s a bit noisy, but there is always shade, and I’m a huge fan of creative uses like this for locations that would normally not be traveled much at all. 

Does anyone shop here? What other markets do you recommend?