Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Animal Advocates, Los Angeles, California

Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Animal Advocates, Los Angeles, California
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Showing posts with label permits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label permits. Show all posts

Friday, January 10, 2020

Construction process, costs today are exponentially higher than 1900's, 1950's - Mary Cummins

Real estate construction costs, rising, permits, survey, architect, land costs, labor, materials, utilities, mary cummins, real estate, appraiser, appraisal, Los Angeles, California
Many people today have no idea how much it costs to build a new housing unit. Some are aghast at the $500K/unit estimate given to build housing units for the homeless or anyone. People also have no idea how long and difficult the process is today. Back in 1900 all you had to do at most was submit a two page form to the city and pay for the permits. You didn't need an architect, survey, soils, geological, engineer or even a drawing. You didn't need approval from your neighbors, other city departments, historical overlay zone committee members, building and safety, zoning and planning, dept of transportation... The cost today to build a unit is easily 100x what it was back in the day. It's also exponentially more difficult today. Today because there is no vacant land you have to demolish an existing structure and pay millions for the land. Then you have to deal with even more agencies and people. This article should explain some of the changes and challenges we face today.

Below is a complex building permit application which was approved. It's a two story 1906 very good quality home in Los Angeles. It cost $3,000 to build about 3,000 sf or $1/sf. This included everything for this high quality home. This was very, very expensive in 1906. This home exists today.



This home was built in a more rural area of Los Angeles in 1934. 672 sf for $1,000 or $1.40/sf. Look at this form. No architect, engineer, contractor. You could built it yourself. You didn't need a licensed contractor, plumber, electrician. There were no building and safety regulations or planning and zoning and no inspections. You want to build a house or school right next to a liquor store, highway, industrial plant? Okay.


This home was built in 1952. Again, no architect, engineer but there's a contractor because this person doesn't want to build it himself. Can you imagine no building and safety regulations? This time there is a little sketch. 2,200 sf built for $8,300 or $3.77/sf. That's it.

Below is the budget for a four-plex in the city of Los Angeles. This is the actual budget. Again, not my client. They paid $1.1M to buy a tear down home on an R2 lot. It cost $2,000,000 to build four units or $500,000 per unit. This developer is highly experienced. This soon to be property is in a not so good area of Los Angeles. This doesn't include a lot of other costs such as selling commission, transfer fees, property taxes...if they sell it. These people hold property and don't sell it. They'd have to sell over $2,000,000 to make a profit. We appraisers figure in a 20% profit so they would most likely sell it for $2,400,000 which seems about right based on the area. These are not luxury units. They are bare bones basic minimum requirement units. They're built dormitory style as if for students.



Cut to the chase today, 2020. It easily costs $175/sf to build an average low quality home. The amount of paperwork involved would be at least 3-5 feet tall not including plans and surveys. This cost doesn't include architect, survey, engineer, geo, soils, grading, utility hookups, appliances, finishes... It also doesn't include time, effort and money getting approvals from building and safety, planning and zoning, neighbors, NIMBYs, neighborhood lobbyists/extortionists, HPOZ Committee, transportation... It doesn't include mortgage payments, insurance during pre-contruction and during construction. It doesn't consider that you can only choose a piece of property with a very specific zoning in a very specific area. It can easily take two years from permit application to breaking ground. That's two years of holding costs just to do nothing. After you break ground it could take another year to have building and safety inspect the electrical, plumbing, mechanical... elements of your home so you can continue to the next step. It could take up to two more years getting a Certificate of Occupancy. All of these things take a lot of time and money.

This is why Mayor Eric Garcetti can fund a housing a project and not have a grand opening for at least two to five years. I was on the Prop F Committee to build the new animal shelters and fire stations. I've gone through the process over years with the City Committee. They actually did a really good job staying on top of things even when issues arose. Still, it took years and wasn't cheap.

The high cost of land, construction materials/labor, excessive red tape, NIMBYs dragging out the costly process is why we have a housing crisis. This is why we need housing for homeless, low income and even low middle class people today. Because of all the obstacles to building new units not enough units have been built over the past 30-40 years which is why rents are so high. It's a basic supply and demand issue. Rent control made the situation worse as landlords left the rental market and few new units could be built.

Some say "developers are just greedy." No, they're not. They're developers. Their goal is to build a project and make money. As an appraiser we figure in 20% developer profit. Many times they don't make 20%. They can end up losing their entire investment because building projects is extremely risky. Other people sell cars, clothing, medical services. They also expect to make a profit. It's just economics.

I've offered many solutions to these problems in my many articles about the housing crisis and solutions. The main solution is to limit NIMBY's power to stop projects. Some cookie cutter 2-8 unit projects should be automatically approved and need no further approvals from neighbors or NIMBYs. I just wrote this quick article so people can see how much it costs and how difficult it is today to build housing. People are yelling at Mayor Eric Garcetti like he is intentionally stalling on building new housing. He is doing everything in his power to build new units. He is stymied by NIMBYs.

Recently there was a project to build 250 units on vacant land with units for homeless, very low income, low income and market rent units. People fought it because they wanted more units for very low income. This was a private developer offering to build low income units when there is no law that states he must build super low income. NIMBYs  killed the project. A low income housing unit in the hand is better than two in the bush. NIMBYs are one of the biggest causes of the housing crisis.They have a place to live so eff everyone else.

FYI I have nothing to do with any of the homes listed above which is why I used them. I have never appraised, inspected, sold them. I just pulled some random buildings of specific ages.

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the
Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game and the USDA. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.


Google+ Mary Cummins, Mary K. Cummins, Mary Katherine Cummins, Mary Cummins-Cobb, Mary, Cummins, Cobb, wildlife, wild, animal, rescue, wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife rehabilitator, fish, game, los angeles, california, united states, squirrel, raccoon, fox, skunk, opossum, coyote, bobcat, manual, instructor, speaker, humane, nuisance, control, pest, trap, exclude, deter, green, non-profit, nonprofit, non, profit, ill, injured, orphaned, exhibit, exhibitor, usda, united states department of agriculture, hsus, humane society, peta, ndart, humane academy, humane officer, animal legal defense fund, animal cruelty, investigation, peace officer, animal, cruelty, abuse, neglect #marycummins #animaladvocates #losangeles #california #wildlife #wildliferehabilitation #wildliferehabilitator #realestate #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #lawsuit
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Sunday, April 21, 2019

Ideas to help solve the housing crisis. Here are a few ideas from others and some of my own. Mary Cummins

How to solve the housing crisis, homeless, eviction, homelessness, house, home,condo, shelter, apartment, building, mary cummins, los angeles, california, ideas, solutions
There is no doubt that California has a Housing Crisis. Not enough units have been built in the last 30 years to keep up with the demand for housing. Insufficient housing has been built because of rising cost of land and construction, miles of red tape in development and  NIMBYs (not in my back yard) to name just a few causes. The article linked below has some good ideas to help solve the housing crisis. I will list all the ideas then add my own.

  • Provide resources and incentives for local governments to pay for their fair share of housing.
  • Integrating housing and transportation planning and investment.
  • Working with locals to reduce regulatory barriers to production.
  • Making state excess property available for affordable housing. 
  • Providing financial assistance to developments to ensure long-term housing affordability.
  • Recognizing that wildfire, climate change, water supplies and quality, environmental protection, efficient transportation and protecting good jobs are all involved. 
  • Change zoning restrictions so multi-family buildings can be built in other zones.
  • Expand tax incentives for below market rate housing construction.
  • Stop adding costs to the home building process with more costly laws and regulations.
  • Roll back some of the out of control building fees.
  • Allow an increase in density along transit corridors.
  • CEQA reform to make it easier and quicker to get projects approved.
  • Guarantee a living wage so wages can keep up with rent increases.
  • Train young people through union apprenticeship programs so they can earn more money.
  • Ensure new buildings are sustainable for the environment.
  • Provide rental assistance to help families secure a home.
  • Protect renters from losing their home and falling into homelessness.
  • Every city in the state must build affordable housing.
  • Allow novel housing options such as micro units, cooperatives, co-living, modular housing.
  • Increase homeowner property tax exemption which hasn't changed since 1974.
  • Reform RHNA process to increase development of homes.
  • Don't allow NIMBYs to use CEQA to stop housing projects for political reasons.
Below are some of my ideas. My basic idea is to have pre-approved plans for standard 2-8 unit two-story buildings on 50' x 100' or 150' lots which NIMBYs can't reject or even have a say in the matter after initial approval. I'm talking about sites already zoned for multi units which only have one old house which are R2+ and other zones which are grandfathered such as C2. The public can have a say in the initial approval of the cookie-cutter units but not after that. This would cut down on the holding costs from permit to occupancy certificate. It would also cut down on the architect, design fees by having the plans be in the public domain. This would make it easier and faster for building and safety inspectors to inspect. 
  • Have pre-approved plans for cookie cutter developments on R2+ standard lots for 2-8 U.
  • Have pre-approved plans for ADUs.
  • Educate poor people about how to work, save money to buy, maintain a home. 
  • Protect poor people from real estate scams. I've seen so many people get ripped off because they didn't speak English, couldn't read or write or just were uneducated and naive.
  • Inventory all vacant properties, underutilized and raw land. Work with owners to make vacant properties habitable, redevelop or sell. Same with vacant land. Other cities have done this with help from cities, developers and non-profits.
Below are some pics of new two and four unit buildings which are cookie cutters. There are a few developers building these on lots with only one old major fixer home. The first is two units, two story. The units are 3 bed, 2 bath which can house an extended family. The ones I've seen have good sized rooms so there could be two beds in each room and/or bunk beds. 


Below is a four unit building. These are plain buildings that meet strict city of Los Angeles building and safety building codes. There should be one plan for properties with an alley which has parking in the rear and properties which don't have an alley and will need a driveway to garages in rear.  

I also believe the city, county, state should do an analysis of the current housing stock. It should include a list of vacant land suitable for housing, under developed properties and properties with inhabitable structures. Plans should be made to give the owners incentives to rehab, develop or rehab the properties. Other cities such as South Bend, Indiana has done this with success.

Government should also look at the various properties and their zones. Perhaps some non-residential zoned land could be used to build multi-family. Maybe some areas zoned R1 which already have some multi-family can be rezoned for R1.5 or R2 uses. Perhaps people with R1 properties should be allowed to legally rent out the individual rooms to different individuals. People are already doing this illegally. If it were legal, there could be regulations to make sure the housing is safe and the tenant is protected. Generally if you share a kitchen in a home, you're not a tenant. You could be evicted with no notice. I'm sure there are many more ideas out there. I welcome a multi-prong approach to help solve the housing crisis.

Let me add a list of things that won't help the housing crisis. In fact these things have caused and made the housing crisis much worse.

  • Rent control. This will cause landlords to remove units from the market. It will cause developers to buy run down buildings, either demolish or do major renovations, pass that through to the tenant who can't afford it and tenant will have to leave. Rent control makes things worse. Developers won't build if they think the buildings could have rent control. As rents rise so do landlords property tax, insurance, supplies, labor, permits, maintenance...
  • Yelling "gentrification" and attacking developers, development as "evil" because the rent has risen for some tenants in some buildings. "Gentrification" is actually a real estate cycle called "revitalization." It's not a dirty word. I wrote an article about it here. If you don't revitalize the area, you create slums. Revitalization creates jobs, causes wages to increase, adds living units, improves the neighborhood, increases value of real estate, increases revenue to businesses, the city, county, state and federal government. More jobs, more homes are created for each tenant who must leave a building for redevelopment. The tenant gets relocation fees in the thousands. Notice property owners are fine with property values increasing. It's only the tenants who are not. Notice offices, retail stores, restaurants have to move. They realize it's just economics and move. DTLA artists moved from those artist lofts to lofts in Long Beach. When Long Beach became more expensive they move to lofts in Santa Ana. If you want low rent, you have to live in a low rent area. 
  • Building condo units for poor people to buy under market value. When the value of the unit increases, they will want to sell for profit. Some don't allow the owners to sell for profit. When they don't, the owners refinance all of the equity out of the property. Most end up in foreclosure because they can't sell the condo for market i.e. more than their new loan. These people didn't have enough money or income to buy a home. They are set up to fail and lose their home. I've seen this happen repeatedly. The owners also stop paying HOA dues as the complexes fall apart. This is one of Bernie Sanders ideas so is rent control and yelling "gentrification." He needs a real estate consultant because all of his ideas fail in real life. I've been in real estate since 1983, over 35 years. I watched rent control in BH, WH, SM and LA. It failed. 

https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opinion-influencers/article229271379.html

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the
Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game and the USDA. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.


Google+ Mary Cummins, Mary K. Cummins, Mary Katherine Cummins, Mary Cummins-Cobb, Mary, Cummins, Cobb, wildlife, wild, animal, rescue, wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife rehabilitator, fish, game, los angeles, california, united states, squirrel, raccoon, fox, skunk, opossum, coyote, bobcat, manual, instructor, speaker, humane, nuisance, control, pest, trap, exclude, deter, green, non-profit, nonprofit, non, profit, ill, injured, orphaned, exhibit, exhibitor, usda, united states department of agriculture, hsus, humane society, peta, ndart, humane academy, humane officer, animal legal defense fund, animal cruelty, investigation, peace officer, animal, cruelty, abuse, neglect #marycummins #animaladvocates #losangeles #california #wildlife #wildliferehabilitation #wildliferehabilitator #realestate #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #lawsuit
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