Evelyn Panning

Many buyers are accustomed to finding, reaching and viewing real estate on weekends - including Sundays. If you are looking for property in Modoc County, your experience may be difficult unless you've made arrangements before coming into our area.

Modoc County is a very rural area, and businesses operate a bit differently here. Open Houses are rare and if you want to see a property, many homeowners and tenants will require 24 hour notice. So, if you appear magically on a real estate office's doorstep on a Saturday morning, you may not be able to see a property that day and possibly not on Sunday either.

Typically real estate offices in Modoc County do not use lockboxes. Keys are kept at the real estate listing office, often only one set. So, unless that office is aware that you want to view a property when you arrive, that one set of keys may be out. Also, offices here run short days on Saturday (usually 10am - 3pm) and it is unusual for an office to be open on Sundays.

Best tips for shopping Modoc County Real Estate:

1) Call around to various offices and talk to them. Find an office that seems to fit your needs. Make sure that they listen to what you are looking for and understand that you want to see properties that fit your requirement even if that office is not the listing office.

2) Make an appointment for the day that you plan to arrive in the area to view property. If you are like most buyers, you'll have a 3-8 hour drive to get here. If you feel tired, arrange to stay overnight. You'll be less stressed and hurried and be better able to enjoy the process of finding a property.

3) Call the agent the day before you will be here to make sure that agent remembers you are coming in. Nothing is more irritating than arriving after a long drive to find out your agent booked someone else for the same day and time and is not there to help you.

4) Make sure your agent sends you information by email of all the properties set up for viewing during your visit. By reviewing the information ahead of time, you'll be better able to ask questions and get answers.

5) If you've never been to Modoc County, it is probably best to make your first visit an informational one. Get maps, names of subdivisions, lists of available properties and just take the time to drive around. Make a note of what you like or don't like so that when you are ready to buy a property, you can describe to your real estate agent exactly what you want. It will make it easier for you in the long run.

6) If you decide to make a surprise visit to Modoc County on a Sunday -- Give me a Call ! Having relocated from another part of California, I understand that you have a limited amount of time and can't necessarily make it up during the week. Sundays are working days for me !

I sincerely hope that if you're interested in Country Living, a calm and quiet pace of life, clean air, unhurried lifestyle, and a less populated area, that you'll consider Modoc County. This is a beautiful area.

Subdivisions in Modoc County are not the postage stamp sized lots with cookie cutter houses that you might imagine. Thoms Creek Estates is a lovely area with 20 acre home sites.

Thoms Creek Estates, like other "subdivisions" in Modoc County was created in the 1960s. What makes Thoms Creek Estates different from others is that size of the sites. 20 Acres is large compared to 1-5 acres which is more typical.

Thoms Creek Estates is divided into Thoms Creek Estates I and Thoms Creek Estates II.

Thoms Creek I has 56 parcels and Thoms Creek II has 81 parcels. Both areas are quite nice.

Thoms Creek I originally had a property owners association and some time ago that association was discontinued. The good news is that you don't have any property owners fees, but bad news, there also isn't any road maintenance in that area. The roads and quite rough and it can be difficult to access those properties in the winter months.

Thoms Creek II has an active property owners association. Dues for 2008 were $30 per lot for the year. Pretty reasonable when you take into account the size of the parcels.

Many parcels in Thoms Creek II have fabulous views. On a clear day, you can see Mt. Shasta from many of them.

Prices have remained reasonable for these properties. Thoms Creek I properties have been listing and selling from about $40,000-$50,000 per home site. Thoms Creek II properties have been listing and selling from about $55,000-$65,000 per home site depending upon how much development may be on the property (well, septic, power, etc.)

Elevation in Thoms Creek II is about 5,000 ft above sea level, so you will get more snow in that area. Elevations in Thoms Creek I are somewhere around 4,800 ft or lower.

You'll see many owners have horses, cows, chickens, etc. You can have a small barnyard of your favorite farm animals if you'd like. But, don't overdo it - too many will place a burden on your property.

If you're in the area and would like to see available properties in Thoms Creek Estates, give me a call. I'll be happy to assist you.

To those of you who live in the big city, the word subdivision will seem misplaced when describing Modoc Recreational Estates particularly if you are accustomed to postage stamp size lots and cookie cutter style homes.

Modoc Recreational Estates is one of several "subdivisions" created in the 1960s from large ranch lands in the area. Modoc Recreational Estates has approximately 1873 lots with about 150 developed with homes. The average size lot is 1.47 acres. There are larger parcels available and a handful that are fractionally smaller than the average size.

The Estates, as we call it locally, has CC&Rs but they are far less restrictive and annoying than those in other parts of California. The CC&Rs revolve around park maintenance (small park around the Sons of Pioneers Lake - a water feature rather than a swimming or boating lake), road maintenance, minimum building requirements (home cannot be smaller than 500 square feet), property maintenance (keeping property free or debris and shrubs.)

The property owners dues for 2008 were $30 per lot per year. Quite low when you think about the high cost of association dues in the big city. I remember paying $275 a month for my condo in San Jose, California.

Because the dues are so low, road maintenance is only performed on roads with homes on them. Remote sites where no one is living will not have graded and graveled roads - it just isn't financially feasible. Once a home is in place with water and power that is when the Association will arrange for grading and graveling of the roads. However, there are a large number of property owners who won't pay their dues and because of this the budget of the association has been negatively impacted. You may be asked to contribute to the grading and graveling of your road when you are ready for year round access.

There are numerous absentee property owners for The Estates lots. Some have held onto their dream of having a home here for years, others, for various reasons are deciding to sell. There are a wide range of properties available.

A word of caution to anyone who decides to buyer directly from a property owner - be sure you run your purchase through an escrow with title insurance. Those property owners that haven't paid their dues for years have liens placed against their lots by the association. Those liens and the interest and penalties can accrue to a hefty amount. If you close your transaction with a Quit Claim Deed you have assumed the debt of that property and the association will make you pay it if you put in your home and expect a road. By running the transaction through an escrow the seller will need to clear up the lien in order for the title policy to be issued. It just makes good business sense for a buyer to protect his/her interests in the purchase of the property. If you need assistance with this process, give me a call - I've been through this many times with my clients.

With all this said - I love "The Estates" which is why my home is located there. If you're ever in the area and interested in more information, look me up. I'll be happy to assist you. I know the subdivision very well and the location of properties currently available for sale there.

Why in the world does the insurance industry continue to classify new manufactured homes (previously known as mobiles) differently from their stick built counterparts?

It makes no sense to me that these new structures with 2x6 construction placed on county compliant permanent foundations are treated differently and cost so much more to insure than a stick built home.

I hope that some day someone will lobby for the owners of these structures to keep the insurance industry from "discriminating" against the owners of these homes with higher pricing. It is high time that these homes and their owners get the respect that they deserve.

I have always been an animal lover. When I came to Modoc County and had more land and a large home I thought it would be nice to add to my family of pets. When I tried to find the local Humane Society -- I believe in adopting the homeless ones -- I couldn't find it.

We do have a local Humane Society called the High Plateau Humane Society. But this group is comprised entirely of volunteers. There is no shelter in Modoc County so volunteers foster all the animals and photos are posted on Petfinders and some animals are in the local HPHS Thrift Shop in town on Saturday's from 10am - 3pm only for adoption.

The HPHS is in fund raising mode trying to put together enough funds to build a shelter. It has been an uphill battle with residents saying "not in my backyard" and county officials coming up with numerous objections to the project.

However, our president, Emilie Martin and her band of jolly animal lovers have made great progress -- they've secured a piece of county land for a small lease fee and are saving money for the building project which includes a septic system and well system to accomodate several kennels.

Some of the fund raising done include:

Sales through the Thrift Shop, Taste of Alturas (usually includes an auction of donated items), Fandango Days (providing food and drink), Modoc County Home Show (providing food and drink). Of course, cash donations are always welcome.

So, what is your favorite Community Cause?