Wow what a wonderful winter we have had from a snow perspective. The mountains were still getting snow after the resort’s scheduled time to close. It has definitely been wet, lawns are looking very green and all is good.

Then there is the law of cause and affect, or Newton’s third law “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”.

With all the snow in the mountains, if we get hot fast we can see some heavy runoff.

This may bring back scenes of the City Creek flood of 1983. This episode is obviously the extreme to what could happen.

The City of Cottonwood Heights has implemented the “Fill Your Own” sandbag program for this spring. The sand and bags will be just west Cottonwood Heights Elementary School by late April.

A quote from the City’s web site “It’s Better to have Sand Bags and No Runoff than Runoff and No Sand Bags”.

The city of Cottonwood Heights has an ordinance 15.36.050

Cottonwood Heights

Maximum payment for tenant application fee

Apartment owners, operators and managers shall not charge an application fee in excess of twenty-five dollars per applicant.

Then it goes to say that “The fee charged reasonably represents the actual incremental costs of processing the application, including but not limited to, the cost of checking credit history, criminal history references, and verification of references and other information on the application.”

I don’t know about you but that looks a like a lot more than $25 worth of work. If the City of CWH were running an application I wonder if the same $25 would apply.

There is no reason that I can see to why a legitimate business owner cannot charge more if they wanted to.

It seems to me the city went to EBay and found some old set of city ordinances cheap and said these look good and used them.

Like the ordinance that was written about in the CWH Valley Journal on Snow Removal. The ordinance was 1 hour after it stops snowing. Three city officials were approached by TV Reporter right after a storm. The ordinance was changed.

I am not here to pick on the city, I personally think they are doing a great job and I am proud to be a citizen of Cottonwood Heights.

I just do not like any government agency telling any business what they can charge. I am in agreement with gouging laws, where it is illegal to charge excessive amounts for life sustaining essentials in the wake of a disaster.

 Before You Remodel In

Cottonwood Heights

Watch The Video Below

 Spring starts many things in most areas, including Home Improvement Projects. From little landscapping projects to full room addittions.

I wrote an article last Novemeber on 3 Pounds of Real Estate  Why There Is A Lot Of Remodeling Going On In Cottonwood Heights (84121)*?
The prices have gone up so much in the last three - four years that selling and replacing the house is not much of an option.The average Sq Ft price in September 2004 was $94 and has gone to $151 per foot.
People are adding on to their houses, I have seen one that has doubled in size. More and more are adding over the garage in the multi levels. People are replacing windows, stuccoing, new kitchens, and new bathrooms. If you bought a small home in the early to mid ’90s, tearing it down would be a very viable option.Let’s face it, if you took the $57 per foot and added on to your existing Cottonwood Heights Home you could not go out and find a better deal. This a great place to live, named in the top 100 Cities by Money Magazine.*Because Cottonwood Heights as a City only goes back less than three years, we have to use the zip code which also includes Big Cottonwood Canyon. The Canyon activity is not enough to sway the prices for The City of Cottonwood Heights.

I found this little video on my friend Alex Goldie’s Site RealTopics from Chicago. It is about a web site that promotes itself as a pre-screener of Contractors.

I called and asked Stacey if I could come in for a haircut? If you can be here in a half an hour she said.

I hurried over to Executive Stylist at Hillside Plaza. You walk in and it has a feel between a modern day salon and an old fashion barber shop. Sherm North the owner has been at the Hillside location for 32 years. Five of the people have been with him for over 20 years. Sherm says we are like a family here, including the fights. Stacey has only been there three years and she is considered the new kid on the block.

Well she cut my hair and I look the same but with shorter hair, I was hoping to be thinner.

My five year old son will only let Roberta cut his hair, Roberta who is Sherm’s daughter. So you see that Executive Stylist is just local families serving local families.

That’s one of the reason Cottonwood Heights was ranked by Money Magazine’s 2007 Top 100 Cities. We didn’t need a magazine to tell us.

 2410 Fort Union Blvd. Cottonwood Heights UT 84121 801-943-8888

The people that live on the East side have voted to break away from the monstrous size Jordan school district. The reasoning is that the district is too big and that there needed to more localized control.

So there is a new district and you would think a new school board. The new East Side District has seven districts. According to the Salt Lake County Clerk’s web site there were a total of 46 people that have filed to run for a seat in the New District.

Do you have two fives for a ten?

However according to SB71 the existing school board members will automatically have a seat in the district they live. So do we really have a new school board? Or do we have the old one still running things? The parents were not offered at least a primary for the districts that has an incumbent.

Should that be allowed? The people of the east have spoken loud and clear they want change in the schools, this doesn’t look like a change to me. IMHO unless you change the thinking at the top we are not going to improve.

 Republic Mortgage Insurance Company released in their notes yesterday, that they will not insure any loan with a greater than a 97% loan to value/ combined loan to value ratios (LTV/CLTV) regardless of any automated underwriting decisions.  

Also any declining markets they are going to add a 5% margin so they will only insure loans in declining markets that have a 92% LTV/CLTV.

Usually when one player makes an announcement like that the rest follow suit. So you can expect this to be the new standard across the board.

Essentially there are no more 100% loans. So if a buyer does not have three percent of their own money then the only other option is a Down Payment Assistant (DPA) Program and an FHA loan. This will not put pressure on the prices but it will have an affect on the bottom line to the seller.

The way the DPA programs work is the seller agrees to “Gift” 3% plus a small administrative fee to a Non-Profit organization and then the Non-Profit organization turns around and gifts the money to the buyer at closing. Some of these organizations are AmeriDream and Nehemiah Corporation.

Our current market condition has sellers willing to pay 2-3% concessions for the buyer’s loan closing cost. Now combine that with the DPA cost, prices won’t really go down but it will come from the seller’s bottom line.  This could play out pretty good for the buyer that has their own money and will give some leverage to sellers in certain situations.

It seems like every time something happens in the lending world it gives another reason to use FHA.

FHA Loan limits are up to $729,750 in Salt Lake County which is just over 90% of the homes in Salt Lake County Listings of the WFR MLS.

I found this awesome little slide show.

It compares interest rates going up versus properties going down in value.

There is a new Web Site called www.CottonwoodHeightsHomeValues.com This is a site that is just for Cottownwood Heights.

Your Online Resource for Cottonwood Heights Home Values

Q. What makes Cottonwood Heights Home Values different form the other online home value sites like Zillow?

A. The main reason is we are not a national site trying to be all things to all communities.We are local and specialize in Cottonwood Heights Real Estate.

Q. How does Cottonwood Heights Home Values determine the value of a home?

A. Unlike the large national sites that use formulas based on mortgage amounts, we at Cottonwood Heights Home Values use real comparable sales, the same that an appraiser would use.

To Receive Your FREE Comparable Sales simply complete

the form and submit the information it is that simple.

Utah Forms For Selling Real Estate

When selling Real Property in Utah the standard form to use is called Real Estate Purchase Contract. a.k.a. the REPC (pronounced Rep-See).

This is the form that Licensed Real Estate Agents must use, buyer and sellers may use any form they choose however if there is a Real Estate agent involved then this is the form. This form is approved by the Utah real estate commission and the office of the Utah attorney general, effective august 5, 2003. It replaces and supersedes all previously approved versions of this form.

It is actually a very good document and covers most circumstances that could arise. It is a very win-win and allows a buyer and seller to enter into an agreement to sell-buy real property and allows the buyer to do their diligence with deadlines. It covers things like inspection, appraisal, loan and remedies for defaults.

To download a copy of the Real Estate Purchase Contract.

Everything must be in writing no matter how much you know or like someone or how nice they seem.

Remember “Money Changes Everything“.

Today was “Thinking Day” for the Girl Scouts held at Saint Thomas More on 3015 Creek Rd. Several Troops from the area’s service unit get together and create a fair type presentation of different countries.

To see more on the local troop visit www.UtahTroop482.com