House of the Day: Jackson Hole's Paintbrush Ranch Offers Picture-Perfect Views

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, February 16, 2012, by Rob Bear

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Price: $8,495,000
The Skinny: Encompassed by National Park and National Forest, the aptly-named Paintbrush Ranch displays perfectly-framed mountain vistas through broad picture windows. This five-acre property sits at just the right distance from the famous Teton Range, capturing the jagged peaks in their entirety, and from nearly every room in the house. The 9,100-square-foot main house has an exposed wood frame construction that adds that mountain vibe, and while the interior design and architecture leave a little to be desired—ahem, is that a velvet painting in the bedroom?—there's little here that a little sprucing up couldn't fix. Plus, there's space galore, with a detached three-car garage topped by a two-bed apartment, a one-bedroom caretaker's cottage, and two "shop" buildings to store all the toys. The price may be hefty, at $8.5M, but that's a major discount on the original asking price, which was almost $14M.
· Paintbrush Ranch [Hall & Hall]

View the original article here

From Curbed Marketplace: Swanky Telegraph Hill Condo Has Views Galore

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, December 20, 2011, by Sally Kuchar

Here now, From Curbed Marketplace, highlighting an intriguing real estate listing from the many thousands of properties found in the Curbed Marketplace. Browsing the Marketplace and spot a property worthy of being featured? Send it to the tipline.

Telegraph Terrace in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood has a 3-bed, 3-bath, 2,473-square-foot, two-story condo up for grabs. The building was built in 1988, and it looks like the condo's had the same owner since then. Every single floor has bay views, including Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge. Asking price? $2,395,000. Property highlights include a deck and patio and a jacuzzi tub in the master suite.
· 184 Francisco Street, #6 [Redfin] 184 Francisco Street, San Francisco, CA

View the original article here

House of the Day: A Rural Suburban San Antonio Spread with Views of the Skyline

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, November 29, 2011, by Rob Bear

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Boerne, Texas
Price: $1,795,000
The Skinny: Situated more than 30 miles from downtown San Antonio, this house still boasts views of that city's tallest building, the Tower of Americas, thanks to a hilltop site. The stunning views from this ten-acre promontory also include the scrubby hills of San Antonio's rural suburbs. The house itself is tucked behind a pair of security gates and is part of the lauded development of Estancia at Thunder Valley. The neighborhood maintains communal riding facilities, a gymnasium, a sports court, and a par-3 golf course. While not terribly aesthetically pleasing from an architectural standpoint, the house benefits greatly from the sweeping views and an infinity pool sited to take full advantage of the vistas. The four-bed, four-bath, 4,700-square-foot home was built by a well-regarded local builder in 2007 and is currently listed for $1.8M.
· 48 Thunder Creek [Crawford]

View the original article here

[AMC Factory] River Views Less Valuable Because of “Smelly Fish Boats”

actual AMC (car) factory

AMC Factory For a year and a half, our firm tangled with the bureaucracy of Landsafe, the poster child for the appraisal management company (AMC) industry. While not all AMC’s are bad, their relationship to the mortgage process is fundamentally flawed. The estimation of market value of mortgage collateral to enable lenders to make informed decisions has been commoditized to the point where most mortgage appraisals are generally not worth the paper they are written on. This series is from an appraiser’s perspective, about a profession left to die by the side of the road.

Incidentally, some may view this series as providing cheap shots since it is always easy to pick out unflattering examples of misconduct in a large industry. You bet it is. After what good appraisers have observed over the past several years, the AMC industry deserves nothing more than that.

River Views Less Valuable Because of “Smelly Fish Boats”

Here’s one broker’s experience:

…client in [Manhattan] (urban market) could not buy the 10th Floor river-view apartment he wanted because his bank assigned an appraiser from Suffolk County, Long Island, (suburban market several hours away) who appraised it at less than the recent sale price of a 3rd Floor apartment in the same line, which had no river-view, and the client was short $20,000 cash which he did not have; the appraiser explained that where he comes from residences near enough to the shore to have a water-view, always have lower value perhaps because of the smelly fishboats. The bank would not do another appraisal because of the belief that all appraisers in a state are equally able to appraise any property in that state, no exceptions. So the client had to move into another rental apartment.

My thoughts

Local market knowledge is the primary qualification to hire a specific appraiser for an assignment. Merely having a license in the same state as the subject property to be appraised does not make someone competent.

A continuing refrain among real estate agents is that the appraiser came from another market, often 3-5 hours away. Not something that was the status quo in prior years.

Sigh.

View the original article here

On the Market: Views Galore For St. Regis 31st Floor Pad

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, May 4, 2011, by Sally Kuchar Gather round, folks, because this airy and bright condo is seriously sharp. Unit #31A at the St. Regis Residences in the Yerba Buena district (aka SoMa) is a 3-bed, 3-bath, 2,027-square-foot condo with all the fancy shmancy you'd expect from a property of this caliber: Floor-to-ceiling windows and views of Downtown and the Bay Bridge. In addition to the $225 leased parking fee, there's also monthly HOA dues of $2,330. Before you spit up your cocktail, consider that the St. Regis has more amenities than we can count. Room service, pool, gym, Remede Spa, concierge service, butler service, "world-class security," and unlimited valet parking, to name a few. Just make sure our housewarming party invitation doesn't get lost in the mail, thanks!
· 188 Minna, #31A [Redfin]

View the original article here

TrendWatch: Secret to a Happy Home Revealed, and it Includes Water Views

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, February 8, 2011, by Sarah

Although Yahoo amped up its quest for world domination by appropriating all of Zillow's content, listings site Trulia is going for a more metaphysical approach, endeavoring to find what it is, exactly, that makes a happy home. After all, can happiness be quantified? Why yes! Yes it can. Trulia asked 1,200 American couples to rank 11 home features—dual closets, large kitchen island, a man cave, water views, and more—in order of how each would positively improve their relationship. What came out on top? For women, apparently storage space is the be-all, end-all of making the magic happen. And for men—in a brilliant show of obviousness—it's having a master bedroom large enough for a king-size bed. Browse the photogallery above for the close-up shots.

· Zillow and Yahoo Merge; Quest for World Domination Continues [Curbed National]

View the original article here