Aargh.

[learnteach]

Day 43: Beard Stubble Manly, Still Not King.

Not that I'm trying, mind you. But the castle of this knight needs help; got the ticket this morning, made it to the door in a robe before the inspector left, convinced him I had a permit so I didn't need to stop work on the tree removal. Tree removal without permit, weeds, junk, damaged fence, all must be fixed/replaced/repaired by Nov. 8th.

Shoulda known it, with 3 houses for sale on the street.

STUMP!

Comments

Enforcement of issues

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

Sure. You have to remember, in the current market, the houses here are very expensive. A real estate agent or developer is looking at a very big commission. So, in order to improve the selling price and speed, they will call the City and ask that the statues be inforced. Sunnyvale has a division with inspectors (as well as arborists, permit department, etc.) that goes around and checks, and issues little "Please fix this or we'll have to cite you" notices.

It's cynical to believe that driving factor is the real estate agents, but I've noted that I get these notices only during spurts of large real estate activity. At $400K, the commission is $20K, and the houses are selling in less than a month. As a corner house, I set the tone for the entire neighborhood. Last year I had two realtors come and ask me to fix my house up (neither offered any money, one tried to browbeat me, then sent a landscaping company.)

The notices and enforcement are the response of Sunnyvale to pressure from the realtors, I believe.

Off to continue stumping,
Mudboy

Re: Enforcement of issues

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Of course, Sunnyvale itself is motivated for houses to sell, particularly those inhabited by people who have been there a good long time, since the tax rates don't go up due to ... which prop was it? 15? A house that sells at a high level means a big increase in property taxes for the city. As you know. Sigh.