I was called the other day to sell a house for a elderly lady, who held a corner lot in a nice part of Visalia, which gave me a problem conducting a comparable within a five mile radius because their were no other homes sold within the last decade except for a larger two story house around the block that was for sale for approximately $159 per sq. ft. So I called my friend, Steve Justice from Reedley, who is a local appraiser as well as a real estate agent and I asked how much of a difference it will be per square foot since my client’s residence sat on a corner lot thinking that the value per square foot would be a little higher, but I was very surprised by his answer.
“Well it depends!” he said.
“How’s that?” I asked.
“On the client.” he replied,
And I said, “Huh?”
He went on to explain how living on a corner lot can be both an disadvantage as well as an advantage because a corner lot receives most of the trash thrown by passing motorists and walking pedestrians (especially by students during their lunch hour) plus receives all the traffic from both sides, which tampers with a person’s privacy and possibly their peace of mind. If the corner lot has a swimming pool “guess how many times the owner will have to clean their pools compared to their neighbors because someone decided to throw something inside of it due to the double exposure!” said Steve. So even though a corner lot usually are larger than the common lot does not mean it is actually more valuable.
“Depends on the personal preference of your client and the mindset of the appraiser that sets the value of that particular lot besides the other involved factors.” said Steve
Just food for thought!
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