Photos from Linda Slocum, Santa Clarita Realtor
Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) Water Conservancy Garden: View through the trees.Located in: Santa Clarita, CA
Sellers who have non-permitted additions to their homes face a bit of a dilemma in the Santa Clarita area. If they disclose the additions as non-permitted on the MLS, they may be inviting the City or County inspectors in to assess them for the additions, which may result in penalties and an increase in property taxes. If sellers do not disclose non-permitted additions, there is the possibility that the buyers may sue later if they discover that the additions were either not permitted or sub-standard after the close of escrow.
First of all, if you are planning on making additions to your home, whether it's a room addition, a loft or a patio cover, be sure to obtain the proper permits. Depending on where you live, these will be obtained from either the City of Santa Clarita or Los Angeles County. This article applies to additions that have already been completed, and is not to be interpreted as a way to get around the permit process.
Not all additions that are done without permits are sub-standard. In fact, many are done to code (or better) and would have passed inspection if the owners had followed the proper procedures for obtaining permits and inspections. However, both City and County officials are concerned about the safety of unpermitted additions lately, and are most particularly concerned about garage conversions, so code enforcement has definitely been stepped up in recent months.
Code enforcement officers are concerned about two distinct factors: 1. Making sure that homes are safe; 2. Increasing City and/or County revenues.
The permit process increases City or County revenues in two ways: The permit process itself requires fees, inspections and other procedures, and the permits are used to communicate increases in property values to the Los Angeles County Assessor, which increases your property tax bill.
So, do you disclose non-permitted additions or not?
The answer is YES, but there are proper ways to disclose additions that may be non-permitted to maximize the protection for the sellers. Most Realtors will use the "confidential remarks" section of the MLS to indicate something like "room addition done without permits", which opens the door for the Code Enforcement team to come in and investigate, and also chases away many potential buyers. Assuming that you are not a qualified building inspector, how do you know whether the additions were done to code or not? Building codes are changing constantly, so a procedure that may have been "to code" years ago may not be to code today.
According to Barry Stone of HouseDetective.com, the best way to disclose additions that may not be permitted is to use the following wording: "No guaranty is made regarding compliance with building codes." Also, be sure to notify the buyer in writing that they should obtain appropriate inspections for the home, including the additions.
As a buyer, you have the right to request copies of permits for all additions (including room additions, garage conversions, lofts, kitchen remodels and patio covers). Always have a qualified inspector perform a complete home inspection prior to releasing your contingencies for the purchase of a home. A home inspector may not be able to determine whether or not a room addition was done to code, since he will not be able to look inside the walls, but he will be able to point out any obvious deficiencies.
While I love going out to eat in the Santa Clarita area, I prefer to avoid places that are having troubles with cleanliness. Somehow the thought of having rat doo-doo in my food just doesn't make for a pleasant dining experience.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health helps us to choose clean restaurants by posting ratings in restaurant windows (those A, B or C signs) and publishing closures and ratings online for the public's review.
Thankfully, most of the restaurant closures in the Santa Clarita area since January 18, 2008 are for gas station quickie stores rather than full-fledged restaurants.
The establishments closed for vermin infestation during the last three months were the following:
Juice It Up on Newhall Ranch Rd. in Valencia was also closed recently, apparently for having either no potable water supply or no hot water.
Want to find the cleanest places to eat? Here are the restaurants with recent scores of 100 from the Department of Health. There are plenty of other restaurants with high ratings, but these are the ones with perfect scores. Note that some of these scores date back to 2006, so situations could have changed since then.
There were only three C-Rated facilities in the Santa Clarita area, including Kwik Stop #4 noted above, Hayk International Market on Cinema Drive in Valencia, and the Chevron on San Fernando Rd in Newhall. No restaurants on the Santa Clarita area had scores that were too low to rate.
Bon appetit!
The Santa Clarita area is well known for being a great place to live in the Los Angeles County area, in part because of its outstanding schools. This year, the California State Board of Education has named five Santa Clarita elementary schools to their list of 2008 California Distinguished Schools.
Valencia's Bridgeport Elementary, NorthPark Elementary, and Charles Helmers Elementary schools were honored with the Distinguished Schools award this year, as well as Saugus' Emblem and Mountanview Elementary schools.
The California Distinguished Schools program was started in 1985 to honor schools with quality educational programs, and alternates each year between awards for elementary and secondary schools.
Charles Helmers school not only met the API (Academic Performance Index) requirement for distinguished schools, it far exceeded the minimum requirements for a Distinguished School with an API score of 907. Mountainview Elementary almost broke the 900 mark as well, with an API score of 893. The other three schools had API scores above 800.
Extracurricular activities are in abundance at these schools to enhance the students' educational experience. Mountainview boasts an accomplished orchestra. Helmers benefits from a unique relationship with the Los Angeles Music Center, which brings visiting artists to the school. Bridgeport and NorthPark have visual and performing arts programs as well.
If you're thinking of relocating within the Los Angeles County area and haven't checked out the Santa Clarita Valley yet, now's the time to take advantage of the family-oriented quality of life and great schools that Santa Clarita has to offer!
On the short sale (pre-foreclosure) front in Santa Clarita, many homes listed as short sales are now receiving multiple offers from buyers. Some of these buyers intend to occupy the homes, and some are investors deciding to take advantage of the lower home prices.
Within the last couple of weeks, virtually every home that I called that was listed as a short sale had at least one offer outstanding. Granted that not all of these offers are anywhere near the asking price, but at least the interest is growing and many Realtors are reporting that they are getting at least one offer at or near the asking price.
Remember that with short sales, the asking price is just a starting point - the bank has generally not approved a sale at this price. And some Realtors are listing these homes with come-on prices that they know are nowhere near what the banks will accept, just to encourage buyers to submit offers at any price.
The good news is that once these homes are sold, they will no longer be competing with regular non-distressed homeowners for buyers. The not-so-good news is that many banks are still very slow to respond, often taking months to respond at all. And often the banks are still responding by rejecting all offers, sending everyone back to the drawing board even though they are very close to the bank's BPO's (Broker Price Opinions) and appraisals.
If you're considering making an offer on a short-sale home, be sure that you have a Realtor who is experienced in handling short sales. Also, be sure to get pre-qualified with a direct lender (not a broker) so you can submit that pre-qualification letter along with your offer. The better qualified you are, the more likely the bank will consider accepting your offer.
After several long years of battling the proposed CEMEX sand and gravel mega-mining project in Santa Clarita's Soledad Canyon area, legislators and local lawmakers have apparently reached an agreement to relocate this facility to the Victorville area instead.
Santa Clarita residents have argued that the proposed CEMEX mining facility would be located too close to existing homes, thus creating a negative effect on the quality of life and home values in that area. The Soledad Canyon mining operation, if approved, would have been located closer to existing homes than any other large-scale mining operation in U.S. history.
The proposed legislation, the Soledad Canyon Mine Act (H.R. 5887), will cancel two ten-year Soledad
Canyon mining contracts that CEMEX has with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
thereby ending the possibility of mining at the Soledad Canyon site. CEMEX will be compensated by receiving land near Victorville, California that is comparable in value to the company's investment in the cancelled contracts.
"The City of Victorville is pleased to participate in this agreement that protects community interests and
provides for future economic development," says Victorville Councilman Mike Rothschild.
"Years ago, I made a promise to carry legislation to resolve the mining issue between the City of Santa Clarita and CEMEX if an agreement could be reached," stated Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita). "Today, I am pleased to report that with the help of our friends from the City of Victorville, we have reached that agreement."
Linda artfully combines tech-savvy with great service to make her the perfect resource for Santa Clarita buyers & sellers. Santa Clarita is the home of choice for people moving to the Los Angeles area
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