LRDAY
As I recall the rest of the world is in a bad way economically. I am not hoping and praying for a return to the good old days. They are gone, never coming back. My fees are now what the going rates were 1o years ago and I do not expect that they will return to thse rates.... ever.
LRDAY
I will not defend any fee at any particular level. The reason these fees are so high now is that prop 13 cut taxes. So we keep cutting taxes, yet we still need to fund the fire department, planning, the health department, the city and county survey departments.
One thing to consider is the fact that land development and review is not handled by only one department.
What are we talking about when we talk about being competative in the world markets?
In my mind, this is just code for "GET READY FOR A RACE TO THE BOTTOM".
American workers CAN compete with workers that live in dormatories, have no rights no benefits,and make less than a dollar a day. Do you want to live in an American like that? I do not.
American workers seem so docile to me. Right now they are talking about raising the retirement age to 70 and what are American workers doing about this? This is a riduculous solution to a non problem. Increasing the workers contribution a fraction of a percent wiyld make the trust solvent forever.....
In France, they are contemplating changing the retirement age from 62 to 65 and worhers went out in the streets and set stuff on fire. I am not proposing that here, but after paying into the system for decades, I would not be happy to not get anything back..... This is all BS.... they want to get their hands on the 7 trillion in the trust.....
My oldest was stationed in Kali. He bought a condo for investment to sell after he transferred from there. The price started at $265,000 and closed at $320,000. He moved in and within months prices plummeted and when he was ready to sell several years later the bank claimed the property was only worth $240,000.
I told him to forget the bank, bypass them and sell it on his own. He did ok with a small profit and actually was lucky to get out of there with the shirt on his back.
Map check fees-Target Locked
Up until a couple of years ago, the outrageous fees that the Counties I work in charged for processing and recording land divisions were totally worth it for a developer to pay. If they could create, say, 4 lots worth $1/4 mil apiece and they had to pay me and the County a total of $50 grand to do it, and they got the bare dirt for a reasonable price by schmoozing an old lady or something, it was a real bonanza. Now, though, half of my clients at least that decided to cash in on that gravy train have just abandoned their plans so they don't have to pay all the fees to create lots they can't sell for what they paid for the land.
Map check fees-Target Locked
A former (now deceased) U.S. Senator's son gave a large rural tract to State Parks but he kept a 20 acre parcel in the middle.
The total parcel is something like 120 acres.
Thinking about that I figured out 1) he gets a large tax write-off 2) a free subdivision and 3) all the survey work by the State free to him (not my idea). He gets a buildable parcel surrounded by a parcel which will never develop and will be park land. What's not to like?
I bet if he had to hire a Surveyor and maybe an Engineer and pay all the government fees to do say a 4 lot Parcel Map he would lose money on the deal. The property was just a bit to remote to be terribly valuable. Nice area but too far from major job centers.
$ 6,552.00
Yesterday I get a call from the city. The amount of $ 6552.00 is required to move forward.
$ 6,552.00
The word "criminal" comes to mind....;-)
$ 6,552.00
So the intent is clear. To discourage and stop development. You can wrap it up in all the green and eco nice BS you like. Protect the public, whatever, this is the end result of raising America's dumbest generation, the ones that can borrow forever and spend like drunk sailors, never mine any resources or plow any fields. Everything magically appears out of nowhere in a Walmart and such. They actually teach this in the schools these days. I suppose this is the desired sustainable life. These folks can't see that you need to produce to consume and that you need income to spend money. One of these days the bank is going to be closed and the free ride will be over.
So once this client gets the lot in the clear to build what will he need to pay to get a building permit? Does he need to do an environmental impact statement and have all the neighbors vote as to whether he should be able to build. This pendulum has swung so far into the ridiculous few realize there was even a pendulum anymore.
Once there was a time when those that built things were hero's. Now they are looked down upon as enemies. Hero's these days are those who stop everything and get torn down what was built before. Producers are considered bad. This isn't going to end pretty!
Some day there won't be any food in the store, gas at the station, electricity in the lines and water in the taps. At that point we will have reached a sustainable life. The green's will have conquered the world and celebrate their great success.
$ 6,552.00
> America's dumbest generation, the ones that can borrow forever and spend like drunk sailors
We refer to them as "baby-boomers".
