In about 20 mintues I'll be meeting with homeowners in Wittmann, Arizona - an unincorporated community along and west of US 60 between Surprise and Wickenburg. For those whose mental picture of Arizona is land, lots of land and unending vistas, Wittmann's probably what you have in mind.

Wittmann features a wide variety of homes, from manufactured housing to site-built homes to one house made out of foam blocks. And lot sizes vary from an acre or less to multiple-acre ranches. Determining a likely sales price in an area with such variety and without any true comparables is challenging, to say the least.

The home we'll be discussing is a Palm Harbor-built manufactured home sitting on roughly 3 1/2 acres. The owners have added a storage building and a garage and have fenced in one of the acres. But the real value is underground - the property shares a well with five other parcels, answering the biggest question surrounding any property in Wittmann (or Circle City or other similar unincorporated areas in northwest Maricopa County) - does the parcel have water?

While there is value in the manufactured home, it's virtually insignificant compared to the value inherent in the land. Someone purchasing the parcel can happily live in the manufactured and enjoy the land. Or they can take out the manufactured, place a custom build on the site and add substantial value to the property. The value is as much in the potential - its greatest and best use - versus the present.

And so that became the basis for determning sales value - not comparable sales on manufactured homes, but sales of raw land with water in similar areas.

Assuming the homeowners allow me the opportunity to list the home, you'll see photographs and a final sales price posted. And even if they don't, you have a little more insight into how a real estate agent can use their experience to help determine the value of a property.