Posts from — August 2010

Dorothea Puente’s locally famous duplex at 1426 F Street in Sacramento has sold for $215,000. This foreclosure property originally listed at $309,800 on 02/26/10 and eventually went to auction after a series of price decreases and over 150 days of market exposure.

This property has a notorious history (can you say “stigma”?) from the 1980s when seven bodies were found on the premises buried in the backyard. Dorothea Puente ran a “boarding house” at this location where she drugged and murdered  tenants to cash their social security checks.

More information? I wrote previously about this property twice: Would you buy Dorothea Puente’s house? and Dorothea Puente’s duplex is still on the market. Any takers? The Sacramento Bee published a Puente article yesterday and KCRA did a story too.

I wrote about Arden-Arcade’s quest for cityhood last week and it was great to hear from residents on both sides of the argument. Thank you for your contribution. For the sake of information and further discussion, I wanted to follow-up with unemployment rates for Arden-Arcade over the past ten years. What do you make of the data below? Data source: EDD.

The truth is that unemployment rates in most cities and CDPs in Sacramento County are really pretty discouraging across-the-board, and they serve as a reminder that we are not “out of the woods” yet (see 10 years of county rates HERE). For reference, as you digest the data below, the unemployment rate in Sacramento County in July 2001 was 4.5% and the unemployment rate for July 2010 was 13.1%. I have not done an exhaustive comparison between Arden-Arcade and other areas as of yet, but I can if readers would be interested. 

Date  /  Unemployment Rate

July 2010  -  13.0%
July 2009  -  11.7%
July 2008  -  7.3%
July 2007  –  5.7%
July 2006  -  5.1%
July 2005  -  5.2%
July 2004  –  5.8%
July 2003  -  6.0%
July 2002  -  5.9%
July 2001  -  4.5% 

I don’t know that unemployment rates are a reason for or against cityhood, but I am definitely interested to hear from residents about quality of life issues and even how specific numbers above might correlate to real life in a community. Comments are welcome.

If you’re a buyer, real estate agent or loan officer, you’re probably deeply aware that if a property built before 1978 has chipping paint, that’s a situation that needs to be cured if you are doing an FHA loan.  

Why is that? Before 1978 lead-base paint was used, so if there is a defective paint surface on a house (chipping, flaking or peeling paint), then little Johnny shouldn’t be able to pull away pieces of paint for a quick snack. That smells like a health and safety issue to me (and HUD).

What about properties built after 1978? If a house has flaking paint, but was built in 1993, does the paint surface have to be cured? Obviously there shouldn’t be lead-base paint because the house was built post-1978, so it should be okay, right?

I asked this question last week at a presentation I gave at the Sacramento Association of Realtors and I think there was some confusion in the room on this point. Here’s the deal. The defective paint surface DOES have to be cured because FHA is not okay with bare wood which could lead to wood decay and not support the longevity of the property. The rule of thumb then is that if there is a defective paint surface, regardless of the age, the surface must be properly cured.

I hope this was helpful. Keep me posted if you have any questions. Call me at 916.595.3735, email ryan@LundquistCompany.com and catch me on Facebook.

Here’s a quick trend graph for you of all sales in the Pocket-Greenhaven area of Sacramento over the past three years. What stands out to you? What do you see?

I wanted to share a website I launched today called www.goodneighborTV.com. It’s really for anyone – not just locals in my neck of the woods. It’s about community, conversation and improving neighborhoods. These are some of my very favorite topics in life. But in truth, they’re far more than mere conversations because I’m all about putting ideas into action. I should mention it’s all video too (hence the “TV”).

I have two posts up to kick things off: What does it mean to be a good neighbor? and Socks, underwear, and a sense of vision for my community. I’d love for you to check out the site if you’d like, “like” on Facebook, and let me know what you think.

I swear I don’t have some sort of water tower fetish. I posted a photo of a tower in Galt last week and now this week I’m sharing another image from the field today. While taking comp photos in the Pocket/Greenhaven area of Sacramento a few hours ago, this image stood out to me. No, it’s not the mothership from V. It’s a water tower off of Freeport Blvd.

I’m intrigued by real estate and how a certain view might impact whether a buyer will purchase a particular property or not. This water tower is not literally next to the backyard of the house above as it seems from my photo, but the view from my camera lense is really what it looks like with the naked eye. You’ll get a better sense of distance by viewing a “bird’s eye” image below from Sacramento MLS. Personally, I’m actually fond of this water tower. It has a good look and I love how it says “Sacramento: City of Trees” for passersby on Interstate 5. It probably wouldn’t bother me too much if I lived with such a view. That’s just me though.

Do you think a view of a water tower like this would turn you off? Or would any negativity associated with the water tower be offset by the positive of having no rear neighbors?

I attended and said a few words at the groundbreaking of White Rock Park in Rancho Cordova today. This is a major win for the neighborhood, the City of Rancho Cordova and the Cordova Recreation and Park District. I am so proud of this project moving forward and especially proud of the way residents handled themselves over so many meetings over the past several years. We made it a deliberate point to strike a cordial and cooperative spirit with CRPD. It’s nice to see results and wonderful to know that residents behaved decently in the midst of strong emotion over a park that has been neglected for many years. It was a huge honor for me also to get to be one of the golden shovel diggers. This is a very special day. Great work everyone!!!

Will the Arden-Arcade area of Sacramento become a city? We shall see. There is a measure on the ballot for November 2010 that puts this important decision in the hands of residents (Measure D). 

If you live in the Arden-Arcade community or have an opinion about cityhood either way, I am very curious to hear what you think, especially as it pertains to the current quality of life under Sacramento County. I’m paying close attention to this issue because it’s my professional duty to know what is happening locally, but more than that I am a resident of the newest city in the Sacramento area and my Rancho Cordova antennas are tuning in.

The image below shows boundaries for Arden-Arcade.  

Links for further reading about Arden-Arcade:

Arden-Arcade Cityhood Observer (blog)
Arden-Arcade Cityhood Website
Arden-Arcade Sacramento County Website
Arden-Arcade Wikipedia
List of Arden-Arcade Council Candidates
SNR Story: Is Sacramento cracking up? 7-10-10
Sacramento Bee: In Arden-Arcade, cityhood fever heats up again 08-18-10
Stay Sacramento Facebook Page
Stay Sacramento (opposition to cityhood)
Yes on Measure “D” Facebook Group

On Monday I wrote about my property tax refund of $398.96 from Sacramento County, and I ended up making a complimentary video. I am now using Sony Vegas HD Studio 10 and my friend Jenny is letting me take her green screen for a test drive before I purchase one myself. This was my first stab. There are some things I would do differently, but over the next few months I’ll be cranking out some more videos and honing my skills. Honestly, I REALLY enjoy making videos and it’ll be something you see more of from me.

What do you think?

People ask me sometimes what I think about websites like Zillow or Cyberhomes. In short, I don’t think computers do as good of a job appraising properties as real humans. Call me biased, but there are some things that real people can still do better than machines. However, though these websites cannot fully replace real estate appraisers, they do have a place to help gain a ballpark figure for a house (please take that with a grain of salt though because figures can still be way off). Additionally, I’m a fan of the multi-year trend graphs that Zillow produces.

The Sacramento Bee actually published an article last Friday about this very topic entitled Home Front: Appraisal sites on Net often fail to pin down accurate prices. The bottom line is that websites like Zillow seem to have greater accuracy in tract markets with ample sales, but even then they are only so good because they cannot sift through value indicators like condition, important neighborhood boundaries, upgrades, and a local appraiser’s knowledge of the market area.

I ran some test cases over recent work I have done and found the following:

- My house (tract): Zillow was 28% high / Cyberhomes was 24% high.
- Elk Grove house 2.0 acres: Zillow was 46% low / Cymberhomes had no value.
- Tract House in Davis: Cyberhomes was 4% high / Zillow was 2.5% high.
- Sacramento River property: Zillow was 40% low / Cymberhomes had no value.
- Tract House in Galt: Zillow was 9.5% high / Cyberhomes was 5.0% low.

What do you think of these websites? What do you think they’re useful for? Do me a favor and run your property by Zillow and/or Cyberhomes and let me know the results.

After returning from a camping trip to Shaver Lake this past weekend, I was very happy to find a property tax refund check had come in the mail from Sacramento County. Yes, I appealed my own property taxes in 2008 and they cut me a check to rightfully put money back in my pockets (I’ll get another check for 2009 too). If I had not disputed my property taxes, I would have never seen this refund.

What should I do with the money? Any ideas?

Brainstorming Ideas for how to spend the money:

1. Buy 228 cups of vanilla rooibos herbal tea.
2. Make a dent in the purchase of Sony Vegas Pro.
3. Flipcam.
4. Pick up two used kayaks on Craigslist.
5. Pay for the traffic violation that someone in my household recently earned.
6. Bills.
7. Buy a Micro Portable Loudspeaker Dock for iPod
8. Have glamour headshots taken to start a career as a super model.
9. Easily fund the next camping trip.

If you have any questions about how to reduce your property taxes, let me know. I run a property tax appeal website for the Greater Sacramento Region and I am glad to help you (if it makes good sense for you – if there is money to be saved).