Sacramento Appraisal Blog

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Lundquist Appraisal Company

A major remodel of a $5,000 house in Sacramento

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This house was a major Oak Park fixer, and it actually sold in 2010 for $5,000. No, I’m not kidding. This was the lowest sale in all of Sacramento County last year, and there was certainly a good reason for that. Have a look at the video below to catch a glimpse of images throughout the rehab process and a walkthrough of the finished product.

This property was rehabbed by Housing Group Fund under the umbrella of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) through SHRA. I shot this video during an appraisal inspection, and I have full permission to share the video and information (otherwise I would not be sharing it). And no, I’m not asking blog readers to buy this house and I’m not marketing to you either. I simply want to share a video about a house we’ve talked about here on the blog a couple times already. 

What do you think?

If you have any real estate appraisal, valuation consulting, or property tax appeal needs, contact me at 916.595.3735, www.LundquistCompany.com or via Facebook.

Comparing real estate in the 95670 and 95742 zip codes in Rancho Cordova

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It’s easy to view all sales in a given city on one graph, but what happens when we begin to unpack data a bit and look at specific areas or zip codes? We just might notice differences because there are often a number of real estate segments or sub-markets within a given city. As we all know, not all neighborhoods are competitive to each other, so it’s important to try to look at neighborhood-specific data to really understand the real estate market. Below is a trend graph of all sales in the City of Rancho Cordova over roughly the past five years.

There are actually three zip codes in Rancho Cordova (only two with houses really though). Let’s put the 95670 and 95742 zip codes in Rancho Cordova next to each other below and do a little comparison to see if we might get better data this way as opposed to just looking at the graph above. What do you see when viewing data in the 95670 zip code (not Gold River – only Rancho Cordova) in comparison to the 95742 zip code (Anatolia, Kavala Ranch, Sunridge)?

Rancho Cordova Real Estate Data (95670 Zip Code)
* 107 sales over the past 90 days
* 5.4 months of current housing supply listed on the market
* $146,000 median sales price over the past 90 days
* Average days on market: 64 days
* Number of active listings: 92
* Number of active short sale listings: 59
* Number of active short sale contingent listings: 43
* Number of pendings: 56
* 42% of all sales over the past year were REO (bank-owned)
* 26% of all sales over the past year were Short Sales
* Roughly 68% of all sales were distressed in some regard (REO or SS)
* Unemployment in Rancho Cordova is 14.4% per EDD (as of 12/2010)
* Unemployment in Sacramento County is 12.6% per EDD (as of 12/2010)

Rancho Cordova Real Estate Data (95742 Zip Code)
* 61 sales over the past 90 days
* 7.1 months of current housing supply listed on the market
* $231,000 median sales price over the past 90 days
* Average days on market: 86 days
* Number of active listings: 44
* Number of active short sale listings: 60
* Number of active short sale contingent listings: 41
* Number of pendings: 54
* 32% of all sales over the past year were REO (bank-owned)
* 29% of all sales over the past year were Short Sales
* Roughly 61% of all sales were distressed in some regard (REO or SS)
* Unemployment in Rancho Cordova is 14.4% per EDD (as of 12/2010)
* Unemployment in Sacramento County is 12.6% per EDD (as of 12/2010)

What stands out to you about the differences between 95670 and 95742? When we combine 95742 data into 95670 data to show all of Rancho Cordova, the entire median sales price level for Rancho Cordova increases, doesn’t it? Can you see why I think it’s important to look at these zip codes separately? Ah, we can make data say so many things if we’re not careful to really dissect it.

If you have any real estate appraisal, valuation consulting, or property tax appeal needs, contact me at 916.595.3735, www.LundquistCompany.com or via Facebook.

My review of the Tango video app for smart phones

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I’ve been really enjoying an app called Tango lately. I wanted to share it here because I think it might be a good resource for personal and business use. Basically, Tango enables you to make free video calls with your smart phone to anyone in the world (iPhone, Android, iPod Touch). It does not use minutes on your phone, but rather data, so as long as your data plan is ample or unlimited, this is a great app.

I’ve had conversations with my twin brother every day this week using Tango, and it’s been fun to connect for a few minutes and “see” him. It’s actually so much more personal to talk with someone on the phone like this. Previously my brother and I tried to use our phone’s built-in video chat, but his iPhone4 and my myTouch4G weren’t compatible with each other, so Tango has filled the void thus far.   

Overall the app is easy to set up and simple to use. It’s free to download in the app market, so that’s always a plus. The biggest downfall is that the quality feels like a mediocre webcam experience much of the time. When the connection is solid, I love the app, but when the connection is not great, the app feels clunky because words get lost. The phone connection from my office (as shown above – green screen in background) and my brother’s office is actually really good, so I’m not too sure why the video connection would not be equally as good. Hopefully over time the app will get better and better in this regard.

I can see Tango having a use for business too because I can talk with clients directly and show them firsthand what I am seeing while inspecting properties. I actually just sent an email to a local broker to see if he’ll install it so we can talk shop when need be while I’m out in the field. Additionally, an app like this might give a personal touch for business. It’s so important to get “Facetime” with clients, so it’s always a bonus to find ways to have more personable interaction.

If you install Tango, let me know what you think. Or if you use a similar app on your smart phone to make video calls, I’d like to hear about it. Or if you would like to do business together, and meet on the phone first, let’s have a video conversation. My number is listed below.

UPDATE in July 2011: I get quite a few hits on this post, so I wanted to give a little update. I don’t use Tango much because of the mediocre quality. It’s a great idea, but it just seems to need some fine-tuning in the quality department. Facetime is far superior, but I do not have an iPhone. I’m looking forward to exploring video useage a bit more with Google+, Facebook and Skype on mobile.  

If you have any real estate appraisal, valuation consulting, or property tax appeal needs, contact me at 916.595.3735, www.LundquistCompany.com or via Facebook.

FHA’s “Anti-Flipping Waiver” extension will help move properties in Sacramento

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The “Anti-Flipping Waiver” from HUD/FHA will be extended in 2011 for the Sacramento real estate market (and everywhere else too). To help bring stability to the market, FHA has announced an extension of the anti-flip rule. Formally FHA had required 90 days between initial acquisition to when the property could enter contract again.

What do you think of this news? Overall I think it’s a good move because we need properties in our market to move. I’m not a fan of rules that slow down the selling process if investors are doing legitimate rehabs. We still need to watch out for shoddy workmanship and classic examples for why there was a 90-day rule in the first place. It’s not good for anyone but the seller when the “remodel” is simply “lipstick on the pig” so to speak, meaning new paint, cheesy low-quality “upgrades”, and hiding all sorts of negative issues about the house through minor cosmetic “remodeling”.

You can read more about the extension of the Anti-Flipping Waiver at the following link (PDF press release from HUD). In essence, just know that HUD will extend the waiver from January 31, 2011 through the end of the year. If you have any questions, insight to share, or opinions, please comment below.

If you have any real estate appraisal, valuation consulting, or property tax appeal needs, contact me at 916.595.3735, www.LundquistCompany.com or via Facebook.

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