One of my clients recently wrote to me, telling me that someone who was interested in his home left him a voice mail stating that the lenders, buyers and sellers in our area were "in a twit" over our new tax assessments, which just came out. The person who left the message for him is a friend interested in his house, but wanting to make an offer considerably under asking price. Below is an email I sent to him:
At my invitation, the CBJ assessor was a guest speaker at our monthly board luncheon yesterday. As president of the local board, I schedule timely and relevant guest speakers to make the meetings more interesting. I've spoken to several people about this and I would hardly describe anyone's attitude as "in a twit".
The previous assessor pretty much had the "raise it until they complain" attitude and that is part of what got us where we are. In addition, Alaska is a non-disclosure state. That means people are not obligated to tell the assessor's office what they bought or sold a property for. The only time anybody ever complains is when their taxes are too high. There was a lively discussion about the non-disclosure part, as the last place Robin worked, when you sold a property, there was a form you had to fill out in order to record the sale, notifying the public of the purchase price. Of course, that would never happen in Alaska. People are too independent and privacy is fiercely guarded here.
From a lending standpoint, the tax assessment only affects property taxes. When a buyer is pre-qualified for a purchase price, the payment amount must include the property taxes. I would think lower taxes would be a good thing!
Somehow people in Juneau get the idea their tax assessment is an appraisal and it certainly isn't. The only things that affect a home's assessed value are neighborhood, lot size, and square footage. The structures are then depreciated for age. While supposedly it should be near the value of the property and in fact by statute is supposed to be within 6% of true market value as of January 1, it just doesn't happen. It hasn't happened in the past, and it will take considerable manpower and a few years for the assessor's office to completely get everything that's wrong fixed. They are years behind on neighborhood canvassing.
The neighborhood canvassing is to evaluate the maintenance and upgrades from the exterior. For example, you could have two homes, same size, same age, side-by-side, built by the same builder. When you come back 20 years later, one is a run-down shack and the other has a new roof, nice landscaping, upgraded windows, an addition - things like that. Obviously they both have a different value now. Since the assessor's office is supposed to do neighborhood canvassing every five years, they would usually catch these things relatively quickly. They did area 1 this year (Thane, Downtown, West Juneau) and it had been 12 years since a complete canvassing had been done. Some went up, some went down. Files at the permit center were checked, and those additions were caught and added to the assessments. The permit center and the assessor's office do not currently have an efficient way of sharing information. Sometimes the assessor's office catches an addition that wasn't permitted!
Mass appraisal is a completely different thing from fee appraisal. Fee appraisal is specific to each property. Mass appraisal is a completely different animal and does not define what a specific property is worth. The assessor doesn't know what your house looks like on the inside, and it is NOT an appraisal!
Today I had a home inspection at 10AM on Douglas Island. I was almost directly across the channel from another listing that I needed to visit. The seller is pulling the home off the market so he can do some upgrades. Since we rent our lockboxes, I was going to go pick mine up and turn it into the MLS.
Our home inspection was completed at 12:30. So, off to Thane Road I go... until my phone rings.
An old friend wanted to see two of my listings. One was on Douglas Island, and the other was on the mainland in Mountainside Estates. I didn't go out Thane Road. When I got home, this was on the front page of the online version of our local newspaper:
The residents of Thane Road will likely be cut off from town for at least a few days while they blast to make sure no more snow will come down and clear the roadway. It is estimated the snow is 18 feet deep and 300 feet wide. As far as we know, nobody was driving on the road.
Thanks, Daria! You might have saved my life! The slide happened at about 1:00PM. I would have been driving through this area, or on the other side, if she hadn't called.
My husband got to go caribou hunting this winter for the first time in his life, and for the first time since we have been married I have an ample supply of this wonderful meat in the freezer. It had been several years since I had a freezer with more than one or two packages of caribou meat, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.
I've always preferred fresh, wild meat and seafood to the stuff in stores. It just seems like it's healthier and with all the food recalls in the news, it probably is. Wild game doesn't have antibiotics and hormones in it. The animals eat what nature intended for them to eat.
What I don't like is a real "gamey" taste to the meat. That's probably one of the best things about caribou. Caribou meat is lean, and doesn't have the marbling you find in beef. At first, that may sound as though the meat will be tough, but amazingly it is as tender as veal (or so I've heard... I will not eat veal.) I read somewhere it is because the meat is so finely grained.
With all game, you do not want to have fat on your meat. Preferably it should all be removed during processing. I like to trim off all visible fat before cooking game meat.
Caribou meat is extremely healthy. Nutritionists call caribou a nutrient-dense food. Caribou meat is low in fat but high in protein. See the comparison below, per 100gram (approximately 3.5 ounces) portion:
FAT Protein IRON
Caribou 1 gram 38 grams 6.2 mg
Beef 23 grams 17 grams 3.0 mg
Veal 12 grams 19 grams 2.5 mg
Chicken 13 grams 20 grams 1.0 mg
Pork 45 grams 12 grams 2.0 mg
Lamb 28 grams 16 grams 2.0 mg
The same meat portion roasted only has 167 calories, no carbohydrates, and no sugars and is very low in cholesterol. The different cuts of meat lend themselves to a variety of cooking methods. Steaks are best cooked fairly hot and fast, yet served rare to medium rare. Roasts can cook low and slow and are good everywhere from medium rare to well done (overcooking can make the meat tough though). Ground meat is exceptionally good in any dish you would use ground beef. The stews are excellent, and chunks of caribou are as good as the best beef on skewers with vegetables too.
I think he needs to go caribou hunting every year. Here's a photo of my babe and his "boo".
My thanks or maybe congratulations go to Susan Emo. I thought I could fly under the radar forever, but someone finally caught up to me with this "meme" thing. According to the rules, I'm supposed to tell you a few things you might not know about me. I've always considered myself to be pretty transparent, so I had to dig deep to find things you might not know (and avoid those skeletons in my closet!).
1. My parents wasted spent a lot of money on private school for me. They were not sure the public schools would know what to do with a 5 year old who read encyclopedias and high school textbooks for fun. Ironically, I am a high school dropout. Everything I learned, I taught myself, or learned from the school of hard knocks.
2. When I was little, we had an elephant in our front yard for several days. Yes, a real elephant. My father had transported a baby elephant from Portland to Spokane and the pen wasn't ready when he got there. A few years later, the Kiwanis Club was doing a fundraiser at the zoo and I spoiled it by announcing to everyone that Toro didn't like peanuts!
3. One of my favorite hobbies is scuba diving. I've only been diving in the tropics (Fiji & Mexico) but someday I'd like to get cold-water and dry suit certified so I can dive here in Alaska.
4. I'm an avid gardener and hope to get my property landscaped before I die.
5. My pets include a dog, 2 cats and fish. I'm setting up a new aquarium for my koi. I'm thankful my house is built slab-on-grade because it's a 300 gallon tank.
6. When I was 19, a broker suggested I consider real estate as a career. I didn't listen until I was past 30. If I only knew then what I knew now.
THE RULES: (as passed along to me...)
Create a blog post with a link to the person who so happily tagged you for a MEME. See above.
List all of these rules in your post. Feel free to cut and paste this.
Share 7 things that others may not know about you. Do or have I HAD a life outside of real estate?
Identify 7 other ActiveRain members to tag for a MEME, and provide links to their blogs in your own MEME post.
Contact each of the tagged members and let them know that you were indeed fast enough to catch them and that you did indeed tag them...no matter how much they say you missed them!
No schoolyard rules in this MEME, nope you gotta do it if you are tagged. (I hear the MEME police are out in force, rounding up folks who ignore this "invitation")
Post a link to your MEME in the comments of this post - the one in which you were publicly tagged!)
Tonight I must have had at least 15, if not closer to 20, teenagers and young adults in my house. The last ones that are leaving just did and a few strays are about on couches, floors and extra bedrooms. For one of these parties, it was pretty mild. We've had as many as 25 young guests in the past. I used to keep track by counting all the shoes!
There are soda cans and paper plates everywhere. The dishwasher is running for the second or third time tonight and I'll need to spend at least another 15 minutes just on the kitchen. I'll probably have some help tomorrow from a few of the guys, but it will take a while to get the house back to normal.
No alcohol was involved, with the exception of the rum & coke I'm having now that everyone is gone or asleep. At one point, it was so loud, my dear husband took refuge in the master bedroom walk in closet because we both have to work tomorrow and he was exhausted.
So, why am I so happy? I knew where all the kids were, and I had a general idea of what they were doing. Mostly playing "Halo" or some other multi-player game although a few may have been watching a movie. We keep a few old TV's around for these occasions. Guests bring extra game consoles, controllers, music, and much of the food. I spend a lot of time talking with my sons' friends and getting to know them. A few even visit me while my older is away at college.
It was LOUD, and there was definitely a lot of foul language that I tried hard to ignore.
I think if more parents would learn to tolerate the occasional messy house and lack of sleep, the world could be a better place. It sure beats having them out drinking, or doing who knows what on a winter Saturday night. Some of these kids (and yes, even at 20, they are kids) don't have an adult in their live they can sit and talk with. Nobody needed it this time, but all of them know that my door is open if they need me. In this day and age, everybody needs that.
When my boys were really small, I was living paycheck to paycheck - sometimes it seemed more like hand to mouth. I decided to save up money for a vacation, without going into debt. There was no way anybody was going to give me a credit card anyway.
I tell you this story because for some people it might help you save up for a down payment on a home. In this tight credit market, you MUST have a down payment, some money towards closing costs, and some money in reserves.
Here are a few of the things I did to save money.
1. I used coupons, lots of coupons, but learned quickly I was only "saving" if it was something I would use anyway (that's another blog someday). When I got home from the store, I would add up my savings from the coupons, and put that money in a coffee can. Eventually it went into a special savings account. Because I didn't use cash, I usually had to write the check for the "before coupon" amount on the bill.
2. One of the stores in town offers these stickers, called "Price Smashers". When you buy groceries, you get a sticker for each dollar spent. When you fill out a card with Price Smashers, you get 50 cents off special purchases. The money saved was also put in the coffee can or the savings account.
3. When I wrote a check, I always wrote it in the register rounded up to the next dollar. I did not have a computer then and I wasn't really good about reconciling my bank statements regularly. Honestly, I only started this to make sure I didn't bounce a check. My mother taught me this trick because eventually you get a cushion that helps in an emergency. Eventually this was a habit and once I started watching my finances more closely, this money would also be put into savings. Since I'd been doing this for several months before I opened the savings account, I was surprised there was over $350 in my "cushion". Granted, it took days to reconcile, but it was there, and it was mine.
4. I saved my change, even though I rarely had cash to carry. Sometimes I did have to use the quarters for laundry, but nickels, dimes and pennies were always saved. Unless I was desperate, I didn't use change in the store. After a year, I had almost $200 in small change.
5. Any money found when doing laundry went into the savings account. This was especially hard one time around my birthday when I found a $20 bill, but it went there anyway.
6. I got a small raise from my job. It was pretty insignificant, but the difference was automatically transferred from my checking account to savings so I wouldn't be tempted to spend it.
7. All cash birthday gifts, rebates, even a penny lying on the street was treated as "found money". All found money - money you were not expecting - goes into savings.
8. My savings account was moved into a separate bank so it wasn't so easy for me to spend. I made this decision once it was over $500.
When my boys were 4 and 5, I took them on a trip to Seattle. Keep in mind, we have to fly to Seattle. We stayed in a hotel part of the time, and stayed with my brother the rest. We rented a car and we even ate in a few restaurants - not fancy restaurants, but I was travelling with little kids anyway. We spent 3 days at Seattle Center and visited the top of the Space Needle. We also visited several museums and art galleries and spent a day at the Seattle Aquarium. When I came home, there was no dreading the bills from our vacation. The rent and utilities were paid, we had money for groceries and gas, and we all had a good time.
Imagine - I saved $4000 between 1991 and 1993. If I'd have saved another year, I would have had the down payment on my first home. At that time, the average starter home price in Juneau was $80,000.
I hope someone can learn from my experience and my mistakes. If there is enough interest in this subject, I will post more ideas on saving money.
The package left yesterday. Every signature in place. Every "i" dotted, and every "t" crossed.
Southeast Alaska Real Estate will soon be "Prudential Southeast Alaska"
There was a lot of soul searching in choosing a franchise. At the last moment, I even wondered if I should.
So, if you are thinking about a career in real estate in Southeast Alaska, you now have another choice of brokerage. I'd love to show you why I think Prudential Southeast Alaska would be the best choice.
If you are an experienced agent looking to relocate to my area, I'd love the opportunity to meet with you and discuss your upcoming move.
Now, it's time to order new signs!
Serving Southeast Alaska since 1999
Only the label has changed - still the same great service!
I'm opening my own office! I can finally talk about it. No more hiding - no more sneaking around making plans. Everything is right on the table. While it's earlier than I planned, it's kind of a relief.
My broker at RE/MAX, Larry Telfer, has displayed an unusual level of professionalism when he decided that in order to live my dream, I needed to part ways with his office.
Thursday things really hadn't quite sunk in. I kept checking the MLS. I still had access. I kept looking at my license on the wall. I kept counting my listings. I was waiting for a shoe to drop. Finally I had to talk to Larry and see where all this was going to go.
"This is going so much smoother than I expected. I'm almost feeling guilty but it's too late to change my mind. This has been so pleasant, but we need to get down to brass tacks".
"What do you mean?" asked Larry.
"I have 23 active listings, and 9 pending files"
"When you get your broker license, you'll still have 23 active listings, provided they sign up with you. I'm not calling them, and I'm not trying to take them. As for your pending files, we may have to work something out to have someone here assist, but you can participate in them to the fullest extent allowed by law".
Now I truly am speechless. Chocked up, and my eyes fill up with tears. This man is being so kind. After all, the broker owns the listings. Larry must know my clients are loyal and most have already told me they will not list with anybody else should this happen earlier than planned.
The mutual admiration society continues. Larry gave me advice on setting up my bookkeeping system, my bank accounts, and even gave me some supplies to last until my shipment comes in. We waited until my last closing Friday to do the paperwork. I raced to the post office and sent everything to Anchorage by Express Mail. Hopefully it will be at the Real Estate Commission on Monday and they will process my paperwork quickly.
In the meantime, I hope everyone understands why I'm not answering calls or emails. Things will kick into high gear next week!
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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