appraiser: Lake appraisals
- 09/17/15 05:59 AM
This article was originally published in Working RE here They were very kind to allow me to republish and I offer it here for reach outside of the appraisal field as I believe agents might find it useful to understand what types of issues appraisers face in consideration of lake front appraisals, at least in the Midwest for the most part.
What motivates a buyer to purchase a lake property? Is it the tranquility? The beauty of the water? The excitement of a speedboat and waterskiing, or casting a line into the water in hopes of landing a trophy? It is all of these things, (0 comments)
…….Or put your money where your mouth is As an appraiser who works a very small area, and has for many years, I am fortunate to have quite good relationships with the agents in my community. Because of this, I get a lot of calls and emails asking for help when they run into situations with appraisals on their sales. Often the situation involves an appraisal that is under sales price where the agent is adamant that the appraisal is wrong. Yesterday I had an email from an agent who told me that she had done (0 comments)
appraiser: Ann Arbor - Saline market snapshot
- 04/16/14 02:36 AM
Market snapshot – comparing Ann Arbor and Saline Prologue I admit it; I am a data junkie. There is something about graphs and charts that I just get all-geeked out about. Maybe it is simply having too much time on my hands, or maybe it is a thirst for knowledge (hoping for the latter, but with understanding it may be the former). Without further ado, I offer my recent take on the comparison of two markets, because they often compete with each other. The data below is run as one years’ worth of data at a time, but compared month (0 comments)
It is quite frustrating to see how many people rely on these online value estimators to either price their home, or use it for marital dissolution, or other reasons. As will be shown in a minute, these can be off by a significant amount, either low or high. I just ran sales in Ann Arbor, in the 48103 zip code for the past couple of weeks. I then compared the sales prices to two online value estimators and State Equalized Value times two. The only consistency to the information is that these online value (1 comments)
appraiser: What is a bifurcated market?
- 03/12/14 07:33 AM
What is a bifurcated market? I am sure you have all heard the term bifurcated before; the question is what does it mean? Basically a bifurcation of the market relates to two different market segments that may have the appearance of being the same, but in essence are not; two different branches as it were. In order to show this in action, I have taken the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors MLS and examined one area that is fairly homogeneous (Lincoln School District) and separated the foreclosed (REO) properties from the arm’s length sales. I have then presented them as graphs, (3 comments)
appraiser: Market snapshot - a couple ways to measure the market
- 02/09/14 12:58 AM
So many ways to measure Markets are rarely identical and what happens as a nation isn’t necessarily what happens in a county, or what happens in an area, or even a submarket. We hear a lot about the improving market conditions that are occurring nationally, but as in all things real estate, the market really is fundamentally local. I live and work in the Ann Arbor market. Not all markets within this area are moving in the same direction, or at the same pace. Even within Ann Arbor there are differences, and the data below represents current information comparing the Ann (3 comments)
appraiser: Measuring market change
- 01/07/14 10:05 PM
Measuring market change Most of the measurements we see reported in the MLS relate to median price change over time, not price per square foot. As house sizes rise, the price per square foot falls and does so because price per square foot includes not only the gross living area, as well as the garage, basement, improvements to the house, decks, patios, and other site improvements, and even more importantly, the site itself. Since there is a diminishing return as house sizes increase, it is easy to see how a shift upward in house size could make the market look like (2 comments)