I hit the jackpot yesterday when talking with a local realtor, and it ended up being a “two birds with one stone” situation. Here’s what happened.
Earlier in the day I emailed a Facebook Realtor friend and asked her if she ever sold a condo in a particular subdivision in the city of Folsom. There are ZERO recent condo sales in this subdivision in Empire Ranch, so I want to get as much firsthand information as possible. Well, my friend gave me a chunk of insight, but it turned out that she needed some help because she was having financing issues with one of her deals in the “Rivage” condo subdivision in Folsom.
Anyway, through the course of contacting listing agents for research for my appraisal, I talked with Realtor Ann Boswell of Insight Real Estate. I had never spoken with Ann before, but she ended up being a wealth of information for not only the subject subdivision, but for “Rivage” up the street. Ann spent a good 10-15 minutes on the phone with me (I love when Realtors take time like that. It’s good on so many levels).
It turns out that since Rivage has not yet completed construction, some of the buildings are FHA approved and others are not. That could be an issue, don’t you think? It’s funny to think that despite these buildings being next door to each other in the same new development, some of them don’t make the cut (yet) to be guaranteed by HUD. More specifically, per HUD’s website, only buildings 1 and 13-26 are currently approved by HUD/FHA.
Two birds with one stone? One, I got insight into the subject subdivision. And Two, thanks to Ann Boswell I was able to resource my Facebook friend with information on Rivage and why her deal was maybe having some issues. But most of all, I was able to give my Facebook friend the name of someone at Wells Fargo who could help her get her condo on the HUD approved list.
You can search HERE to see the HUD/FHA approved condominium list.
Sounds like everybody involved came out a little better than before. I think we as appraisers are in a prime position to provide realtors with helpful information. We sometimes think each other knows more than they do and if we take the time we call all get educated.
Well said, Tom. It’s a great thing when we can build mutual relationships of sharing. This really did turn out well. I was able to lean on a local realtor for information and then I passed on some great information to another local realtor leaning on me. That’s good stuff.
I clicked on your blog, Tom. Funny slogan “appraisal bloggin for your noggin”
It was kind of a joke, but I get a lot of feedback on that slogan (chuckles).
Great point Ryan! I just took an excellent continuing ed class with Wells Fargo, and lenders have to pay to get the condos approved for HUD. Many of the big lenders may already have received approval for the particular development, but it’s not on the the big “LIST”.
-Jenn
Thanks Jenn. A realtor contact was telling me the cost was $1,000 to get a condo on the approved HUD list. If you’ve heard differently, my ears are open. That sounds like a valuable class.