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?
To be honest, based on the photo the house does not appeal to me because of the water tower in the back of the house.
Has this house been listed for sale in the past few years and if so is there a photo of the house on MLS? I was just wondering how a real estate agent would market the house? Would they take a photo of the house like you did or try to take the photo from a different angle?
Thanks for your opinion, Bryan. I’m not sure if this one has sold in the past few years. I snapped a comp photo up the street and then saw an opportunity to take a shot of the house and water tower. It’s pretty hard to not include the water tower in a front shot, though I suppose if you took it from the right angle, you wouldn’t see it.
You always have the best pictures, Ryan. Would you consider sending in a few contributions for our picture of the week?
Thanks Bill. I’d be glad to. If you think of any images I’ve taken that might be good, just let me know. You can always use some that I’ve posted on the blog too. Just give me a heads up in advance.
I’m with Bryan, I think this would bother me as well. Especially if I was thinking of reselling. I once did an appraisal of a house in a rural area and the local power company had a steam plant nearby. The plant had a structure that looked like a nuclear reactor. I had a hard time convincing the underwriters that the property was not near a nuclear plant.
Wow. They thought it was a nuclear plant! That is crazy! I believe it though. Thanks for sharing – I learn of lot from these blog posts.
Maybe it was a nuclear power plant under the guise of a local steam plant. 🙂 Thanks Tom. That would certainly set off a red flag for an underwriter. The same is true when seeing large towers behind the subject property. Are they outside of fall distance? Underwriters have asked me that question before many times.
I live in the Pocket, and I think it would be pretty cool to have that in my backyard. I guess the things I’d like to know first are: Does it makes a lot of noise? Are the lights extremely bright at night? If it falls, is my house far enough away from a direct hit? However, I’m assuming that with the amount of water inside of it, the houses would probably flood. Anyway, I think it would be cool to have a spaceship styled monument in my backyard.
Really good points Jason. I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to critical questions to ask before buying a house near a tower. I didn’t know you were a Pocket guy. If I lived in that house, my kids would probably really like playing “alien invaders” or something to that effect. As I mentioned before, this is really a classic Sacramento monument. I love the “City of Trees” slogan painted on the side of it.
We like a house with a water tower which is right behind it. This house is located on a pretty barrier island on the NJ coast. There are a few water towers on that island which is 18 miles long. The houses on the street are priced from 699k up 769,000 K…All are lovely homes in an affluent beach community.. The water towner is not as tall or as wide as the ones in pictured above. We are considering this home, but wonder about re-sale value. I noticed it has been sold a couple of times since 2005. It is now 2019.
Hi Kathy. Thanks for reaching out. It’s hard to say if this is a big deal or not for value, but you may have some golden data since this property has sold twice in the past. When it sold, was there any perceived negative price reaction in the market? That’s a golden question. Of course it’s impossible to answer if you don’t have data at your fingertips, but the two previous sales would potentially be helpful for an appraiser’s analysis. I think you can analyze other sales nearby also. You may want to talk to the real estate community too as you could glean some insight there also. The proof of value is found in the market. It’s just going to take some digging to find it…