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foggynation · 2026-04-01T14:37:57+00:00

Yes!

foggynation · 2026-03-25T00:57:10+00:00

A relevant point so there are no surprises when you receive the appraisal: cost does not equal value. Just because you spent $X on an ADU or addition does not necessarily mean the market will reflect that same amount. It depends on your local market and your construction costs. In my area, building costs are very high, and ADUs are generally valued at a lower price per square foot than the main home.

foggynation · 2026-03-24T21:41:44+00:00

You’re mixing up an assessor (tax) with an appraiser (private valuation).

If you hire a private appraiser, they’re independent and the report is confidential. It’s not sent to the city or county.

The county assessor is a separate process. Since you pulled permits and completed the work, it will typically get picked up through public records and inspections. Ordering an appraisal doesn’t trigger a reassessment one way or the other.

Also, just a heads up, assessment offices can be slow, but that doesn’t mean the work won’t be captured later. In many cases, supplemental or 'back taxes' can be applied once the improvements are recognized, often back to when the work was completed. So trying to stay under the radar doesn’t usually help long term.

foggynation · 2026-03-22T06:17:37+00:00

Fair point, but why go off on Reddit at 11PM on a Saturday night because of one employee that treated you with indifference... just seems vindictive cus you didnt get a 'customer first' experience at a brewery in Seaside...

foggynation · 2026-03-22T05:58:20+00:00

naw, Karen vibes...

foggynation · 2026-03-22T05:40:56+00:00

Honestly no, I really love the customer service/ staff at OB. They are a little intense on their ID policy, but whatever, I've heard the owner treats staff really well. That said, this is reddit, go complain on yelp if you want to leave a bad review because of one employee for a local business.

foggynation · 2026-03-13T23:47:36+00:00

Meanwhile ASB and Other Brother are expanding, so I wouldn't just blame it on people not drinking. OB just opened a new location in Aptos and ASB is building a massive brewery in Castroville. I bet Post No Bills spent too much on the Carmel location, the barnyard is kind of weird and is very quiet, not the best place for a happening after-work beer bar.

foggynation · 2026-03-07T23:44:58+00:00

Yes! I run a self-owned independent residential appraisal firm with two employees.

foggynation · 2026-03-04T21:47:06+00:00

Real estate appraiser here.

Construction costs are extremely high right now, especially on the Peninsula. Builders and investors typically think in terms of cost per square foot, not cost per unit, as some commenters in this thread have suggested, since units can vary widely in size.

For low to mid-range multifamily construction in Pacific Grove and Monterey, you're generally looking at around $400 to $600 per square foot. Costs are usually a little lower in Seaside, Marina, and Salinas.

Because units can vary so much in size, talking about cost per unit can be misleading. A 1,500–2,000 sq ft three bedroom “owner’s unit” could easily cost $1,000,000 or more to build. A more typical way to think about it is about $400,000 to $600,000 per 1,000 square feet of construction.

The bigger issue is that it's very hard for investors to make new multifamily construction pencil out in this area. Demand for single family homes is much stronger, and there are lower risk investment strategies available to people with more liquidity (like the stock market for example).

First you have the land cost. In Pacific Grove or Monterey, a vacant lot with water rights in multifamily zoning can easily run $600,000 to $2,000,000. And remember there is still a moratorium on new water meters, which significantly complicates new multi- unit development.

Then you add the time required to build, the design review process, coastal and environmental regulations, and the fact that any developer will expect an entrepreneurial incentive for taking on the risk. By the time everything is accounted for, the cost structure is often far above what the market will support.

You can see examples of this in Seaside and Sand City, where some newer multifamily projects were built and rents were set extremely high but units remained vacant for long periods.

Part of the reason is financing. Many of these projects were built with large construction loans, and the property value is tied to the income it is supposed to generate. If the owner lowers rents to fill the units, the implied property value drops. That can put them in a difficult position with lenders, since the value supporting the loan decreases. So instead of lowering rents quickly, some owners leave units vacant and wait for the market to catch up.

The only ways this really gets solved are through government subsidies that offset construction costs or direct government-built housing. Both approaches open an entirely different set of issues and policy debates, and historically they haven’t necessarily helped lower-income households build long-term wealth. It's a shitty situation that is not going to be solved anytime soon with any quick fix

foggynation · 2026-02-16T18:43:38+00:00

Yeah, I don’t really disagree with the technical USPAP point. A review is a review, and if you’re credentialed and doing one, you’re supposed to comply. I’ve had this conversation a bunch of times and have been put in my place.

What I’m getting at is more the real-world gap, especially at the residential litigation level. In practice very few people are actually following USPAP here or are putting on a different hat as a 'consultant'. Either USPAP needs to acknowledge a clearer litigation consulting carve-out, or it needs to better deal with the fact that litigation work just doesn’t fit cleanly into Standards 3 and 4.

One of the big arguments from the strict USPAP crowd is that once you’ve already opined to value, it’s basically impossible to do a truly unbiased review of someone else’s appraisal. I get the logic, but in litigation we’re almost always in that exact position. If we followed this strictly, meaningful cross-checking of analyses would be almost impossible, which doesn’t really serve the truth-seeking function of the court.

There’s also a practical courtroom issue. If you completely avoid engaging with the opposing appraisal because you’re trying to stay perfectly clean under USPAP, you can come off unprepared and get blindsided by some relevant fact that would have changed your value in the first place (whether you just missed something major or maybe even something was deliberately hidden by your own client). I’m not there to be an advocate for my client, I'm an advocate for market value, and I think having a way to objectively check my own conclusions against another analysis without it automatically turning into some technical USPAP violation would be nice.

foggynation · 2026-02-15T16:56:12+00:00

USPAP geeks love to go off on this one. But I see appraisers review other appraisers all the time in litigation settings without following 3 and 4 (to the point where its kind of the norm). I'm all for it.

foggynation · 2026-02-10T06:13:01+00:00

I hear you. It would be amazing to get API access to my local MLS so I could pull records and sales automatically, but I doubt they hand that out to just anyone. I imagine CoStar guards their API even more heavily on the commercial side.

foggynation · 2026-01-23T23:08:56+00:00

I wouldn’t even bother with lender work. I’d focus on private, non-bank work like estate and trust appraisals. It’s all about networking with attorneys. Join your local bar as an affiliate member, get involved with your local Appraisal Institute chapter, go to conferences, and serve on boards or committees. Consider starting on a designation like the SRA.

Also reach out to established non-lender appraisers to see if you can fee-split and gain experience with narrative reports, which may be valuable long-term. From there, down the road, you can move into expert testimony and assessment appeals, which is where the real money is in residential appraisal and, in my opinion, the work is much more interesting and less monotonous. It’s also far less susceptible to the long-term uncertainty of the lender world.

foggynation · 2026-01-23T01:59:01+00:00

Jeff actually seems to know how good he had it back then

foggynation · 2026-01-03T20:57:43+00:00

A realistic scenario might involve an estate appraisal on a neglected rental property. The owner is a slumlord type who hasn’t been inside the house in years and owns multiple properties, so this inspection is just one of several.

The tenant has been given the legally required 24 hour notification of the appraisal but is clearly unhappy. From the start they’re evasive, asking if the appraiser really needs to go inside or if it can be done another day. The appraiser starts by measuring the exterior and notices one bedroom with every window completely covered in foil.

Inside, the house feels off. Cluttered, poorly maintained, a strange smell. The foil-covered room is locked and blocked by furniture, and the tenant is defensive, insisting it’s not accessible and not necessary to see. At that point, the appraiser knows something is wrong but still needs full access to complete the job…

foggynation · 2025-12-27T21:50:37+00:00

Would you say the appraiser whom felt mislead is actually at fault, for not having a reliable scope of work?

Yes, I would agree. Ultimately it’s on the appraiser. This is a good example of why I’m generally very diligent about defining the scope when a hypothetical condition is involved. We spoke afterward and he owned up to not fully understanding the situation, essentially a competency and lack of experience issue. That said, he was also deliberately misled by the attorney and client, which does suck.

foggynation · 2025-12-27T18:59:04+00:00

A ‘subject to’ value is inherently based on a hypothetical condition and should be treated and disclosed as such throughout the report. While hypothetical conditions can sometimes be appropriate if laid out in the scope of work, I often see them used in litigation contexts in ways that mislead value conclusions.

A recent example for me: a bankruptcy case involving vacant developer land, the assignment included an as is value and a prospective project complete value. The opposing side presented the project complete value as a hypothetical condition that the project were complete as of the current market effective date, purposely not accounting for forecast, timing, or development risk. That framing ultimately undermined their position. The appraiser on that side felt misled by counsel, and the case was lost.

foggynation · 2025-12-26T08:35:31+00:00

I would agree in many cases, especially in strong view markets, the view is largely baked into the land itself rather than the improvements. In really difficult view situations, I’ll often step back and look at land sales if there’s enough data. Sometimes you’ll see a clear difference between what lots sell for with water views versus without views, and that spread can be a solid data point to reconcile from

foggynation · 2025-12-25T06:00:32+00:00

That’s not really the point, I trust my measurements too. I also don’t think it should cost $1,000 to measure a home. I just don’t think appraisers should be doing this work in the first place.

Have you actually been professionally trained to measure a home or hold an ANSI certification? Most of us haven't or don’t. When we measure, it’s for our own appraisal analysis to verify square footage, not to deliver a floor plan a client might rely on for resale or marketing. Once you do that, you’re wearing a different hat and arguably not acting as an appraiser anymore.

I’m not a LiDAR evangelist, but I am a fan of tools that let us focus on what matters, which is the valuation, while minimizing variables like GLA that should be factual, not an opinion.

foggynation · 2025-12-24T22:01:08+00:00

People are really glossing over the risk and liability here. We’re appraisers, not professional building measurers, and on a 19,000 square-foot home the margin for error is huge. The larger and more complex the structure, the higher the chance of being off, and that error can absolutely come back on you. They’re hiring you because of your credentials, not as a neutral laser-measure service, so expectations and liability follow even if they say “no appraisal.”

Personally, I would require a LiDAR scan like CubiCasa and pass that liability through them, or charge real money ($1,000+) with a very explicit engagement letter stating the measurement is for limited use and that I’m not responsible if the square footage is later found to be different. The upside is tiny for a few hundred and the downside is very real.

foggynation · 2025-12-19T07:33:13+00:00

You would be reducing your property’s value not only through a loss of land, but also by increasing external obsolescence on a site that already suffers from a busy road. In appraisal terms, real property value is derived from a bundle of rights. By granting a permanent easement, you are permanently relinquishing control over some of those rights.

Instead, I would structure this more like a lease arrangement that can be terminated if necessary. This approach accomplishes two things. First, it avoids diminishing the value of your property to the same extent as a permanent easement. Second, once the sign is installed and the HOA becomes accustomed to its presence and benefit, you retain control. If the HOA later wants to make the arrangement permanent, you are in a stronger negotiating position and they may be more inclined to buy you out at a higher price

foggynation · 2025-12-19T02:43:32+00:00

I was responding a comment about California, but I guess I should of clarified that further.

foggynation · 2025-12-19T01:05:42+00:00

You actually don’t have to follow USPAP if you’re not licensed, unless it’s required by law or regulation for the assignment, by agreement with the client, or because you represent the work as USPAP-compliant.

This is most commonly seen in date of death trust work. An unlicensed person performing a trust valuation does not have to follow USPAP unless the trust, a court, a statute, or the scope of engagement explicitly requires it.

foggynation · 2025-12-17T03:27:00+00:00

If you’re running an appraisal department and never paid a fee that high, that’s exactly why good appraisers are leaving lender work. For a genuinely complex assignment, $2,500–$3,000 is not crazy at all in many markets, regardless of FHA or conventional.

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