• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Sacramento Appraisal Blog | Real Estate Appraiser

Real estate appraisals for divorce, estate settlement, loans, property tax appeal, pre-listing and more. We cover Sacramento, Placer and Yolo County. We're professional, courteous and timely.

  • About
  • Appraisals
  • Order
  • Ask Ryan
  • Areas
  • Classes
  • Press
  • Trends
  • Share
  • Contact

Sacramento Real Estate Appraiser

Unemployment declined from March to April in Sacramento County

May 21, 2012 By Ryan Lundquist 2 Comments

New unemployment stats are out for Sacramento County. The unemployment rate dropped from 11.4% to 10.5% from March to April 2012. This is a big drop for one month, so we’ll have to see what coming months yield to see if this is just a blip or not. Whatever the case, it’s nice to see the overall downward trend in unemployment over the past year. It’ll only mean good news for the housing market to keep seeing this number decline. Source: EDD.

Unemployment Rate January 2009 to April 2012 - by Sacramento Home Appraiser - 530 pixels

Here is a graph of unemployment in Sacramento County since 1990 to give a panoramic view of the job market. It’s amazing to consider the history of where we’ve been (and maybe a bit depressing too).

Unemployment in April 2012 - graph by Sacramento Appraiser - 530 pixels

Do you want to share these graphs? If you’d like to use these graphs on your blog or website to be a resource to your readers and clients, please do so. If you need a larger size for a presentation or newsletter (or your blog), let me know. Please see my sharing policy for details. As always, thank you for linking back to me and keeping my images intact. It’s a huge honor when others share my content.

What do you see above? Anything stand out to you?

If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Twitter, subscribe to posts by email or “like” my page on Facebook

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Market Trends, Resources Tagged With: economy in Sacramento, EDD, Graph of unemployment, Home Appraiser, House Appraiser, jobs and housing market, jobs in sacramento county, real estate market in Sacramento county, Sacramento Real Estate Appraiser, unemployment in sacramento county

Five questions to ask yourself before giving “comps” to an appraiser

March 28, 2012 By Ryan Lundquist 2 Comments

Sometimes I get a stack of “comps” from real estate agents during my appraisal inspections when meeting the agent at the property. Are they good ones? Sometimes they are, but since many times they aren’t, I wanted to highlight some important questions that might be useful to Sacramento area agents (and anyone) when selecting sales to share with the appraiser. I hope this is helpful.

Here are five questions to ask yourself before giving comps to an appraiser:

  1. questionsIs the “comp” a replacement? Would buyers in the neighborhood market consider purchasing the “comps” instead of the subject property if the comps were still on the market? That’s really what “comparable” means. The sale should be similar enough that the buyer would have theoretically considered it as a replacement instead of the subject property. If the subject is a fixer, are the comps fixers? Do the comps have standard updates also or are they all remodeled?
  2. Are your comps located in the same neighborhood? Keep the neighborhood boundaries in mind when selecting comps by asking yourself where else a buyer would shop for a similar property. It’s fine if there is a reason to use comps outside of the immediate neighborhood, but just make sure the neighborhood is really competitive to the subject neighborhood (not superior). Otherwise the sales really aren’t all that similar.
  3. Are the sales of a somewhat similar size? It seems like I get “comps” from agents quite a bit that are incredibly different from the subject property in size. For example, if the subject is 1700 square feet, I wouldn’t be surprised to see sales around 2300 square feet show up in the stack of comps. This is fine of course if the market views these properties in a similar way or there is an extreme shortage of sales, but usually there’s a price premium for the extra living area. Does a buyer looking for a 1700 square foot house typically shop for a 2300 square foot house at the same time? Probably not in most cases.
  4. Are the sales recent? If the appraisal is for a loan, most lenders want to see recent sales over the past 90 days. However, if there is a good reason to use older sales, the appraiser certainly isn’t bound to use sales only from the past quarter if they are indeed the best sales. Sometimes real estate agents will give “comps” that are 6-12 months old while ignoring more recent sales though, and that’s suspicious if there are solid recent sales.
  5. What are your motives? I think it’s fine for real estate agents to share data for the sake of giving the appraiser insight into how they marketed the property. It’s great if the comps and commentary help answer the question as to which properties the agent used to market the listing. Ultimately agents want to advocate for the sales price, which is fine in the eyes of their clients, but at the same time agents can often say and do things that pressure the appraiser to “hit the number” – which is not fine. When advocacy for a client becomes coercion for the appraiser to meet a certain value, that’s not a good thing. That’s why it’s important to check motives and use language in a way that does not pressure for a higher value. Check out a previous post on talking to appraisers (things to say and not say) for helpful tips.

Sacramento area Realtor Steve Ostrom and I discussed this issue of giving comps to appraisers in a video below (or click here).

How do you communicate with appraisers? What things do you say and not say? Do you have any frustrations, tips or questions?

If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Appraisal Stuff, Resources Tagged With: giving comps to appraisers, home appaiser, how to pick comps, how to talk to appraisers, is it okay to give comps, questions to ask before giving appraiser comps, real estate agents giving comps, Realtor Steve Ostrom, Sacramento Real Estate Appraiser, what is a comparable property

Defective paint before & after 1978 for FHA loans

March 5, 2012 By Ryan Lundquist 25 Comments

It seems like most of us in the real estate community are on the same page that a property built before 1978 with a defective paint surface will require repairs for an FHA loan. We know lead-base paint was used in the United States before 1978, so there is a health and safety risk present when the paint surface is defective. This makes sense and it’s pretty much common knowledge.

What about after 1978? But what about a property built after 1978 that has a defective paint surface (chipping, peeling or flaking paint)? There is much confusion in the market on this point among lenders, real estate agents, home owners and even appraisers. Does FHA require repairs for a defective paint surface for a house built in 1979, 1993, 2005 or anytime after 1978? The answer is YES, but not because there a “health and safety” issue due to the potential for lead-base paint. The issue here is promoting economic longevity for the property since bare wood can lead to decay, which does not promote the longterm health of the property.

FHA’s latest Valuation FAQ on 2-28-12 (click here for PDF link) (unfortunately FHA removed this link, so I did too. Here is the text though still):

Noted lead based paint still seems to be an issue that is unclear in the minds of some appraisers and lenders. Should the lender automatically call for painting only if the home is pre-1978, or should further measures be taken in all cases?

Page 6 of Appendix D in Handbook 4150.2 states, “For any home built prior to 1978, check for evidence of defective paint surfaces, including: peeling, scaling or chipping paint. For all FHA insured properties, correction is required to all defective paint surfaces in or on structures and/or property improvements built before January 1, 1978 in accordance with 24 CFR Part 35.” The appraiser is further instructed to provide a detailed description and identify the exact location of any deficiency under “physical deficiencies” affecting livability. The appraiser is required to condition the appraisal on the “repair” of any noted lead based paint deficiencies.

As noted in mortgagee letter 2005-48, defective exterior paint surfaces in homes constructed post-1978 where the finish is otherwise unprotected will require automatic repair.

Here is a video I did in 2010 on this very issue of pre-1978 vs post-1978. Watch below or here.

I hope this was helpful to answer some of your questions. You can check out other FHA appraisal articles I’ve written including not leaving paint chips on the ground when curing the defective paint surface and even potential options for handling the cost of the defective paint surface.

If you liked this post, subscribe by email (or RSS). Thanks for being here.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: FHA Appraisal Articles, Resources Tagged With: appraiser in Sacramento, chipping paint and FHA loans, FHA, FHA appraiser tip, health and safety issue, Home Appraiser, how to deal with defective paint surface, HUD, lead-base paint, property built before 1978 and after 1978, Sacramento Real Estate Appraiser

Thou shall not leave paint chips on the ground

January 12, 2012 By Ryan Lundquist 2 Comments

If you know anything about FHA loans,  you know a defective paint surface is something that needs to be cured. If the exterior of a house has chipping, peeling or flaking paint, it can be a health and safety issue if the house was built before 1978 due to a potential for lead-base paint exposure. If you didn’t know, FHA has an exhilarating 51-page manual for how to properly cure a defective paint surface (PDF). This is just the type of ready you love to do, right?

Photo of defective paint surface for FHA - by Sacramento Appraiser

DO NOT LEAVE PAINT CHIPS ON THE GROUND: If you’re dealing with a defective paint surface, make sure you or your contractor scrape away any defective paint and then completely reseal the surface with new paint (or some sort of HUD-approved sealant). Moreover, DO NOT leave paint chips or any defective paint dust or residue on the soil. This might seem like a minor point, but you don’t want to have to deal with potential environmental consequences for lead-base paint touching the soil, right? The appraiser cannot verify the paint problem was taken care of if there are paint chips all over the place on the soil.

This is why I include something like the following in my lender reports:

The appraiser noted a defective paint surface on the southern portion of the house near the roofline. All this portion of defective paint should be properly scraped and there should be no bare wood after scraping. The surface should be repainted or sealed according to FHA standards. As always, there should be no paint chips or paint dust left on the soil when the issue is cured.

I’ve written quite a few FHA appraisal articles in case you’d like to know more. Let me know if you have any questions.

If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: FHA Appraisal Articles Tagged With: chipping paint on FHA loan, chipping paint on soil, defective paint surface, FHA appraiser article, FHA Real Estate Appraiser, how to deal with defective paint surface, HUD manufal for defective paint, Sacramento Real Estate Appraiser

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 39
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Connect with Ryan

 Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube Pinterest

Subscribe to Weekly Post

* indicates required

Search this site

Blog Categories

  • Appraisal Stuff (401)
  • Bankruptcy (3)
  • Divorce (4)
  • Estate Settlement (6)
  • FHA Appraisal Articles (56)
  • Internet (53)
  • Market Trends (439)
  • Photos from the Field (126)
  • Property Taxes (70)
  • Random Stuff (225)
  • Resources (560)
  • Videos (161)

Blog Archives: 2009 – 2019

Lundquist Appraisal Links

  • Appraisal Order Form
  • Appraisal Website
  • Rancho Cordova Appraiser Website
  • Sacramento Appraisal Blog Sitemap
  • Sacramento Real Estate Appraiser Facebook Page
  • Twitter: Sacramento Appraiser (@SacAppraiser)
  • YouTube: Sacramento Appraiser Channel

Most Recent Posts

  • My real estate mind never shuts off
  • How might rent control affect the housing market?
  • Street names & hot stats with an asterisk
  • Thoughts on PG&E and the housing market
  • That place where shiplap & murder meet
  • Does the market really change every seven years?
  • When sellers care too much about the Zestimate
  • Zillow has officially entered the market
  • Not everything is getting multiple offers
  • When 1,000 square feet doesn’t count

Disclaimer

First off, thank you for being here. Now let's get into the fine print. The material and information contained on this website is the copyrighted property of Ryan Lundquist and Lundquist Appraisal Company. Content on this website may not be reproduced or republished without prior written permission from Ryan Lundquist.

Please see my Sharing Policy on the navigation bar if you are interested in sharing portions of any content on this blog.

The information on this website is meant entirely for educational purposes and is not intended in any way to support an opinion of value for your appraisal needs or any sort of value conclusion for a loan, litigation, tax appeal or any other potential real estate or non-real estate purpose. The material found on this website is meant for casual reading only and is not intended for use in a court of law or any other legal use. Ryan will not appear in court in any capacity based on any information posted here. For more detailed market analysis to be used for an appraisal report or any appraisal-related purpose or valuation consulting, please contact Ryan at 916-595-3735 for more information.

There are no affiliate links on this blog, but there are three advertisements. Please do your homework before doing business with any advertisers as advertisements are not affiliated with this blog in any way. Two ads are located on the sidebar and one is at the bottom of each post. The ads earn a minor amount of revenue and are a simple reward for providing consistent original content to readers. If you think the ads interfere with your blog experience or the integrity of the blog somehow, let me know. I'm always open to feedback. Thank you again for being here.

Copyright © 2019 Sacramento Appraisal Blog