CANative
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2003
- Professional Status
- Retired Appraiser
- State
- California
My assistant and I inspected a property the other day. It's a purchase transaction. We both fell in love with the place and I wish it had been on the market when I bought an REO last December.
The house is very, very dated and has had almost no changes made since it was built in 1955 (the year I was born BTW). It is still in perfect condition. The original blue prints (blue paper with white diagrams) were still on the 1950's dining room table. The kitchen had a 4 burner electric cooktop with "push button" controls. The living room and one of the bedrooms still had the odd "Danish" furniture, and plastic and paper oriental theme floral arrangements and decorations. The gardens and landscaping were beautiful and it had a secret entrance to the garage from a hidden alleyway.
It was like a set from Oziet and Harriet or some of the other black and white TV shows from the 50's. Not a mark or worn spot in the house anywhere. You could tell the husband died first becuase the wife's clothes were in most of the closets except for the tie collection which I guess she couldn't bear to throw out and who wears ties now? 1950's vacuum cleaners and housekeeping tools in the utility closets.
It's also located near a major park and golf course in this city, which is a very desireable area. I think it's worth every penny of the sales price and could see it commanding a higher price.
The problem is that the market in this city has almost completely stalled. The only things selling are little ticky tack houses of about 900 square feet with 3 beds and 1 bath, with flat roofs, built in the 50's in an area less than 1/2 mile away. On a map it looks like the same area as the subject. The subject is only about 1,000 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath and a flat roof, built in the 50's. The lot is the same size as the other neighborhood.
On paper and to someone not familiar with the area, this property is no different than those properties and the sales price is closer to $330k instead of the $200k to $220k the other's are selling for (usually REO's, shortsales, preforclosures, etc.). It's always hard to appraise in this city because there are always so few sales and never enough in one neighborhood and never anything similar. Now it's really, really hard because the market has died and the only really recent sales are in this stupid, low rent neighborhood....
Rant over.
The house is very, very dated and has had almost no changes made since it was built in 1955 (the year I was born BTW). It is still in perfect condition. The original blue prints (blue paper with white diagrams) were still on the 1950's dining room table. The kitchen had a 4 burner electric cooktop with "push button" controls. The living room and one of the bedrooms still had the odd "Danish" furniture, and plastic and paper oriental theme floral arrangements and decorations. The gardens and landscaping were beautiful and it had a secret entrance to the garage from a hidden alleyway.
It was like a set from Oziet and Harriet or some of the other black and white TV shows from the 50's. Not a mark or worn spot in the house anywhere. You could tell the husband died first becuase the wife's clothes were in most of the closets except for the tie collection which I guess she couldn't bear to throw out and who wears ties now? 1950's vacuum cleaners and housekeeping tools in the utility closets.
It's also located near a major park and golf course in this city, which is a very desireable area. I think it's worth every penny of the sales price and could see it commanding a higher price.
The problem is that the market in this city has almost completely stalled. The only things selling are little ticky tack houses of about 900 square feet with 3 beds and 1 bath, with flat roofs, built in the 50's in an area less than 1/2 mile away. On a map it looks like the same area as the subject. The subject is only about 1,000 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath and a flat roof, built in the 50's. The lot is the same size as the other neighborhood.
On paper and to someone not familiar with the area, this property is no different than those properties and the sales price is closer to $330k instead of the $200k to $220k the other's are selling for (usually REO's, shortsales, preforclosures, etc.). It's always hard to appraise in this city because there are always so few sales and never enough in one neighborhood and never anything similar. Now it's really, really hard because the market has died and the only really recent sales are in this stupid, low rent neighborhood....
Rant over.
