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Credibility? Nostalgia value? I know it's worth it but.

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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....:angry:

Rant over.
 
I had one like that, from the 30s though. It was the perfect model of a an arts and crafts bungalow in a poor town of mostly 24 X 56 ranches (12 X 24 of which is a garage). The subject wasn't any bigger than the other sales but it had character while the others just were there.

I went back in time as far as I could to find three sales in the market that had their own special character. None were the like the subject. Then I went out to other towns, 40 miles away in one case, to get three very similar houses. I happen to living in an area there are lot sales often too, so I include lot sales from each one of these three extact areas to show reaction to location. I then included recent sales in the subject project that were at least similar in price to the subject to show people were willing to pay that much to live there, and by the time I got done (hours and hours and hours later) I came in at what was a strong value for the property.

Based on that report, I got a call to appraise the property again two years later. I couldn't duplicate it, the sales data was terrible everywhere I looked.
 
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....:angry:

Rant over.

Location, location, location. Historically, how does the subject's location influence value as opposed to the others in the $200-225K range?

Tell Rob about it. Maybe he should buy it.
 
A block from Todd Grove park versus Empire Gardens.

"Rob" has been looking in Hidden Valley Lake. He's got his eye on a 1300 sf 3/2 with a 2 car garage and large workshop. $170k and he can probably get it for $150k. It would have appraised 12-18 months ago at $350+
 
I knew what areas you were writing about. My location, location, location was meant to help you understand the locational values for those two very distinct areas.

He told me about the Hidden Valley property. Since nothing has happened I assumed he had decided against it. Sounds like it might be a good buy.
 
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