Mortgage Appraisal | Real Estate Appraisal | Construction Appraisal

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A real estate appraisal or a mortgage appraisal by a licensed real estate appraiser gives you an independent opinion as to the true market value of a home, whether it be an old home, a new home, or even a home you are planning to build

Real estate appraisals are a critical to the housing industry for home buyers, home sellers and mortgage lenders.

Photo courtesy of Benefield Appraisal Service.
All mortgage loans including construction loans, home refinance loans, and home equity loans are called appraisal based loans and the mortgage lender will require...continued

Carl Heldmann

Difficult Building Sites - Mountain Home Building Site

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Hi Carl, I would just like to get your input/insight on the best approach to building on a steep slope. My wife and I bought a 5 acre property on a side of a hill in Colorado.

My guess is that the elevation from the bottom to the top of the hill is about 100-150 feet and the slope varies between 20-30%.

I think I'm going to need a grading plan or topography survey of the plot.

Another potential issue is the amount and size of boulders on the property.

We might have to hire someone to blast/dynamite the area where the foundation will be built. Any advice you could give us would be greatly appreciated, Neil

Hi Neil,

Since you didn’t give me the actual lot dimensions I am going to assume (you know what that spells) that the lot is almost square. That would make each side dimension approximately 468 ft.

Unless I calculated wrong that would mean about a .25 ft drop per running foot.
So, a house with a foundation 30 feet deep would have an approximate difference of 8 feet from the front wall to the back wall. That’s not too bad

You also need to be concerned with sewer/septic availability and their location.

Did you investigate this before you bought the land? I hope so.

If there is sewer, is below your planned building site or above it. If it’s above, you will need a lift station and they only pump just so high.

If a septic system will be needed, did you check with the local municipality as to system requirements, including the location on your lot? A 20-30% grade would probably require an alternate system.

Lots of things to investigate before you can even “locate” or position the house on the lot.

I would consult with a local architect familiar with mountain building, and who knows and can refer you to a local engineer.

An engineer would be the logical person to consult with as to the boulders and location of the house.

Without knowing the size of your boulders, I could not begin to guess what you need to do. Can they be moved? Can you build around them? (See photo below. and no, that’s not me in the photo, definitely not!)

Photo courtesy of Barrett Studio architects in Boulder


You may or may not need a topography survey. For those of you who might be interested, a topographical survey (Topo) is a survey that shows contours, natural and man-made features, and elevation gradients.

You have your work cut out for you, but as usual, most of it is investigation and planning.

Be sure you provide a rugged temporary driveway (see Paving Mountain Driveways on http://www.byoh.com/ ) to your building site. I learned that the hard way.

I have done two mountain houses. They both were challenges but well worth it.

Good luck,
Carl Heldmann

Kitchen Appliances Cost

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Keeping the cost of kitchen appliances lower can lower the total cost of building a house or home remodeling project.

Few people know what appliances cost. Builders can make a model home look great with lower cost appliances.



New home buyers merely notice that the appliances are the current "color of the decade." Today, the current color is stainless.

Today’s modern energy efficient appliances can not only save you money by saving energy, they can help you as an owner/builder control cost overruns...continued.
Carl Heldmann

Ekiden athletes' transfer of high school

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Due to indirect influence of the catastrophic earthquake last March, 10 Ekiden team members who went to one of prestigious high school in the area severely hit by the quack decided to change their school far away from the prefecture, which school was also famous for its tough ekiden team.    Ekiden is long distance running by several team members.  The original ekiden team won good grade in national ekiden competitions every year, but last year it did not that good due partly to bad physical and mental training condition caused by the quake.  Another reason was reportedly resignation of a good coach too.

On the other hand, the association of high school track and field club in the prefecture to which 10 members transferred has to face with a difficult question.  They have a national rule to ban transferred students from joining competition as a new team member within six months.  The policy of the rule is to prevent schools from correct potential high school athletes unfairly.  However, the the rule was not strictly applied in the case where students evacuated from the area hit by the big earthquake in light of a humane perspective.  The association committee will make a final decision how to apply the rule to this case.

____________________________________

I used to be into track and field club in my high school and college days.  I feel sympathy to those who evacuated from the area, but I do not think it is good and fair for the school which admitted the students to get too strong due to the contribution by the members.

Reviewing today's Skype conversation

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I have just finished Skype conversation with Filipino teacher.  I would like to refresh the class, of which topic was friends.

(There are two pictures.)
- The first one has a boy sitting in front of the beach with his dog, also sitting.  He is pointing our somewhere with his left hand.
- The second is a funny picture.  There is a mouse sitting on the cat's back, which is sitting on the dog's back.  Those three are typically enemies; mouse dislike cats and cats was chased by dogs.

How do you think borrowing money from friends?
- I do not think it is good idea because borrowing money may damage friendship.  When I have to borrow money, it is more often that I have already been in trouble.  Borrowing money would make the problem more serious.  Fortunately, I have neither borrow money from nor lend money to my friends.

What a friend should do and should not do?
- What a friend should do is to help or just listen to someone in trouble.  What a friend should not do is to invade his or her privacy too much.

How do you think about a fair-weather friend?
- I think I have some of such kind of friends.  Some of my acquaintance might regard me as a fair-weather friend.  I mean I can say the same as someone.  I think that kind of situation is inevitable more or less because it typically needs long time to make and find best friends and we have limited time, cost, interest and energy in our lives.

I already had 13 classes in this website.  I am feeling a little improvement so far, and am satisfied with those classes basically.  However, I need to spend more time to review and refresh the classes because this is the most meaningful time for me to improve English skill.
  

Should You Insulate a Basement

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Carl, Is there any advantage to insulating the basement ceiling before drywalling or should I just save the cost?

Thank you.

David

Hi David,

Basement wall insulation is needed if the basement is heated. Basement ceiling insulation is needed if the basement is not heated.

Image Source: energysavers.gov
If your basement is part of your living area, and since you are dry walling it I assume it is, you’ll want to insulate its walls, not the ceiling.

If you want sound proofing, you could add some rigid board insulation, but to insulate the ceiling would be a waste of money, and probably make your floors upstairs colder in the winter and your basement warmer in the summer.

Basement walls insulation can be done from...continued.

Carl Heldmann

How to use throat effectively

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Using throat effectively sounds like very important especially for Japanese to speak English.

I found this method in You tube short movies, which were really interesting to me.  A man, who also write a book for that topic, demonstrates the way he established to speak English as fluently as native speakers can.  The book is literally named "Eigo-nodo" (English throat).  Speaking Japanese clearly requires us to pronounce each sound shortly and lightly, which means we mainly use mouse, not throat.  On the other hand, English, and other western countries language like French, needs to use throat in effective way to pronounce sound naturally, the book said.

I tried some practice of the method, which was available online and that seems good until now.   Most Japanese, including me, train how to use lips and tuns well to speak English fluently, but that method is not one native speakers use, according to the book.  Actually, I cannot make myself understood in English especially when speaking loudly, which means the shape of my mouth and tuns are not very good because I tend to focus on making big sound.  Thus I believe the writer's theory.   I have just ordered the book online, so I will update how that work after I got the book.