The Real Estate Executive Insights Series is presented by the Opus College of Business MSRE program. This series invites speakers from the real estate industry to provide valuable information and discussion about hot topics and current trends. This program is free and open to the public. To view the full upcoming schedule, click here.
Rob Lunz, CRE, MAI
Rob also shared some interesting situations he has come across over the course of his career in appraisal. One instance involved the appraisal of a lakeside residential property after the purchaser found a bald eagle’s nest in a tree over their deck. One might not think that a bird’s nest in a tree could significantly impact the value of a property, but they’d be wrong. Bald eagles are of course given protected status as an endangered species, but their diet of small animals, the associated odors, and habit of throwing any leftovers out of the nest all make them unideal neighbors to have at a vacation home.
This unique case had Rob approaching wildlife biologists and the Department of Natural Resources in an attempt to determine what the owners could do about the eagles (nothing) and to evaluate what that might mean for the property owners. The impacts which Rob had to quantify included significant cleaning services expenses, reduced enjoyment of the property, and limitations on what future improvements the owners could make to the property. A prevalent theme in this and other stories Rob shared was the need for appraisers to be able to quickly learn about things they might previously have known little about, in order to accurately appraise real estate value.
