Sacramento Appraisal Blog

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10 highlights of the NorCal Real Estate Expo

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I went to the NorCal Real Estate Expo yesterday. It was a fantastic event attended by well over 700 local real estate professionals (mostly Realtors). Here are ten highlights from my day at the Expo: 

1.  The best part of the NorCal Expo was running into so many familiar faces. It was great to mingle with Realtors, loan officers and title reps I know. I probably had 100 little conversations and 20 or more in-depth connections.

2.  It was so nice to meet others in person like Meghan Wood & Jennifer Klein, who I had only previously connected with on both Facebook and Twitter.

3.  Jim Pelley gave an outstanding talk. He really connected well with the audience and catered his stories to the real estate world. I wish he would have spoken twice actually.  

4.  I met Frank & Brian from Think Big Work Small and sat in on their talk. I honestly thought they would discuss video marketing, which I was excited about, but their presentation was still very good as they shared about B2B marketing. I also met Mike Mueller who taught a great class on advanced blogging (though 45 minutes is really short to cover a good amount of material).

5.  I received two appraisal orders during the day.

6.  I had an investor in the Bay Area give me a call while at the Expo after he found me online. He wanted to discuss duplexes in the local market, zip codes to avoid, rent, etc… After talking for 10 minutes or so, I was able to refer him to a trustworthy broker to help him find the right property. Hopefully this will turn into business for both parties.

7.  Alyssa Lozano did a wonderful job with the fashion show. I am by no means an authority on fashion by any mild stretch of the imagination, but it was so fun to see Realtors Heather Pearce and Chris Little among others strut their stuff on the runway. Rob McQuade did a fantastic job as the emcee too. Alyssa and her real estate models worked very hard on this production.

8.  The Twitter hashtag for the conference was #norcalexpo. Following conversations on Twitter during a convention is a really great techie way to connect with others. I found some new people to follow, gained new followers and had fun and helpful interactions too. If you go to a conference, find out what the hashtag is so you can be a part of the conversation. Have you done this before?

9.  I saw two other appraisers at the Expo, which was really great. It’s surprising though to not see many appraisers take advantage of networking with hundreds upon hundreds of local real estate agents.

10.  On a superficial note, I brought home some girly pens from vendor booths for my wife (an author). She always likes when I do things like that when I go to conferences. It’s the small things, right?

If you were at the Expo, I’d love to hear about what you thought of the day.

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook.

What is the difference between “assessed” value and “appraised” value?

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Maybe you’ve wondered before if there is a difference between “assessed” value and “appraised” value? Here are five key distinctions.

1)  Assessed value is a dollar amount assigned to a property by the Assessor’s Office typically for the purpose of assessing taxes. Appraised value is an evaluation of a property’s value for any point in time by a professional appraiser.

2)  Assessed value is rendered by the Assessor’s office or county, while appraised value is rendered by a professional appraiser.

3)  Assessed value is deciphered through using a mass-appraisal process without inspecting each property, while appraised value most often includes actually inspecting the property to determine the value (not always though as there is such a thing as a desktop appraisal where the appraiser values a property without leaving the desk).

4)  Assessed value in California is based on the date a property was purchased, while appraised value can be based on any date – whether today, yesterday or years ago. As an FYI, assessed value in California is governed by Proposition 13, which basically means that a property will be assessed based on its purchase price from 1975 onward and will have annual increases limited to the inflation rate or 2%, whichever is less (read more here). The Proposition 13 value is commonly referred to as the “base year value” because subsequent years of taxation are based on that value.

5)  Assessed value segments land and improvements in the valuation, whereas appraised value may or may not do this depending on the needs of the client and scope of work. For example, the Assessor might state a property is worth $250,000 and the land in this circumstance is worth $100,000 while the improvements are worth $150,000 (house and anything on the site). 

Do you have any questions? Can you think of any other differences? Comment below. 

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook.

Interview: The 2-4 unit real estate income market in Sacramento

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Part 2 of 3: I sat down recently with Sacramento real estate broker Joel Wright to discuss the 2-4 unit residential-income market in Sacramento. Joel specializes in working with investors and he knows his stuff. We hit on topics such as prices, inventory, rent levels and current trends with duplexes and fourplexes in the Sacramento area. Let me know if you have any questions and check out The Wright Report also for a very detailed analysis of the local market. View Part 1 of this interview series here and watch the new segment below.

Here is a graph of all duplex and fourplex sales in Sacramento County over the past three years. What do you see? Does anything stand out to you?

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook.

The clubhouse I am building (so far)

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I spent a good amount of time over the weekend building a new clubhouse for my boys. The plan is to have a downstairs area for the boys to play and then a ladder with a hatch for an upstairs exclusive balcony. I envision many sleepovers and camping nights of “roughing it” in the wilderness of our suburban tract parcel.

In an ideal world I’ll be able to finish up over the next week, though I’m really tired already and I’m expecting to be knee-deep looking at big houses (appraisals) in coming days too. If you have any tips for me before I wrap up this project, I’m open ears. Also, if you had a clubhouse as a kid, what role did it play in your life?

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook.

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