In March 2019 I reported on the failure of three 40-story residential towers being built in downtown Los Angeles. (https://www.internationalappraiser.com/search?q=oceanwide) Lendlease, the Australian general contractor, had rocked the LA real estate world by announcing that it had halted construction on Oceanwide Plaza over unpaid bills. The interior remains to be built. There were rumors ..read more

 Here was a property that measured 4 square miles of ocean view land, of which there are plenty in Costa Rica due to the sloping topography. It is not uncommon for properties this size to be marketed to developers, but they are not necessarily publicly marketed, making comparable properties, particularly closed saled, hard to find. This particular property, at its closest point to the ocean ..read more

  In the almost 14 years of writing this blog, my practice has shifted from large international projects financed by big lenders to smaller properties involved in estates and divorces. It’s often the case that the bereaved family or the spouse does not even know what Dad’s property or the other spouse’s property in the Old Country looks like, but they need a valuation, and don’t want to spend the ..read more

 Four story commercial property in downtown Hannover The actual valuation assignment was to appraise a one-half ownership interest in four rental properties in the cities of Hannover and Kiel. These were multifamily, mixed use and one retail property. These interests were inherited by a U.S. citizen, but the other owner is German. To value a partial interest, one has to discount for an owner’s ..read more

 Condotel in WaikikiBy now there are millions of disappointed investors in these types of properties. The most important lesson learned is that buildings are a deteriorating asset.When these property types were originally conceived in the 1980s, the U.S. economy was beset by a high rate of inflation. Real estate was known to provide protection from inflation, because property values were ..read more

Looks like rice cultivation This was a litigation situation in Panama in which 3 different Panamanian appraisers had already appraised a group of agrarian properties which were near each other, with the highest appraised value more than 5 times the lowest appraised value. I was asked to make an independent appraisal. Two appraisals had been done for the respective litigants, and one had ..read more

 A recent marital dissolution trial had me establishing value for proposed luxury lodges near the beach in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, in the Santa Teresa area where famous rich people have also been recently seen vacationing or buying houses, such as Tom and Giselle Brady, Mel Gibson and Matt Damon and family. These types of properties consist of several luxury villas on site renting at $400 or $500 ..read more

 Notice the proximity of the cliffs and the calm, reef-protected waters  Some of my appraisal assignments call for “second opinions”. This one called for a third opinion, as appraisal reports had been respectively submitted by two MAIs who resided on the island. The estimates of value were more than $50 million apart. Who was right? Who was wrong? A survey measuring more than 250 acres had been ..read more

  Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. Canada is the preferred destination of U.S. retirees. While I have addressed International Living and Real Estate Trend Alert before, there are many other vendors of foreign real estate fantasies and get-rich-quick-schemes with their hyperbole about Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Vietnam, etc. Every year, though, the U.S. Social Security Administration ..read more

 The subject is a 14-story office tower in Seoul, built in 2006, with a height of 182 feet. Gross building area is 70,310 square feet (6532.81 square meters), covering most of the site.This was yet another valuation assignment done for inheritance purposes as wealthy Korean immigrants to the U.S. pass on valuable real estate assets to their children. This particular building is situated in ..read more