Posts from — July 2010

I wanted to share some thoughts about neighborhoods and isolation – tied together in the analogy of a movie theatre. I thought this up tonight after a bike ride and the video was shot off the cuff. View it here or below. And yes, I did shave my beard two weeks ago and I’m not quite used to it yet. 

What do you think?

Here’s some shop talk for my fellow appraisers for some upcoming changes to appraisal standards for Fannie Mae. This is good stuff to keep in mind (even for others in the real estate industry). I’m grateful for appraisers like Bill & Tinna from REAA who are making videos like this every week. You can see their videos directly here or YouTube. You may notice a similarity to the TBWS videos too because the TBWS guys have been very generous and supportive to provide web space and video capabilities for Bill & Tinna.

Almost five months ago I wrote about Dorothea Puente’s duplex coming on the market. If you don’t know Puente’s history, she ran a “boarding house” in the 1980s out of her Sacramento Victorian duplex at 1426 F Street. She drugged and murdered  tenants to cash their social security checks. Eventually seven bodies were found buried in her backyard.

In case you were wondering, I wanted to give an update on MLS stats for this duplex that has been on the market for 148 days as of today. 

Date             Price
02/26/10   $309,800
03/23/10   $301,800
04/15/10   $292,800
05/10/10   $274,800
06/01/10   $263,800
06/23/10   $252,800
07/15/10   $237,800

It’ll be interesting to see what this property sells for in comparison to other duplex units nearby. Regardless of price, would you have any issue buying a property like this? How might a murder or other heinous circumstance impact real estate value?

I’m a fan of good news, so I wanted to share something with you. A property owner I helped last December just got word that the Sacramento County Assessor has agreed with my opinion of value for his property. They had previously assessed his Elk Grove home for 2009 property taxes at $945,000, but my company provided detailed support to show his assessed value should be at $750,000. The Assessor’s office agreed!!! This means the home owner will receive a refund check around $2,000 because he overpaid on property taxes in 2009.

This particular home owner contacted me literally a couple of days before the deadline to dispute property taxes last year. It’s a good thing he reached out too because otherwise that $2,000 refund check wouldn’t be showing up in the mail.

As a side note, when an appeal is filed and the Assessor ends up agreeing with the appeal, they’ll send you a “Tax Change Withdrawal of Application for Changed Assessment.” Basically this means they are asking you to formally agree to the new opinion of assessed value and simultaneously withdraw your appeal. Usually home owners I help have some questions during this phase because nobody wants to sign something that sounds so unfamiliar. But if the value looks good, you should sign off. There is no reason to keep the appeal in process or pursue an appeals hearing if the Assessor has already agreed to an accurate reduced value. 

I love stories like this and I’ve been hearing quite a few of them lately too. It never gets old to hear a home owner will get a refund check of $2,000. Keep me posted if it looks like you might need help or if you simply want me to check out if there is a potential savings for you. Call me at 916.595.3735 or see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

The world has changed tremendously over the past decade in terms of technology and how we communicate. I was remembering yesterday for some reason how I used to have a pager in the mid-1990s and how obsolete this device would be for me today.

As a business owner I think a lot about marketing, and reminiscing of my days of having a beeper clipped to my belt made me think of short marketing points for yesterday’s technology. These would all be irrelevant in today’s world, but it’s funny how they used to be normative or even cutting edge.

“Beep me and I’ll find a payphone to call you back right away”

“You don’t have to mail a letter. You can fax me.”

“Look me up in the yellow pages.”

“We have email.”

Can you think of other marketing slogans for outdated technology? What type of technology did you use that is no longer relevant today? Did anyone else have a pager like me?

Do you watch Foreclosure Radar’s videos? I like to check them out because it’s interesting to see some of their points in action in the local market trenches I work in each day. Based on the data, it seems like bad news on some levels for California in that Notice of Defaults increased and there were more pre-foreclosures last month too. But at the same time the number of properties that actually went back to the bank during June 2010 went down.

Are we out of the foreclosure woods? What do you think? What are you seeing in the market in the course of business or even in your own neighborhood?

Foreclosure Radar gives the following points (from YouTube): “Foreclosure filings were up in June after two months of decline. Foreclosure cancellations reached a record high of 21,962 in June, up 27.09% from May. The number of properties purchased by 3rd parties dropped by 23.73% since last month, but those properties bought were at the best margins in months. Fewer properties went back to the bank, down 23.73% from the prior month. Time-to-Foreclosure was flat month over month, but up 34.93% from June 2009. Time-to-Resell continued it’s slow ascent, up 5.95% for the banks and up 4.29% for 3rd parties.”

I mentioned previously that I was planning to get together a group of local business-minded people to read through the book “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk, so I wanted to update you on the details. Right now there are 4 members in the group and since we can accommodate 8 or so there is still room for you to join. We’ll be meeting at Rancho Cordova City Hall in the Chamber of Commerce board room on Tuesdays in August from 2:30-4:00pm. This is not an open meeting once our capacity is reached, but I wanted to give you specifics in case the time and place work for you. Thanks Barbara for working out the meeting place.

If you are interested in being a part of this group, let me know ASAP. I’d love to see a diverse group to help foster great conversation. Call 916.595.3735 or email me at ryan@LundquistCompany.com. This is about growing in business, building relationship, and thinking through ideas together.

I made this one-minute “before & after” video for a client (Housing Group Fund) to help show one of their recent first-time home buyer projects in Sacramento. I appraised this property and I have permission to post the information here. This is a block  construction house (cinder block) near the Fruitridge area that was purchased recently as a bank-owned fixer and then rehabbed extensively throughout. One of the features I really like about this remodel is that there is now sheetrock and texture on the interior walls so the house does not have a typical “block” feel to it. If you are reading in RSS, you can view the video directly here.

It’s amazing to see the difference from beginning to end. What do you think? 

Check out my guest post on local Realtor/Broker Gena Riede’s blog today. The post is entitled “Lebron James, Over-improvement & Sacramento Real Estate.”

Want to come enjoy a River Cats game on Thursday July 29, 2010? The Young Professionals Council through SAR will be hosting an opportunity to network, eat, and have a blast, but beyond that we’re going to be raising some money to support a local girl named Elle that is truly in need. Please watch the video below that I put together earlier today (or click here). Let me know if you’re interested in coming to the game. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children. The game starts at 7:05pm, but we’ll have a tailgate party at 5:00pm (food is included when you purchase a ticket). Thanks everyone.

I had several emails arrive in my inbox yesterday to announce Fannie Mae’s “new” requirements for appraisers beginning September 1, 2010. In short, one of the things they are cracking down on is that appraisers must have knowledge of the local market as well as data sources for the market. Here is a snippet from Inman News:

“Fannie Mae has put lenders on official notice that they can only use appraisers who are knowledgeable about the area in which they are being asked to value property, and who have the ability to access records on recent sales in those markets.”

I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but this is nothing new for appraisers. We are supposed to be “geographically competent” already (know the local market) and it’s unthinkable that an appraiser would attempt to do an appraisal on a property when he/she does not even have data sources. In short, I understand the need for Fannie Mae to step forward here in light of some of the horror stories from HVCC, but this isn’t an earth-shattering revelation for appraisers because USPAP (our rules) already mandates us to know the local market. However, depending on how this rule plays out, that could be the interesting part.  

My big question is how will it be determined that an appraiser is “knowledgeable about the area” where he/she is appraising? Will there be an essay test, quiz, series of questions to answer, or will it be based on the appraiser’s proximity to the property (say, the appraiser has to live nearby)?

What do you think about this new rule? How do you see it impacting the real estate market? Do you think it will increase the quality of real estate appraisals? What are the positives, negatives and potential consequences?

Would you be interested in reading through the book “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk? I put together a little business book club earlier this year and I’d like to take a stab at Round 2. The main idea is that during one month local business-minded people get together at a coffee shop once a week for 60-90 minutes to talk about a few chapters of a book. This is a short commitment, but good on a few levels. It helps us bounce around ideas, grow, learn together and form stronger relationships. This book is very well liked too, so I’m looking forward to absorbing the content together.

The last book we read was Trust Agents. Depending on our meeting location, we might just do locals only (I’ll keep you posted Bryan & Tom since you guys joined last time from Georgia & Alabama). We’ll see on that point.

I don’t have set times yet, though I’m thinking we can start in later July or the beginning of August on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 2-3:30pm. Let me know if you’re interested or if a different time works for you. I’d like to meet somewhere near the Rancho Cordova area or Sacramento. The best group size will be 8 or so people – and from different types of businesses. If it turns out that August is too busy for us based on vacations and such, then we’ll just make it happen in September when things theoretically slow down.