While snapping comp photos in a North Highlands neighborhood today, I came across this house. I thought it was very interesting because the addition is absolutely obvious, don’t you think? It’s unfortunately a bit hard to tell from the angle of the photo, but the 2-story unit with brownish stucco exterior is actually attached to the single-story unit with yellowish siding. Which came first?

Curiosity killed the cat, and it also got to me here. When returning to my office, I looked up this property in Tax Records and Metrolist. It’s interesting to see the last purchase in 2008 as a single-story single family residential property, but it has since been converted to a duplex per Tax Records (hence the 2-story attached addition). The interesting notion too is the effective age for this property. How old is it? Well, the single story unit is roughly 50 years old and the new unit is roughly three years old. If you were asked to give one overall age for the duplex, what would you say? 26.5? ((50 + 3) / 2 = 26.5)

What do you think?

If you have any real estate appraisal, valuation consulting, or property tax appeal needs, contact me at 916.595.3735, www.LundquistCompany.com or via Facebook.

It was an honor to have local Realtor David Yaffee interview me the other day about what appraisers look for during an FHA inspection. We also ended up talking about property taxes a bit too. Thanks David. I really appreciate the opportunity. Keep up the great work and the resourceful videos!!

Check out David’s website at www.DavidYafeeTV.com, his post featuring this video, his Facebook page, and his Twitter (@DavidYaffee).

Let me know if you have questions, insight, or any real estate appraisal or property tax consulting needs. If you are a local real estate or loan office in the Sacramento area, I’m happy to come and give my FHA presentation. Contact me at 916.595.3735, on my company website, or on Facebook.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago about getting a new phone for my appraisal business. Well, during some time off last week I bought a myTouch 4G by T-Mobile. This is definitely an upgrade from my G1.

The features I like most so far about the myTouch4G include: the internet speed is so much faster than my previous phone, it plays flash videos, tethering, two camera lenses, there is a flash on the camera, it’s very easy to sync with Google apps, the flashlight app is far more than just a lit-up screen, it has a decent camera and a great video camera, no dropped calls yet, and there are seven screens. It doesn’t have a pull-out keyboard, which I thought would be a deal-killer for me, but I’ve adjusted quite easily to the on-screen touch keyboard.

Here is a video overview of the myTouch 4G below (or an external link). 

On the job I anticipate using the following apps and features the most: Square (to accept credit card payments by phone), flashlight, video, camera, email and internet of course, social networking to connect with clients, Google Voice, Google Calendar, and Google Maps. The phone does have a video chat feature, but I don’t know that I’ll really use that during the business day.

Having the right technology for business these days is very important to me so I can stay in touch with clients and be a quick resource as needed. What tech gadgets make your business run smoothly?

One of the tools in my real estate utility belt is making trend graphs. Why is this important? I find that being able to visually display all sales or listings on a graph is a very convincing resource. For example, when a home owner hires me to do an appraisal for bankruptcy or any other reason, and I include graphs of historic sales over the past three years, sales over the last twelve months, and then other graphs showing sales for 3-bedroom units, and properties similar in size to the owner’s house, it’s easy to begin to get a picture of what is happening in the real estate market. The great thing too is that you can graph so many different facets, whether square footage, age, date, bed-count, days on market, short sales vs. REOs vs typical sales, etc…

You can see some examples of trend graphs here if you wish. For now, I made a brief video tutorial to help local Realtors and real estate professionals in the Sacramento area export and work with data from our local MLS. It’s a huge benfit to be able to share things like this with clients, and once you have a little practice, you can crank out graphs very quickly. And don’t worry, if you don’t have Excel on your computer, simply download Gnumeric for free.

If you have any questions, let me know, particularly if you are a local Realtor. Call me at 916.595.3735 or connect with me on Facebook.

Last week a client invited me to speak to his office staff to help them understand how to build a successful blog for their real estate business. I was excited for the opportunity because it’s always nice to add value where I can. We talked about the relevance of using a blog as a tool to establish an online presence and why blogs are important. It was very practical too in that I set them up with usernames, and we even wrote a blog post on the spot. Learning should be experiential, right?  

I figured some of the content from my presentation might be useful to others, so I uploaded a 15-minute audio-video tutorial. Let me know what you think. 

If you work in the real estate field near Sacramento and I can help you sift through the world of blogging and building an online presence, let’s connect at 916.595.3735 or catch me on Facebook.

Any questions? What tips would you add to the mix?

Here is a before and after image of a house in the “Oak Park” area of Sacramento that one of my clients rehabbed recently. It’s a joy to see properties like this get an “extreme makeover” because it’s great for the community and wonderful for one lucky buyer too. The previous stairs were apparently failing, and so someone built a very shoddy walkway on top of them (don’t miss the huge pile of dirt underneath too). The new stairs are quite an improvement, don’t you think? Neighbors just might appreciate the upgrade too.  

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?

Put on your economist hat and let’s take a look at the past decade of unemployment rates in Sacramento County based on the month of June. What do you see? Comments are welcome below.

June 2010     12.6%
June 2009     11.5%
June 2008     6.9%
June 2007     5.4%
June 2006     4.9%
June 2005     5.1%
June 2004     5.9%
June 2003     6.3%
June 2002     5.8%
June 2001     4.5%

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?

I took this photo a few days back as a comp photo for an appraisal I’m doing near the Del Paso Heights area of Sacramento. This image tells an obvious story of a new roof being installed – but not just a newer roof, but a different type of roof. The house is being transformed from flat to hipped in style. The first image is an MLS photo.

The interesting thing to note while driving through this neighborhood is that there was at least one other house having a gable or hipped roof installed. Moreover, though there are still quite a few flat roofs in this neighborhood, many roofs have already been converted to a higher pitch. I’ve seen this same phenomenon in West Sacramento too. Does this say anything about the market?

Which style of roof do you prefer?

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? 

A local Realtor called me yesterday asking if I had any resources to help her find the owner occupancy rates for a particular zip code in the Sacramento area. One of her investor clients needed more specific information about a neighborhood he is considering buying in.

Off the top of my head, I suggested the Census Bureau or maybe the Post Office or city websites (for free resources), but through the course of research and conversation with colleagues on the REAA forum, I now have a pretty good list to give to my Realtor contact. I figured this information might be useful to others, so here you go.

United States Census Bureau
Motovo “neighborhood” search (www.movoto.com)
Brainy Zip (www.brainyzip.com)
Neighborhood Scout (www.neighborhoodscout.com)
City Data (www.city-data.com)
Tax Records Search (www.realist.com) – paid service – available through MLS

Do you have any other resources to add? Comment below. Also, what other websites do you think investors or home owners should take a look at before making a purchase?