Sacramento Appraisal Blog

Market trends and 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.

REO

Why does the faucet get left on at foreclosed properties?

By 6 Comments

I recently came across yet another water spicket left on at a bank-owned property. This particular spicket was located in the backyard and was probably spewing water for a few days (despite the side gate being locked –> meaning someone had to jump the fence to turn this one on). The damage? At least half the crawl space had a couple inches of standing water. No bueno.

Why does the water get left on at foreclosed properties?

A) Disappointed owners wanting to stick it to the lender.
B) Squatters leaving their mark.
C) Vandals having “fun”.
D) Youth who don’t realize the costs and responsibilities of the adult world.
E) An accident.

It’s too bad things like this happen because if there is significant damage, the property will likely sell for less, and thereby hurt the value of other properties nearby. Foreclosure is such a difficult reality for so many in our local market. In no way am I trying to minimize the real pain that families go through when they have to let go of their property. I think by now we all personally know quite a few people who have been through the foreclosure process. I’m only thinking philosophically about why things like this happen. What does water being left on tell us about human behavior? What’s the psychology behind water faucets being left on?

UPDATE: Since sharing this post on my Facebook page this morning, two REO agents mentioned that winterizing has been the primary cause of running faucets. Interesting.

What’s going on in the Rancho Cordova real estate market?

By Leave a Comment

What’s been happening in the Rancho Cordova real estate market? I’d like to give you a glance below at the overall tend over the past few years as well as some current data tidbits too. Keep in mind that a specific property in Rancho Cordova may or may not fit in with the general trend shown below. 

As you can see, when looking at all sales from 2006, property values have clearly declined over time. There is a very obvious downtrend, wouldn’t you say? Additionally, there is a wide value spectrum too, which represents a big difference in neighborhoods like White Rock, Lincoln Village, Walnutwood, La Loma, Stone Creek, Sunriver, and Anatolia.

Let’s take a closer look at the 95670 zip code in Rancho Cordova(not Gold River – that’s a different market). Sometimes sales in Gold River and Rancho Cordova are grouped together on graphs because they have the same zip code, but that’s not proper in my opinion. Regarding the 95742 zip code, we can take a look at data in a future post if you’d like (just let me know). Overall it looks like there has been a decline in sales prices over the past year, though not as steep of a decline as in previous years. The trend toward more stability is similar to Citrus Heights.

Now let’s put an age parameter on the data to see if there is any difference between properties built before and after 1990. As you can see when comparing the graph above with the one below, newer areas in the 95670 represent the highest sales in the zip code (this would be basically be the Stone Creek area and Capital Village).

Here is a spectrum of price per square foot for all sales in Rancho Cordova (95670) over the past year. Remember though, don’t just take your square footage and multiply it by the average price per square foot. That’s not always the best idea to determine the value of your house. See my previous post entitled “Is price per square foot an accurate way to measure the value of a house?”

Specific Rancho Cordova Real Estate Market Data (95670 zip code):

  • 165 sales over the past 90 days.
  • 89 current active listings
  • 55 current active short sale listings
  • 42 current short sale contingent listings (this means an offer has been submitted already)
  • 39% of all sales over the past year were REO (bank-owned)
  • 22% 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 14.6% per EDD (as of 11/2010)
  • Unemployment in Sacramento County is 12.8% per EDD (as of 11/2010)

By the way, here is a video from the Rancho Cordova Historical Society with over ten minutes of old photos and maps of Rancho Cordova.

If you’ve been looking for Rancho Cordova real estate information, I hope this was helpful for you. What do you see in the data above? Does anything stand out to you? Keep me posted if you have any questions or a need for a real estate appraisal or property consulting. I am a member of the Rancho Cordova Chamber of Commerce, and I do appraisal work for estate planning, probate, divorce, second opinions, FHA, property tax appeal, private loans, bankruptcy, and so much more. Call 916.595.3735, email me, or visit my company website.

Should you get an apprasial during a short sale?

By 4 Comments

I am hired periodically from local real estate agents and home owners to do an appraisal during a short sale situation. Sometimes a bank will absolutely not budge to accept an offer lower than what they deem to be acceptable (even though their price is way too high), so the Listing Agent or home owner will hire me to do a full appraisal. The goal for the agent and owner is to show the bank what true market value is so that the sale can hopefully proceed at a more realistic price based on the market rather than a number the bank has picked. For example, if a bank says they will accept $200,000 for a property, but all other sales are at $175,000, a solid appraisal could potentially give the bank a realistic view of the market and thus help the home owner avoid foreclosure.

Should you hire an appraiser during a short sale situation? My advice is to first attempt to negotiate with your bank. Don’t spend money on an appraisal if you don’t have to. If the bank will absolutely not budge on their price though, and your sense is that market value is really lower than what they are saying, then it’s time to hire a local and experienced appraiser to provide you with a credible and detailed appraisal. 

Here is an example of some graphs below in a Sacramento neighborhood based on research I did during a short sale for a 2-bedroom house. All offers on this property had come in 10-15% lower than the bank’s approved number, but the bank would still not accept a lower price on this property. 

As you can see in the graphs, over the past few years and recently, the 2-bedroom units have tended to sell at the lowest end of the market. In this particular case, the final appraised value ended up being about 10% less than what the bank was willing to accept, which is very helpful and relevant information for the bank to consider. When dealing with a huge number of short sale and foreclosure inventory, a bank will not always be in touch with market trends, particularly when something like bedroom count might make a huge impact on the value of a property.

If you have any questions or a need for an appraisal or consulting in the Sacramento area, give me a call at 916.595.3735, send me an email, catch me on Facebook, or see my company website at www.LundquistCompany.com.

Oak Park “Extreme Makeover” by Housing Group Fund

By 3 Comments

In May I posted about a major bank-owned fixer in the Oak Park area of Sacramento. Well, round 2 of video is now here as I shot the following promo a couple days ago as I met Housing Group Fund at this 36th Street property to watch tressels be installed.

If you cannot see the video in your RSS or email, click HERE. Thanks for watching. What do you think?

I recorded the video with my Flip camera, and the cool thing is my client kicked down a little money for me to do a video for them this time around.

Skip to content