appraisal

It's the weekend --- and I'm working! It
started with a telephone call when my
boss asked if I wanted an assignment in
Eureka: I said Sure! He faxed it to me
and I called the owner to make an
appointment to inspect his property. I
reached his business partner who was
happy to give me his partner's home
number. I called and scheduled an
afternoon appointment.

When I arrived a few minutes early,
parking down the street, I took the time to
read the report our office had done on
the same property in 1990 which I had
picked up on my way by the office. While
looking through the file, I came across a
Surprise! In the back of the file was a
second request from the same lender --- I
thought it was on the same property for a
moment because both property owners
have the same surname. Looking closer I
realized the request was for a report on a
second property --- from the same lender.

After inspecting the first property, I
stopped back by the office and checked
the Log to see if the additional assign-
ment had been entered. It had not. I
looked in our older files and found a
report our company had done on this
second property twenty years ago! We
have rows and rows of file cabinets full of
older files which often come in handy as
a basis for an updated report. It is the law
that we keep a hard-copy of every
appraisal for a minimum of five years. I
took the file on the second property home
and called the office to try to reach my
boss to ask if I could go ahead on the
second assignment. He happened to be
at the office by the time I got home and
he gave me the OK, thankful that I had
found the second request.

That was Saturday. Yes, some of us work
Saturdays, and for different reasons. I
wanted to work since my husband was out
of town --- and I was planning some
weekday time away from my work. My
boss says he likes working Saturdays
because it is quiet at the office then and
he can finish what he has started.

I telephoned for the appointment on the
second property: the owner was the
business partner of the first property
owner. I had already spoken to him
earlier in the day when he gave me his
partner's home phone number. I was able
to schedule the inspection with him to
inspect his property on Sunday.

Finally, here is what I want to share with
you: a "Sunday Story" from the owner of
the second property. He is a retired
gentleman who resides in a charming
Victorian with his wife and two dogs. As I
entered, he assured me: "Monk won't
hurt you; he can't hear very well anymore;
just like me. Monk likes everybody; the
other dog is locked in the garage --- and
he isn't friendly." Monk is an old, brown
dog who sat next to me when I did some
sketching at the dining room table. He
kept pushing his head up under my hand
to be petted.

A little later, as I was inspecting the
upstairs, the owner said to me: "I need to
explain why the rooms are all so full of...
well, full of toys and children's things.
You see, my wife grew up in Boston ---
she was an orphan --- and she told me
when we met that she never had all the
things little girls like to play with. So I
spoiled her! I helped her collect all these
toys and dolls and doll houses --- I even
built doll houses for her... until I retired
from my job of 28 years and went to work
in construction and got too busy. But she
has enough now. Monk misses her today
because she just had to go to the flea
market." The kind sir went back to the
kitchen where he was pulling ham off the
bones for a big pot of ham and beans he
was making for dinner.

I was so moved by his touching story --- I
meet lots of nice and interesting folks in
this business --- many who have a story to
tell.

I am sorry to say that business has slowed
considerably recently and some unusual
dealings are afoot.
Most recently my boss told me the story
about a lender from Southern California
calling for an appraisal. When we asked
that payment be sent for the completed
appraisal, he said he would fax a copy of
the check he was sending. My boss
assured him that it was possible that the
postal service could deliver the check
overnight. A few days later, a check
drawn on a personal account arrived.
When we inquired at his bank to verify
that the check would clear, we were told
there was no money in his account to
cover it. We are still awaiting payment ---
by cashier's check.
In another instance, I received an
appraisal request on a Friday from a
lender for a property located 3-hours drive
away. When I told her I would be happy
to accept the assignment for 25% more in
fee to cover the time and travel, she told
me she would call me back if she could
not find an appraiser who would do the
assignment for less. On the following
Monday, she telephoned me asking the
'status' of the appraisal. I reminded her
that she had said she was shopping for a
cheaper appraisal fee. She apologized
for the call, admitting "When I leave the
office on Friday, my brain goes dead." I
commented, "That must make Mondays a
bit difficult."

What an adventure last week! I drove
300 miles into the Klamath National
Forest and the Marble Mountain
Wilderness --- over Hwy 299 and up Hwy
96 --- through the land of the Hoopas
and the Yuroks and the Kuraks (meaning
up-river people) --- all the way to Happy
Camp (pop. 1,100) which is one of the
largest towns in that area of Siskiyou
County. As I dined in the local cafe, I
read on the menu that the name Happy
Camp was chosen way back when by the
local folk who named their town Happy
Camp because of the plentiful ores of all
kinds (including gold) found by miners
and the "exotic" agricultural plants and
animals abounding in the area.
As I inspected a 28-acre parcel which is
entirely bordered by creeks, the owner
told me he had one of the most prized
possessions in those hills: water... and
that the water from the surrounding
creeks had been promised to his parcel
exclusively by a deed during the
Homestead Act in 1918 signed by
President Harding! He went on to tell
me about some of the former owners of
the surrounding property including an
outlaw-moonshiner notorious during
prohibition. When I commented about
the white painted paneling in his 1930's
farmhouse, he told me it was called
beaverboard. Responding to my puzzled
looks, he said "Actually it is a type of
very thick cardboard that was popular
back in the days..."
Below is a picture looking over toward
Somes Bar (pop. 225) showing a
sampling of the miles and miles of
breathtakingly beautiful river views along
Hwy 96.

It has been so long since I have had a
chance to write in this journal ---
between busy and building business ---
there is no time left!
Most recently I experienced the
magical adventure of traveling to Shelter
Cove to appraise a home. Stopping in at
a local realtor's office to learn about and
pick up info on this picturesque and
remote, seaside development which he
said "takes commitment to get here over
the steep and windy roads", Shelter
Cove is entirely surrounded by BLM
property making it necessary to have
their own electrical, gas and sewer
system which is backed up by a diesel
generator protecting all the residents in
case of power outtages. I also found out
about some of the newer businesses in
the area. After inspecting the home, I
enjoyed a delightful lunch at a genuine
tea house called Cape Mendocino that
he recommended: the most scrumptious
crumpets, soup and exotic teas served in
china along with genuine silver. Two
local ladies, Carol and Barbara, (now
widows, who were among the first
residents, with their husbands, of the
Shelter Cove seaside development)
invited me to join them at the
community table. My very special
luncheon was accompanied with their
stories of how Shelter Cove was then (in
the 1970's) up to how it is now. In one
story, Carol recollected the arrival of the
lighthouse we were admiring which is
just across the street from the tea house.
It is the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse
which was trucked in in pieces with the
"birdcage", or topmost part, flown in by
helicopter from about 20 miles north.
She described the memorable and
exciting ordeal: "When it was far away,
it looked small, but as it got closer and
closer it got larger and larger..." Now,
Shelter Cove is a stop on every
lighthouse-lubber's tour which is a very
good thing with tourism being Shelter
Cove's main industry.