Jeni Walker

Sounds steep....Er the price that is .. but come to think of it? If the land is steep and full of poison oak maybe they are figuring in some degree of difficulty in their estimates? I think I might ask some of my title company contacts if I could get a survey along with my title insurance. Maybe some discount there? if ordered through the title insurer?. Great question, Michael, we'll be interested in the expert answers from the posters on Trulia. - Tue Oct 7 2008, 22:50

."Is the company that services my loan also the company that holds the mortgage?" Maybe, maybe not.

You know that 700 billion that Congress authorized last week for the administration to spend?
That 700B is earmarked for the purchase of collaterallized mortgage debt backed securities (CMBS)
I'll cite a sample representation of a CMBS: A packager (could have been Merrill Lynch, or Lehman Brothers)
took a thousand mortgages that it owned and labeled them all as " Portfolio Lehman 2006-ninja series WLL"
( originated in 2006 then a unique identifier. ) So Lehman (or whoever) sold the principal payments for the entire portfolio in percentages to other financiers, then they sold the interest payment stream to a bunch of other folks. then thye sold the stream of late charges to some other gamblers, then they sold the value of the servicing rights to a bunch of other companies.

Your loan might possibly be in such a portfolio, which in turn is owned by dozens of different companies, banks, hedge funds etcetera. This is one of the reasons that loan modifications and short sales are difficult to achieve in some situations even when the loan mod or short sale would have been the mortgage owners best chance of getting most of their investment back . How do you get a dozen different companies to agree on taking their losses in a timely manner if ever?

Or your mortgage might be held by a single entity. The servicing company knows who owns the mortgage. (or who owned it the last time they collected a payment). but I don't know if they will share that information with you. You could ask, let us know if they tell you.

Just as servicing companies change, owners also change. If you are lucky (good luck or bad luck, I'm not sure) your loan might even get bought up by good old Uncle Sam. If so, you probably have a better chance of negotiating with Uncle Sam if you need forbearance, than if you try to negotiate with Uncle Citigroup or Uncle Wells Fargo. - Tue Oct 7 2008, 22:40

Jeff and rock suggest that the sculptures can be removed from the site, without damaging them significantly. nor for that matter damaging the site. Are these works an integral part of the landscape? or could they be happily transplanted?
If irreparable damage is likely to occur to either the artworks or the landscape it may be preferable to leave the artworks in place and hope that the right buyer comes along and appreciates the added value.

Most residential homes are bought and sold as commodities. X number of square feet, so many bedrooms and baths. Think of cars, 99% of them are valued as commodities, A , Shelby cobras, Maseratis, and Ferraris and Maybachs and a few rare antiques are given premium values

If you have an estate quality home, then you may fully recoup much of the value of embellishments such as fine chandeliers,intricate medallions, wall murals, inlays ,waterfalls, rare plants, landscape art and other luxury touches.
If this is just a 300K or 400K median house. Then it is just lipstick...nice but it does not add much in value to the average buyer.

Whew,
but maybe you won't get an average buyer. Maybe you get lucky and the artist's number one fan is shopping for a house in just your neighborhood and price range. Sure the odds are long against that, but nothing is totally impossible. Your agent might try marketing to wealthy art patrons in addition to marketing through the benchmark real estate advertising venues. It might not help, but it couldn't hurt. - Tue Oct 7 2008, 22:14

Hi Doc,

We have been researching this for ourselves as Jim and I close escrow tomorrow on a small house on a big parcel of land.
There are some house plans pre-approved by the city of Sacramento for fast tracked infill development.

We spoke to one of the architects today that provide the pre-approved plans. That is Matthew Piches on Taylor Street in Roseville. Another source of advice would be the Development Services Department of the City of Sacramento, 300 Richards Boulevard, 3rd Floor, Sacramento, CA 95811. The department help line is (916) 808-5656.

We look for lots that will have a frontage of 52 feet (or more) after the split, but will ask for a variance if smaller lots make sense. There are also quite a few vacant lots rattling around town that need no further splitting

We made our decision on the house that closes tomorrow, NOT on the development potential (that is the whipped cream or the gravy, maybe some months or even years down the road. ) We made the purchase decision based on getting positive cash flow as soon as the existing house is renovated and rentable within a few weeks.

Jim is emailing you a copy of the City of Sacramento Staff Review Application Packet
New One and Two Family Residential Construction.
Minimum Design Standards for New Construction of Single and Two Family Dwellings.

The city website is the web reference

We would be glad to share what we learn with you as we renovate and develop our parcels in this strange real estate market. - Jim and Jeni - Tue Oct 7 2008, 20:51

Jim,
If you have been working with a buyers agent all along, he or she would have a pretty good idea of the market value of the homes that you like. Generally it is a range of values. Example: 4000 sq foot new or newer home might be worth between $480K and $580K depending on location, interior and exterior upgrades etc. The question to address then is this home at $549K one of the nicest, best located, best equipped homes? Or is it prettty basic without much in the way of upgrades and incentives. - If it is a 4000 square foot home at $549K it should be nice. Although there are 4000 square foot homes in Elk Grove for less than $480K they are often short sales or repos in poor or barely fair condition. - Thu Aug 14 2008, 21:55