Well, the fist salvo in what will be a long expensive war was fired last night.
I was mildly surprised that the “reeval company rep” was there last night. But, they were. And we, Frau and I, got another taste of what it’s like to “rent” one’s property from the gubamint.
In essence, they gave us some verbal Barbara Striesand about computer model. (And, you know how much that was worth to me. I gotta few computers and can “model” too.)
Basically, they took two sales on our block, as comparable, subtracted their swag about what the building was worth, and divided by the square footage to come out with a number. Take that number and multiply by the 20 by 100 lot we “own”. And, pouf, the land was worth 315k.
(Sell!)
After some fast thinking, I pointed out that these “comparables” were:
(1) Year round legal two families hence they may have under-valued the buildings and thus over-valued the underlying land.
(2) That small undevelopable lots are not worth the same as larger developable lots.
(3) The read of the lot was “unusable” because it is “landlocked” and as such you can’t practically or economically do anything with it. I cited just putting some rocks down in the back to control weeds was three times as expensive for us because they had to be wheel barrowed down an alley. Takes a lot of wheel barrows to make tons.
(4) We were preempted by zoning from using that back 40 feet from making a two family like our neighbors making the land less valuable.
(5) Everyone else has parking; we don’t. Makes our property worth a lot lot less. And, there was no way to remedy that defect.
I couldn’t think of anything else. Did I miss anything?
He dutifuly took notes on all our points, nicely promised to send it back to HQ, and we would get a response shortly.
Guess the next step is to hire an attorney?
I’ve been “drafted” as a foot soldier in this war on our pocketbook.
I wonder how much success I’ll have with Constitutional issues. No taxation without representation. I didn’t agree to government schools or spending.
I’m also warming up my tactical arguments. Did everybody get charged the same square foot rate? Politicians, businesses, landlords, voters? That will be an entertaining question. I don’t think so!
Let the games begin.
Reinke Faces Life 