Terrel L. Shields
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Arkansas
Personally? No. As for wood shakes, certainly they are a fire hazard. But in the 60s and 70s half the houses around had a sort of "retro" moment where such was installed on homes and metal roofing was simply a no-no. I've not seen a shake roof installed here since the early 80s and that was unique in the area it was installed.
Life is a function of remaining life. I cannot think of any 1950s home here that is "original" to that period. I do recall an older 1920s era home I was in where the upper floor was completely untouched since construction. But it was not being lived in and the lower level was and had been remodeled with CHA installed, new floor covering, etc. So remodeling and updating extends the remaining life and (usually) ultimately extends the total economic life if one starts counting at day one. But that is not the function of TEL. The function is to provide a fixed starting point to calculate annualized depreciation. It may be somewhat subjective, but let me give an example. The house I was born in was actually moved there circa 1945 when my father returned from the Army. The roof was bad, the frame was perhaps built circa 1910-20, maybe a mite earlier. They moved it about 1 mile from its original site. In 1955 my parents remodeled the house, adding on about 600 SF and a bathroom. Added an addition in 1972. The house stands today, but is basically kaput and has not been lived in for 2 years. At each update, the remaining life was extended. TEL and REL are moving goalposts. These are pix from about 1950 and 1960 of the same house. Since 50 the roof is now metal and the siding vinyl instead of Cement-Asbestos shingles.
In any case, extraction of the contributory value of the building by subtracting the land value, and making a reasonable estimate of RCN, gives us a basis for judging the effective age with the total life estimate, or visa versa. That part is judgment.
