From the JoeBurnsBlog: August 2008

This is a super piece of property located in the Wolf Creek Industrial Park near Hwy 49 in Grass Valley, CA.  2.09 level acres with utilities to the property line, this parcel comes with APPROVED PLANS by the City of Grass Valley.  The plans are for 3 single-story buildings totaling 27,516 sf of warehouse.  Zoning is light industrial, the property fronts Idaho-Maryland Road, with quick access to both Hwy 49 and Brunswick. 

Only $499,000. (Owner will consider some carry.)

Rendering of Approved Project.

   Level parcel, nicely treed.

Location to Hwy 20/49

The Oakridge Apartments in Marysville is a 14 unit complex on a large 1 acre rural parcel located between Yuba College and Beale Air Force Base. (Beale employs 5000 people, currently offers 1202 housing units.)

Listing Price = $849,000 ($60,643 per unit) -  9.71 GRM; 6.23% CAP. 

For More Information, see property Web site at http://sale.svn.com/beale

A mole, or moles, are killing my yard.  Each day I find new swollen trails through my lawn, flower beds and my wife's garden.  How do I kill these little buggers?

The aforementioned gardening wife is an opponent of chemical warfare against rodents, so I went down to the local hardware store and bought a $30, solar gadget that sticks into the ground and supposedly emits a sound or vibration that scares away the moles.  It didn't work, in fact I think it invigorated them. The tunnels increased. 

Next up was an actual trap, the kind that clamps down on any varmint that takes the bait.  You have to set the trap and gently place it in one of their tunnels without it snapping shut.  I'm typing this blog with one hand.  Next.

I finally got an approval to use poison. I bought these cute little radioactive rubber worms that the mole will eat then die in his sleep at night.  The worm is designed to do two things attract the mole, then poison the mole. It accomplished one of those items.

I had enough, I went back to the store, for the 4th time, and this time saw the solution. A muffler coupler that attaches to a hose so you can smoke them out.  How perfect; just drop the hose into their hole, fill 'em up with Carbon Monoxide and wait til the rat starts coughing. All while I sit in my air conditioned Infiniti and rev the gas, at $4.50 a gallon.

I proudly brought the muffler device up to the counter for my purchase only to get shot down once again.  "I'm sorry sir, but we are not allowed to sell these devices to real estate agents during this slow down in the market.  You can understand."  Yeah, right, like I'm going to...

Does anyone have a solution on how to kill these little varmints?

Beware, there is a wolf running around out there, dressed like a good intentioned little lamb. In Grass Valley, CA, like so many other communities, the extreme no-growthers have donned a new 'managed growth' message to push their restrictive ideology. It is a misguided attempt to limit new development by requiring all amendments to the general plan go through a public election process. That is correct, if you would like to get a general plan amendment, you would have to put together a campaign fund and schmooze your drinking buddies into making a high level planning decision on your behalf. Never mind what the engineers, planners, government staff or elected officials have found to be prudent, Pete down there at the end of the bar holds the decision on your project.  "Wake up Pete, you need to go downtown to vote for my zoning amendment and bonus density."  

I am the first to admit that we need balance in our approach to community development.  The stereo-typical argument between the environmentalist and pro-development group is a necessary evil in the democratic public process.  And though I have seen these discussions get heated and personal, they do add the needed give and take that ultimately provides managed growth. What has always concerned me in this debate is the far side of anti-growth. The side that truly believes they have a steward's right to keep others from enjoying what they get to enjoy. It is selfishness on the highest level.  "The land has been here for millions of years, but because I bought here 4 yrs ago, I now have the duty to protect the surrounding environment by making sure no one else can build a big home like mine." 

The public process of hearings, EIRs and elected officiating works. We continually learn new ways to build, new ways to plan and new ways to protect the environment and make room for our growing population. All of these new trends are learned through the public process.  It is these structured public hearings where facts overcome fiction: as opposed to the bumper sticker rhetoric that the anti-progressors would like to be the decision points.

Please respond if your community has successfully defended the public hearing process for smart growth.  Also, subscribe or contact me for more information on this initiative and for the November results of Grass Valley's fight to defend itself.

Each morning, for the past year, on the way to work in Nevada City, CA I pass this sign:

Apparently, someone needs to hop on this deal, because it "WON'T LAST" too much longer.  Technically, they are correct, it won't last forever - eventually the sign will rot and fall over.  If the sign produces a call, I think the potential buyer will soon realize this isn't a fresh offering.

Does this sign rider help sell the property?  I guess it doesn't hurt, until that buyer realizes the real market time.

On a separate rural street corner in Placer County, a series of 8 For Sale signs are lined up next to each other, signaling to highway passer-byes that there are some hot properties right down this street.  To me, it kind of says, "dead end market ahead".  In the best interest of all 8 sellers, and the other few who's agent has not yet got their sign up, it may be better to put one generic sign up - "Homes for Sale".

We often go to our family's cabin in a secluded area of the summit in the Sierra off Interstate 80. This remote neighborhood of mostly second homes and vacation rentals has been hit hard by the market; not so much in the foreclosure realm, as most owners are not over leveraged, but by the economic desire to unload a discretionary property during tough times. Again, the prices are not to the level of the mega-decline we've seen in the over-built valley towns, but there are quite a few for sale signs. In fact, one company, that has the fortitude to brave the 7000 ft elevation elements year around, has a dominant majority of the listings. They have a sign on about every fourth house. This could not be good for the perceived value of real estate in that community. We all know, a buyer's value is perceived and the biggest factor of that perception is supply and demand. I can not imagine that all those signs are good for the collective group of sellers.

I know signs draw calls that help agents sell other listings. And I appreciate the need for agent's to brand their market dominance. But, to an extent the over-signing and misleading riders are hurting the clients we represent. 

What do you think?  As practitioners do you ever get concerned of the message we are creating with our marketing?  Could alliances with other listing agents in a community present a less-damaging picture while still allowing the agents to expose their property and brand?

As we pull out of this past housing slump, I think buyer perception will be key, we need to work as industry to put our best message forward.