I get questions all the time from Realtors, loan officers, and prospective home owners about chipping paint. Does a defective paint surface need to be cured for FHA to guarentee a loan? Does FHA have different standards for properties built before and after 1978 (when lead-base paint was discontinued for residential use)? Watch the video below to find out. 

I hope this video was helpful and served to begin to shed some light on HUD’s standard for a defective paint surface. Keep me posted if you have any questions. Feel free to email, call 916.595.3735 or comment below.

There are about 3,000 Streng homes in the Sacramento area, and I just finished appraising one recently. I have valued quite a few Streng homes through the years since they show up in many local communities.

You may be wondering what in the world a “Streng” home is, so let me break it down in a nutshell. A Streng home is a mid-century modern (MCM) home built by the Streng Brothers and designed by Carter Sparks. Strengs have a modern feel to them, lower pitched roofs, high windows, few windows in front, skylights in many cases, and they often have terrariums too. Strengs were influenced by Bay Area builder Joe Eichler.

Here is a photo of a Streng home in Elk Grove:

An article from “The Beam Guy’s” website helps give insight into Steng homes.

The Streng Brothers seemed to have had an almost intuitive grasp of where the valley was headed, and what was needed. The enclaves are not sprawling, endlessly repeating, cookie-cutter tracts – they’re neighborhoods. Some (River City & Evergreen Commons) even include private parks that foster a safe and family friendly place to create that all-important sense of community. These homes were affordable, and the Streng Brothers fought for and received FHA approval — a legacy that is still profoundly shaping these lovely neighborhoods. Many are still filled with teachers, professors, and a variety of other professionals. Several have neighborhood associations with an online presence — filled with photos, upcoming events, residents’ stories, and even favorite recipes (see the links on the far left).

 Although categorized as mid-century modern (a.k.a. MCM, Postwar Modern, or California Modern), deserving of historic note and preservation, these homes truly were forward looking. They fit today’s “modern” lifestyle seamlessly. The Streng Bros. worked with Carter Sparks to create a home, uniquely suited to the hot Sacramento valley: interior atriums domed with tinted acrylic to block heat, exposed aggregate flooring enhances cooling, open living areas allow free flowing AC, and lots of natural sunlight without the “hotbox” effect.  Moreover, these homes provide a private retreat from the hectic 21st century world, with front exteriors that are setback and substantially closed-off from the road, and back exteriors with lots of windows and sliders that tend to open into beautifully landscaped backyards and patios.

Here are some relevant links in case you’re interested in Streng properties.

Blog cataloging restoration of an Eichler home in Land Park
Eichler Network
Floor Plans for Streng Homes
Modern Valley Blog
Pictures of Streng Houses on Flickr
Sacramento Bee Article
Sacramento Mid-Century Modern Tour
Streng Brothers Homes

If you live in or have lived in a Streng home (or would like to), I’m curious to hear your thoughts about Strengs. What attracts you to the design? What do you like most? Anything you don’t like? Or if you’re in real estate, have you sold many Strengs? In your mind, what is the perception among buyers for Streng homes?

I’m doing some research in the Meadowview area of South Sacramento right now, and I wanted to share a trend graph. Check out the past three years of sales for all properties south of Meadowview Road, east of Freeport Blvd, west of Detroit Blvd, and north of vacant land (excluding newer construction built in the past ten years – that’s really a different market despite being located in the same boundaries).

Based on the graph above, when do you think a wave of foreclosures hit the market in the past three years? You got it right. The market was really hurting during the last quarter of 2008 and the first couple quarters of 2009. There is evidence that the market was already struggling in 2007, but the decline really went into high gear in the latter part of 2008. This release of the foreclosure floodgates caused a hefty and quick decline in property value as can be seen above. You can see also that the market has since since experienced some recovery. In my opinion, beyond inventory decreasing, one of the things that has helped to shape property value over the past couple years in this neighborhood is investors purchasing and flipping properties. There have been an enormous amount of flips in this area.

If you have any questions, let me know. You can give me a call at 916.595.3735, email me, or comment below.

Property owners ask me this question every year….. often after the deadline has already passed. The last date to dispute your property taxes in Sacramento County and in many surrounding counties is November 30, 2010. This deadline is for a typical “decline in value” reassessment. See the video below or share with friends.

If you have any questions or a need to convince the Assessor’s Office of the true value of your home, contact my property tax appeal company at 916.595.3735 or see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

I wanted to give you a little tour of a dark boarded fixer-upper house in South Sacramento. Honestly, sometimes it feels a bit creepy to inspect houses like this because utilities are off and every window and door is boarded with plywood. You never know what or who might be lurking in the darkness, right? 

As always, I had permission from my client to shoot and share video. I take client confidentiality very seriously for every appraisal I do, and I never share information on my blog or elsewhere that is confidential.

Let me know if you have any questions. Call me at 916.595.3735, send me an email, or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.

What do you think of the video?

Numbers can tell us anything. For instance, we can look at median price or price per square foot for a particular neighborhood or zip code, but these figures do not necessarily reflect specific market value for a specific property, do they? For example, let’s glance at a condominium subdivision in the 95825 zip code of Sacramento as an illustration. The median price for the year for the entire subdivision (all sales listed below) is around $70,000. However, this figure alone does very little to help us understand the market because there is a clear distinction between 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units, isn’t there? You can see below that 1-bedroom condos are bracketed between $45,000-$65,000 whereas 2-bedroom units sold between $75,000-90,000 more or less (with only one 2-bedroom condo above $100,000).

So how much is the market willing to pay for an extra bedroom in this complex? Before reading the next few sentences, you be the appraiser and tell me. Based on the graph above it looks like the difference in price between 1 and 2-bedroom condos is generally about $25,000-$35,000 (plus or minus). Other factors to consider in the valuation process of course would be floor location, condition, level of upgrades, location of the unit (next to swimming pool, secluded, backs busy street, interior unit, etc…). 

Why do you think the market is willing to pay so much more for a 2-bedroom unit? What advantages does a two-bedroom have that a one-bedroom does not? I’d love to hear your insight.

If you have any questions about the appraisal process or condominiums in the Greater Sacramento Region, give me a call at 916.595.3735, email me, or catch me on Facebook.

Now that the first Tuesday has passed and the polls are closed, let me give a few comments about real estate-related measures and propositions on the ballot yesterday in the Sacramento area.  

Measure D: A vote on Arden-Arcade Cityhood
Residents voted very strongly against the Arden-Arcade area of Sacramento becoming a city. Based on conversations with residents and signage over the past two months, it seemed like the “no” vote was strong, but it was actually overwhelmingly strong with 76.05% of the vote against cityhood. The most recent areas in Sacramento County to become cities have been Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights & Elk Grove, but Arden-Arcade will not join their ranks anytime soon.

A blog post on the “Stay Sacramento” website today says the following:

In a lopsided win, Measure D went down to a sounding defeat with gathering only 23% of the vote to an overwhelming 76% of voters who said no to this risky venture. It was a passionate fight on both sides but the majority vote won out to prevent another layer of government coming to our region. Today it is time to forge forward and work together to make our communities better. We hope those who supported Measure D will join us in our efforts.

Proposition 19: Legalization of Marijuana.
This proposition did not pass, so I suppose I’ll continue to see more tomato and cucumber plants in backyards of properties I inspect instead of cannabis. 58.97% of voters said “no” to the legalization of marijuana. Speaking of pot, I just looked up half-a-dozen local pot house comps for a local Realtor who recently listed a former “growing facility” in a nearby community. Would you purchase a house that was formerly used for marijuana cultivation?

Any thoughts on the propositions above or any others that you feel impact real estate?

I’ve been doing some research and appraisal work in Rancho Murieta lately and figured I’d share a graph. These are all sales in both Rancho Mureita North and Rancho Murieta South over the past four years. I like Rancho Murieta. I was just emailing with a home owner this morning about foundation issues in the “South” too. What do you see in the graph below?

Let me know if you have any questions as market data is certainly fresh in my mind. Do keep me posted also if you have any real estate appraisal needs – whether estate settlement, bankruptcy, divorce, or a second opinion of value, among other reasons. It’s always a pleasure to serve local home owners.

Let me give you a little tour of a South Sacramento bank-owned property. Why do foreclosures often sell for less? Beyond any stigma for being ”bank-owned” and banks pricing these properties to move quickly, there is a very obvious reason why these REOs sell for less. They’re often not in very good condition – at all.

This is a very typical foreclosure scenario, so it’s no wonder why arms-length sales are usually not comparable and tend to sell for more. They’re usually in better condition and they come without a “distressed” nature.

By the way, what do you think of the bathroom. Is that mold? What is it?

My client did give me permission to share this video, by the way. If you have any questions, let me know. Give me a call at 916.595.3575, shoot me an email, or catch me on Facebook.

I had a local Realtor interview me today on video about the real estate market in Sacramento, HVCC, tax appeals, and a ton of other stuff. His video will go live next week, and I’m excited for that. That’s not really the point of this post though. I mention this because on my drive home from my video conversation, I found myself thinking about market value, low appraisals and an essay written by Patrick Egger (HERE – pdf). Here is an off-the-cuff unscripted podcast (as you’ll notice I mix up 282 and 283): 

At some point around June 2009 the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office should be mailing a letter to certain households stating that the Assessor has lowered the assessed value on particular homes (if they determined that value declined). Don’t worry, if you are located in Placer, El Dorado, Yolo, San Joaquin, Solano or any other local county, you may also be getting a letter.

Here is the scenario: You purchased your home in the Sacramento Region for $550,000 in 2005 and so you were paying about $6,000 in property tax based upon 1.25% (the maximum percentage in CA). The assessed value of your home was based upon the purchase price which was assumed to be fair market value at the time of sale. Your home has since declined in value over time and the Assessor says your home is now worth $450,000. Thankfully your current taxes get bumped down then to around $5,500 based on the adjusted assessment at $450,000.

This is wonderful news, right? You are happy to save five hundred dollars and the Assessor looks really good too in light of gaining a ton of positive publicity in the media because he has “lowered property taxes”. This should be great cause for celebration, but the only problem is that your home is actually worth somewhere between $375,000 and $400,000 rather than $450,000. In effect, this means that you are paying for $50,000-$75,000 of value that you don’t actually have. In essence, this comes out to paying $500 to $750 out of your pocket each year that you should not have to pay.

This is only a mild scenario. There are home owners in niches of surrounding counties that are paying way more than $500 too much each year because the assessment is off by $100,000-$400,000.

Think about your property tax assessment this way:

• Assessed Value $25,000 too high = you overpay by $250 per year
• Assessed Value $50,000 too high = you overpay by $500 per year 
• Assessed Value $100,000 too high = you overpay by $1,000 per year
• Assessed Value $150,000 too high = you overpay by $1,500 per year
• Assessed Value $200,000 too high = you overpay by $2,000 per year

What are your options?

1) Do nothing. Surprisingly, this is often an option that many people choose because appealing property taxes is unfamiliar turf that people sometimes just don’t know how to handle. Or life is busy and this whole process seems like a pain to deal with. But are you comfortable paying even $50 extra per month to the County? What else could you be doing with that extra $500 each year?

2) Pay a minimal fee to me to handle the entire situation for you. I can do all the research, stand before the appeals board on your behalf, make charts and graphs, assess neighborhood trends, and put together convincing evidence for a lowered opinion of value – a true reflection of the real estate market. You have a potential to save a great deal of money each year.

Taxes are a part of life and there is no escaping them, but we don’t want to pay a penny more than we have to. Make sure that you are keeping your hard-earned money in your pockets by paying your fair share of property tax and no more. Please contact me at 916-595-3735 for any details.

The “Arden Manor” neighborhood is located off of Watt Avenue just South of Arden Way and West of the “Arden Park” area. The map below depicts the boundaries of what is referred to as ”Arden Manor”. The subdivisions due West, East & South tend to have larger houses and lot sizes and are deemed less comparable to Arden Manor.

The Arden Manor subdivision consists of single-story houses for the most part which range from 2-3 bedrooms typically. Houses usually have a 1-car garage and tend to be between 930-1200 square feet in size (930 and 1081 are two of the most common sizes). There are a number of households with either converted garages or additions. I have appraised quite a few houses in this neighborhood over the years.

Below are two trend graphs to depict sales over the past 36 months as well as current listings in Arden Manor as of today. 

If you have any questions regarding “Arden Manor” real estate market trends or have any appraisal-related needs in the Sacramento Region, please give me a call at 916-595-3735 or shoot me an email at ryan [at] lundquistcompany [dot] com. Our company website is located at www.lundquistcompany.com.