Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Real Estate Appraisal, Los Angeles, California, Mary Cummins.

Mary Cummins is a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California with 38+ years of experience. Cummins provides real estate appraisals for banks, lenders, mortgage brokers, Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs), lawyers, Courts, factors and private parties for lending, lawsuits, probate, estate planning, divorce and all types of litigation. Cummins provides 1004, 1073, 1025 and other form reports, narrative reports and historical appraisals besides real estate research and appraisal advice.

Showing posts with label rebuild. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Only Four Permits Issued in Palisades Fire Area in 90 days by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

92 days post fire and only four permits have been issued to rebuild in the Palisades. Two of the permits are just smaller repairs. These people are forced to rebuild and repair. These aren't all developer spec homes. It will cost over $70,000 each in permit fees to rebuild. The City needs to keep promises about waiving some fees and slashing red tape and time frames. This is going to be a long expensive haul no matter what the state and local politicians have promised. It always is.

A quote from the article "Although this area has been branded as uber-wealthy, the majority of Palisadians were middle-class, 25 percent were senior citizens, and the majority don’t have the money it will cost to rebuild. Unless there is some financial assistance, people will not be rushing to pay for plans to rebuild."

I work in this area. The wealthy people live in the rarer larger luxury homes on the ocean, coast or in the hills with full ocean, coast views. Most homes are older average sized standard construction tract homes with no views in the flats. Most homeowners are not uber wealthy. Sadly if they can't afford permit fees, they can't afford construction fees or holding costs. They will be forced to sell their lots and move to a much less expensive area.

One resident said they had received an invoice for $1,338 for a permit fee for the Grading Department to review a soils report. These homes already had approved soils reports for the previous home on file. They had to spend at least $10,000 for a new soils report. The time and money involved in new construction is crazy. I hate to say I told ya so, but I said that it'll take as much time if not longer than the Malibu Woolsey fire to recover and rebuild. As of February 2025 "Fewer than 40% of the 465 homes destroyed by the 2018 Woolsey fire in Malibu have been rebuilt." The scale of the Palisades fire is much, much larger. It'll take even longer and cost a lot more.

Full article from Westside Current.

#losangeles #palisadesfire #palisades #permits #marycummins #realestateappraiser

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate is a certified residential licensed appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate appraisers and has over 35 years of experience.

Mary Cummins, Mary K. Cummins, Mary Katherine Cummins, Mary, Cummins, #marycummins #animaladvocates #losangeles #california #wildlife #wildliferehabilitation #wildliferehabilitator #realestate #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #lawsuit real estate, appraiser, appraisal, instructor, teacher, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Brentwood, Bel Air, California, licensed, permitted, certified, single family, condo, condominium, pud, hud, fannie mae, freddie mac, fha, uspap, certified, residential, certified resident, apartment building, multi-family, commercial, industrial, expert witness, civil, criminal, orea, dre, brea insurance, bonded, experienced, bilingual, spanish, english, form, 1004, 2055, 1073, land, raw, acreage, vacant, insurance, cost, income approach, market analysis, comparative, theory, appraisal theory, cost approach, sales, matched pairs, plot, plat, map, diagram, photo, photographs, photography, rear, front, street, subject, comparable, sold, listed, active, pending, expired, cancelled, listing, mls, multiple listing service, claw, themls, historical appraisal, facebook, linkedin

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Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate Services has been in real estate since 1983, over 35 years. She is licensed by the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers. Mary Cummins was an agent and broker licensed with the California Department of Real Estate selling residential income, commercial buildings, raw land and homes for Merrill Lynch Realty in Beverly Hills and Westside Properties in Los Angeles before concentrating on appraisals. Mary Cummins currently provides real estate appraisals, expert witness testimony, historical research, legal real estate research for mortgage brokers, banks, lawyers, factors, insurance companies, financial consultants and private individuals. Mary Cummins was born and raised in Southern California. Cummins attended Beverly Hills Good Shepherd Catholic School and Beverly Hills High School. Besides being on the Dean's list, Mary Cummins was a top ten national swimmer and competed on the men's water polo team. Mary Cummins began college at the age of 15 attending the University of Southern California on scholarship, majoring in Psychology/Sociology. http://www.animaladvocates.us http://www.facebook.com/AnimalAdvocatesUSA

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

USGBC After The Firestorm: Rebuilding for a More Sustainable, Resilient Future by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

UPDATE: Here is video of the event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX9Z2oW5nQA

ORIGINAL: I attended the USGBC Webinar entitled "After the Firestorm: Rebuilding for a More Sustainable, Resilient Future" January 29, 2025. Below is the webinar description.

"In response to the 2025 Los Angeles Regional Fires, USGBC-CA is convening leading experts on more sustainable, resilient rebuilding and recovery efforts for fire-affected communities.

This live webinar will bring together wildfire mitigation, residential design, planning, and landscape experts to provide information on resources and best practices for home rebuilding, landscape ecology restoration, and community resilience efforts.

Some of the topics covered will also include fire-resilient materials and structures for new construction, energy-efficient, all-electric design and construction, California native plants, creating defensible space, matching design with incentives and rebates, and more." More information https://usgbc-ca.org/wildfire-defense-rebuilding/

The panel included experts in the fields of architecture, design, construction and landscaping. Laura Dunbar, John Donley, Gregory Chasen, Ann Edminster, Steve Glenn and Ann Baker. Ben Stapleton of USGBC was the host.

Summary of the most important things to make a home fire resistant.

Metal roof
Cement cladding siding with thick Hardy board fire resistant for over one hour
No attic/crawl space vents or use 1/8" fireproof metal mesh over all vents
No or enclosed eaves
No multiple roofs that can trap burning embers
Metal double pane tempered windows
No wood/vinyl decks/fences/siding. Use cement/tile.
No trees overhanging/touching home
5 foot clearance around entire home free of furniture, shrubs
30' clean and green landscape clearance. Use succulents, gravel.
Easily accessible driveway to home for fire department
No gas to home
No plastic, vinyl flooring, composite construction material

First question to Greg Chasen was "is sustainability also fire resiliency?"

Greg Chasen: We have good case studies now after these fires. We must take a deep dive into the ones that resisted the forces at play. We must build stronger more resilient homes going forward. We shouldn't just recreate what we had before. We can learn from this disaster.

Steve Glenn: Fire resiliency starts with landscape. On the construction side we must create few opportunities for fire. We can use a metal roof, exterior cladding, windows with tempered glass and no eaves. Steel frames are not that important to protect the facade. You see steel frames are the only thing remaining after homes burned down in the fires so it's not that important. We need sprinklers on the roof, need more fire resilient design. Yes, it costs more but it costs less than not doing it (and home is destroyed).

What are the best practices?

Chasen: We saw houses that didn't survive the ember attack. New homes with lots of places where embers could be trapped on the roofs. Materials and form matter. We must seal the home and have no vents.

Dunbar: We need protected venting. Embers get in attic. Once they're in the attic the house is gone same with under the house (crawl space). Landscaping is also important.

Chasen: Windows are very important. Multiple roof lines trap golf ball sized embers. Windows must protect from the force to large blowing embers.

Edminster: Skylights are vulnerable. They create dams where flammable debris can collect. Also important is venting, non combustible cladding, landscape, windows. We need dual panes windows where both panes are tempered not just one.

What about landscaping?

Ann Baker: We need a fire defense. There must be good visibility from street to home. Can fire dept see home and defend it easily? Five feet non combustible zone around home. No shrubs, furniture. You could use gravel, succulents, plants that don't burn. 30 feet must be clean and green. Eliminate vertical fuel ladders. Wooden fences and screening privacy shrubs are a major fuel load. There should be no wood fence touching building. Trees must be away from roof line. Avoid hedging, avoid twigs, plants that drop needles.

What type of code should we be advocating for?

John: We've discussed this for years. It's not part of code to make existing homes more resistant. Only new building and additions must be to code but not existing. Firestorm deals with wind. It's wind and fire. We had hurricane winds that blew over cement walls. Even retaining wall had to be torn down because of fire damage and super hot temps.

What about materials?

Steve Glenn: Most important is cementitious cladding, hardy board with one hour fire rating, zip system also water barrier. Metal roofs more expensive than shingle. Tempered glass is expensive. We need LARR for ...(missed.)

Edminster: Cladding first line of defense. We need to protect occupants, structures and planet.

Chasen: 5/16 hardy board not good enough. We need thicker cement board panels.

Breakout groups.

Chasen, Edminster, building materials and design

Chasen: Gas, plastic are volatile. Avoid gas in home. Avoid vinyl floor, windows. The fire areas smell like burning plastic. I tasted plastic for a day afterward. Our homes have become so toxic because of plastic.

Plastic composite decks are toxic when they burn, melt. Porcelain tile deck good solution.

I'll post the video when it's ready. Slides from today's presentation below.