HomeSeller: Friday, March 3, 2023

ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE

Talk to county planner about building granny flat on ‘small’ parcel

Q: My grandmother owns some property north of Vacaville. The parcel is 5.3 acres and it has been in our family for something like 80 years. My grand mother lives alone and needs someone to help take care of her on a part-time basis. I am single and going to Solano College, so the idea of living near Grandma has a lot of appeal to both of us since it would be cheap and I could help take care of her. My parents have offered to pay to cut her property in two pieces and build a second, smaller house on the second property. When we approached the county build ing department about our plans they told us we couldn’t do it. The guy at the counter talked about zoning ordinances and minimum parcel sizes, but frankly we didn’t really understand what he was saying. Grandma’s parcel is really in the woods, not near a subdivision or anything so I don’t think there’s anybody around who would care. How do we go about cutting the parcel into two pieces and building another house?

A: In answering your question I’m forced to make a few reasonable assumptions about the facts, since your email is all I have to go on.

Every property in the county is subject to minimum parcel size zoning restrictions. Municipalities have great latitude, legally speaking, to decide how someone’s property is used and the minimum size you can subdivide down to.

In your case, it’s reasonable to believe that the minimum parcel size in the area you’re talking about is much higher than the 5.3 acres your grandmother owns. Most of the parcels in that area now have a 20-acre, or larger, minimum size. Many of the smaller parcels in the area were already subdivided when the new, larger minimum size standards were adopted, so they were grandfathered in.

In other words, I’d bet your grandmother’s parcel is already below the minimum, thereby making it impossible to subdi-

However, you can probably build a second home on the existing parcel, though likely under certain very strict limitations.

Small second homes, or “granny flats” as they’ve come to be known, have been encouraged in many locations before but recent changes in state laws have given most homeowners the absolute right to build them.

If you approach the county with building plans, be prepared for them to limit the overall square footage, including the number of bedrooms and the size of the kitchen.

The new state laws governing granny flats, otherwise known as accessory dwelling units, which go by the acronym ADUs, have many state-mandated restrictions.

The other possibility is to get a conditional use permit that would allow you to park something like a mobile home

See Jones, Page 12

Tim Jones

Solano County real estate transactions

These are the local homes sold recently, provided by California Resource of Lodi. The company can be reached at 209.365.6663 or CalResource@aol.com.

BENICIA

01-25-23 [3 Bdrms – 1884 SqFt

– 1988 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

03-24-10, $250,000

3432 Blue Canyon Court –

$1,800,000

01-24-23 [5 Bdrms – 3450 SqFt

– 2000 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

08-24-04, $975,000

1913 Dawnview Place – $699,000

01-25-23 [4 Bdrms – 2478 SqFt

– 2000 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

09-13-00, $295,000

4427 Glencannon Drive –$930,000

01-27-23 [3 Bdrms – 2409 SqFt

– 1987 YrBlt]

DIXON

648 Granite Lane – $689,000

01-26-23 [4 Bdrms – 2164 SqFt

– 2005 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

03-08-17, $467,000

454 Oakwood Circle – $739,000 01-27-23 [4 Bdrms – 2144 SqFt

– 1989 YrBlt]

2907 Owens Court – $618,000

01-26-23 [3 Bdrms – 2320 SqFt – 1979 YrBlt]

1919 San Benito Street –$500,000 01-25-23 [3 Bdrms – 1287 SqFt

– 1961 YrBlt], Previous Sale: 10-13-22, $325,000

443 San Jose Street – $410,000

01-26-23 [3 Bdrms – 1287 SqFt – 1961 YrBlt], Previous Sale: 08-06-01, $184,000

2915 North Texas Street #244 –$262,000 01-23-23 [1 Bdrms – 662 SqFt – 1986 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

04-25-14, $94,000

2117 Wylie Place – $545,000 01-27-23 [3 Bdrms – 1198 SqFt – 1973 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

$350,000

01-23-23 [3 Bdrms – 1240 SqFt

– 1965 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

09-20-19, $405,000

FAIRFIELD

TOTAL SALES: 13

LOWEST AMOUNT: $262,000

HIGHEST AMOUNT: $1,800,000

MEDIAN AMOUNT: $618,000

AVERAGE AMOUNT: $691,769

2784 Ambrosia Way – $591,000

01-24-23 [4 Bdrms – 2055 SqFt

– 2021 YrBlt]

2849 Bay Tree Drive – $530,000

01-27-23 [3 Bdrms – 1476 SqFt

– 1987 YrBlt], Previous Sale: 09-08-14, $292,000

4874 Birkdale Circle – $680,000

VACAVILLE

TOTAL SALES: 11

LOWEST AMOUNT: $440,000

HIGHEST AMOUNT: $2,700,000

MEDIAN AMOUNT: $610,000

AVERAGE AMOUNT: $854,091

857 Atchison Drive – $875,000

01-23-23 [4 Bdrms – 4087 SqFt – 2003 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

05-28-20, $695,000

119 Bald Eagle Drive – $625,000

01-27-23 [5 Bdrms – 2641 SqFt – 1990 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

03-14-11, $305,000

127 Brown Street – $440,000

01-23-23 [2 Bdrms – 936 SqFt – 1949 YrBlt] 7069 Bucktown Lane –

[7 Bdrms – 5380 SqFt

$950,000

Burlington Drive – $560,000

[3 Bdrms – 1296 SqFt

$453,500 8024 Claret Court – $715,000

[4 Bdrms – 2841 SqFt

SUISUN CITY

TOTAL SALES: 3

LOWEST AMOUNT: $495,000

HIGHEST AMOUNT: $550,000

MEDIAN AMOUNT: $500,000

AVERAGE AMOUNT: $515,000

524 Honker Lane – $550,000

[4 Bdrms – 1890 SqFt – 1978 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

$247,500

1344 Lois Lane – $500,000 01-24-23

VALLEJO

9 tasks for your March home-maintenance checklist

THE WASHINGTON POST

The calendar says spring begins March 20. But you don’t need to wait to get started on early-spring home-maintenance tasks. Especially if your home includes a garden, this is a super busy time of year, so go ahead and take advantage of the warming days and longer daylight hours. Here are nine chores that should be on your to-do list this month.

1. Cut back spent perennials

Good for you if you didn’t cut back asters, coreopsis, echinacea, rudbeckia or other perennials in the fall, and left the seed heads for birds to enjoy over the winter. But now it’s time. Sometimes you can just tug on a spent stem and it will cleanly break off at the soil line. But if doing that also brings up roots, clip the spent stems close to the ground while avoiding damage to new shoots. If perennials have grown into a clump that’s bigger than you want, then dig them up. Replant some of the most vigorous specimens. Compost or give away the others, or use them to populate a different part of your garden.

2. Look underfoot

Check outdoor steps, walkways and decks to make sure they are stable and don’t have slippery spots. If treads are coated with algae or moss, kill the growth with a bleach solution or a product labeled for that purpose. Scrub off the growth by hand or with a power washer adjusted to a setting appropriate to the material. The pressure can be higher if you’re cleaning stone or concrete than if you’re dealing with wood. If your house has wooden steps and boards are loose, inspect them to make sure the wood isn’t rotten. Replace any pieces that are, and screw the others back into place. And fix or replace any wobbly handrails.

3. Delve into the freezer

March 6 is National Frozen Food Day, first proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Yes, it’s silly. But it’s a good reminder to dig deep and rediscover what you’ve stored in the freezer. Although food that stays frozen doesn’t become unsafe to eat over time, it can become unappetizing, especially in the freezer compartment of a frost-free refrigerator, where temperatures cycle up and down to prevent ice from forming. So cull what you’re unlikely to eat.

If you have a chest freezer, you will probably also need to remove ice buildup. Unplug the

freezer, take out everything and use a hair dryer to coax the ice to melt faster. When you restock, sort the food by categories that work for your household: meat, veggies, desserts, leftovers. It’s tempting to organize with separate crates for different kinds of food, but freezing makes many plastics brittle. Fabric shopping bags are a good alternative.

4. Tune up your air conditioner

While the weather’s still cool, schedule a tuneup for your air conditioner. Maintenance should include checking the components,

lubricating fans and motors, tightening or changing belts, testing the capacitors and crankcase heater, and calibrating the thermostat. There are also a few things you can do yourself: Clear leaves, grass clippings, pollen and other debris from the screen of the condensing unit; clean out the condensate hose, so it doesn’t become blocked with algae; and keep an eye out for drip marks on the compressor and tube, because these could indicate a leak.

5. Freshen up the entryway

If the entryway to your home screams winter – a plastic tray out for dripping boots, a closet clogged with coats – try giving it a facelift. Store the gear you won’t need during warmer weather.

Replace the doormat if it’s worn or grubby. Put out an umbrella holder for spring showers. And add a mirror or lamp to make the space brighter and more inviting. Outside, dust off the cobwebs and sweep the floor. Check that mat, too, and replace it if needed. If you still have a winter-themed wreath on the door, replace it with a hanging basket filled with greenery and perhaps artificial flowers. Tuck a plastic container into the basket first if you want to replace artificial flowers with real ones from your garden once they begin blooming.

6. Clean the shower head

Nature provides the outdoor showers, but you might need to

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Well, how do you like that!

Thanks to the Daily Republic, the National Association of Realtors, the Mortgage Bankers Association and other consumer advocacy groups fighting for the working class and the American Dream, HUD secretary Martha Fudge and the Biden administration finally announced a 30-basis point reduction in the annual

mortgage insurance cost for FHA loans this past week.

This is a good step in the right direction, and after many articles written by me over the

years criticizing the state and federal government, I have to say, I commend and appreciate this move.

The next thing they need to address is the nonrefundable 1.75% up-front mortgage insurance premium HUD charges on FHA purchase money loans. I suppose they can justify this high fee in exchange for the risk associated with a loan that only requires

3.5% down and HUD’s willingness to take on lower credit scores and higher debt ratios than conventional loans and private mortgage insurance (PMI) companies, but it doesn’t seem fair that homeowners that sell or refinance the house and pay off the FHA loan during the first one to five years don’t get any refund of the unearned insurance premium.

This new 30 BPS reduction

in FHA mortgage insurance will save a homeowner that needs a $500,000 mortgage $125 per month, which is better than a sharp stick in the eye, but now we need the Fed to stop raising rates because first-time homebuyers can handle 5.5% to 6% but 7% is tough.

This improvement in affordability should moti-

Solano County Listings: Homes for sale

LOTS & LAND

Jones

From Page 3

on the property. If granted, the use permit would be for the purpose of housing you during the life of your grandmother. However, if she dies, the permit would expire and the trailer would have to be removed.

You should sit down with a county planner, explain your situation and see what ideas they can come up with to help you accomplish the goal.

Tim Jones is a real estate attorney in Fairfield. If you have any real estate questions you would like to have answered in this column, send an email to AllThingsRealEstate@TJones-Law.com.

Tasks

From Page 6

put in a little extra effort indoors. If a shower head is sluggish and no longer sprays evenly, it’s probably clogged with mineral deposits. Soak them away with a solution of half-vinegar, halfwater. You might even be able to do this without removing the shower head: Tie and tape a plastic bag filled with the solution around the head, and completely immerse the nozzles. Or unscrew the shower head and soak it in a container filled with enough of the solution to submerge the nozzles. Vinegar is acidic, and with prolonged contact, it can eat into metallic finishes, so don’t soak the shower head for longer than 30 minutes. Rinse thoroughly and dry with a soft cloth.

MOBILE/FLOATING

COMMERCIAL

7. Inspect the roof

Roof leaks can cause a ton of collateral damage to insulation, ceilings, walls and furnishings. The trick is to identify and fix problems before they lead to leaks – and to recognize ahead of time when you should schedule a roof replacement. Walk around your house with binoculars to check for moss, debris and shingles that are missing or curled. From a ladder, make sure flashing or rubber boots are intact around the chimney, skylights and vent pipes. And go into the attic to look for stains that point to leaks. Flashing problems often show up there first. If you find problems or aren’t comfortable getting on a ladder, call a roofing company and ask for an inspection, which is usually relatively inexpensive, especially if you don’t need a written report (often necessary when selling a house). If you’re comfortable going up

on the roof, you can kill moss by spraying it with a bleach solution or a moss killer; after it dies, let rain wash away the remains. But for most homeowners, a professional moss removal or roof repair is a safer way to go. And there are YouTube videos on how to replace damaged or missing asphalt shingles. American Home Shield suggests replacing a roof if more than one-third of the shingles are curling.

8. Clean the garbage disposal

This is not a March-specific task; it’s something you should do every week or two. Take a few minutes this month to make it part of your cleaning routine. With the machine off, scrub the opening with a bottle brush. If the disposal stinks, freeze vinegar in ice cube trays and let the disposal blend them to icy slush. As always, run water the whole time the disposal is on, and use

cold water, not hot. Grease melts with hot water, then resolidifies when it cools inside the plumbing, causing clogs.

9. Change furnace filters

Yep. Every three months. If you did it in December, it’s time to do it again.

More US home buyers are paying in cash

BLOOMBERG

U.S. home buyers are increasingly paying in cash.

The share of all-cash deals rose to the highest since 2013 last year, while institutional investors, who usually account for many cash sales, retreated, according to data from real estate data analytics firm Attom. That suggests more regular buyers turned to self funding to dodge punishing mortgage rates.

It’s particular true in the Southeast, home of most of the 13 cities with a cash share above 50% last year in the Attom data. Augusta, Georgia, known for hosting the U.S. Masters golf tournament, topped them all with 72%.

Realtors in the region say many individuals who would have been priced out by Wall Street money a year ago are now able to step in, in particular buyers who made a profit selling property in more expensive parts of the U.S.

“It’s mostly people retiring, or people who have sold something in other parts of the country and made a lot of money off it and are

Real

From Page 4

able to pick up something here for cash,” said Heather Kruayai, a Redfin Realtor in Jacksonville, Florida, where the median home price is less than half that of California.

Roughly half of the offers Kruayai receives nowadays come from individual buyers.

Besides high mortgage rates, two major factors at play today help explain the jump in cash sales. Many places in Sun Belt states remain relatively affordable compared with the Northeast and West Coast, giving people who sold there an edge – and cash. And institutional investors, burned by the sudden turn in the market last year, pulled back from once-hot markets.

Home sales dropped last year amid rising interest rates and prices cooled from pandemicfueled highs. Investor purchases fell by a record 46% in the fourth quarter of 2022 from a year earlier, according to a report from brokerage Redfin.

In Atlanta, about 53% of homes sold last year were paid in cash, based on Attom data. Jasmine

$436,182

300 Locust Drive #20 –

Harris, a Redfin Realtor there, said she’s seeing people who sold their California home for half a million or a million dollars and purchased an Atlanta property for about $400,000.

Nowhere was the all-cash share higher than in Augusta, located about a two-hour drive east of Atlanta. The median sales price for a house in that city, at about $200,000, is well below the national average, according to Attom data.

“The large cash-sales levels in the Augusta metro could be connected, at least partly, to a relatively good home-flipping market,” said Rob Barber, chief executive officer at Attom.

Home to a military base, universities and power plants, Augusta is a big market for rentals and has attracted investors hoping to profit from that demand, said Clay Turner, a broker and Realtor in the area.

“The driver that started that craziness was a lot of Wall Street money,” said Turner. Today, investors are more focused on managing their properties rather

Porter

From Page 11

vate homeowners that have outgrown their 1,200-square-foot starter home to list their home for sale and move up to 2,000 square feet. There is no shortage of first-time FHA buyers pre-approved to buy homes under $600,000. The market needs more homes listed for sale to meet the demand ASAP.

than expanding them. “That little flash in the pan in our market has settled.”

It’s not just in the South. In Las Vegas, the share of institutional investors dipped while all-cash sales continued to rise last year, Attom data show.

“We don’t see hedge funds purchasing anymore,” said Shay

Stein, a real estate agent for Redfin in the area. “I think a lot of investors, they’re wondering what the market is going to do.”

That creates opportunities for regular buyers, including those looking for a second home, a traditional driver of cash sales alongside investors.

[4 Bdrms – 3070 SqFt – 2015 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

$596,000

Jordan Street – $340,000

[2 Bdrms – 806 SqFt – 1942

1839 Landmark Drive –

[4 Bdrms – 2537 SqFt

2002 YrBlt], Previous Sale:

Jim Porter, NMLS No. 276412, is the branch manager and senior loan adviser of Solano Mortgage, NMLS No. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS No. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.

Let Mezoo madness take over your baskets, containers

It’s been 15 years, maybe more, since Mezoo showed up in trials and then some really progressive garden centers. It was way ahead of its time for the succulent craze in which we now find ourselves. Many of us snickered at the time, but today we love it. and our kids in the business think they have discovered a new plant.

Come to think of it, maybe it took our children growing up to show us how to use Mezoo and to push the enve

I suppose I should really give its official name: Mezoo Trailing Red. Botanically speaking, it is Dorotheanthus bellidiformis, commonly called Livingstone daisy. You will find it in the Aizo aceae, or fig-marigold, family (if you recognize even one relative you qualify as a taxonomic genus in my book). Just think, this trailing succulent that no one heard of and most laughed at has hung around for over 15 years and firmly planted itself in Proven Winners' available Proven Accents list.

Mezoo Trailing Red is a glossy green with cream margin succulent that can be used as a groundcover or as a spiller plant in mixed containers and baskets.

You are probably wondering where the red comes from in the name. Does it bleed when you snap a branch? The answer is obviously no. The red comes from dime-sized flowers that accent the plant. Notice I said "accent." The flowers will never steal the show from the foliage.

It is a Proven Accents plant indeed. In the last couple of years, son James has used it as a super trailing spiller in hanging baskets with red Amore Queen

of Heart petunias, Boldly White geraniums, Diamond Frost euphorbia, and mandevillas. The dime-sized red flowers produced by Mezoo Trailing Red were the perfect color echo for the red petunias.

As the common name Livingstone daisy suggests, it is from the Cape Peninsula of South Africa. It is tolerant of wet or dry conditions and high or low pH. In other words, anyone can grow this plant.

Although it's tolerant of wet conditions, my inclination would still be to recommend welldrained soil that helps prevent a host of root issues. This will be more critical if used as a groundcover; this is rarely an issue in baskets and containers.

While searching Proven Winners for their Mezoo Trailing

Red recipes, I found one called Tracy’s Garden. This is no doubt from Tracy’s Plaids and Poppies in Dorr, Michigan. I follow them on both Facebook and Instagram, and trust me, you should too. The window planter in the recipe features Goldilocks Rocks bidens, Superbells Red calibrachoa, Luscious Royale Red Zone lantana, Superbena Red and Superbena Violet Ice verbenas, Truffula Pink gomphrena and the Mezoo Trailing Red Livingstone daisy at the bottom. As you can tell the window box is a complete garden.

Son James also designed a large container that would be perfect for pollinators. It featured Rockin Blue Suede Shoes salvia, Uproar Rose zinnia, Luscious Marmalade lantana and Mezoo Trailing Red Livingstone

daisy as the spiller.

It gets about 6 inches tall with a 15- to 24-inch-plus spread in the South. It is rated as a zone 9 and warmer perennial but worth every penny as an annual in colder areas. It can take all the sun you can give but does quite well with partial sun. If it should grow more than its allotted space, by all means, clip to tidy up.

If you want to have a lot of fun with your friends, neighbors and garden club members, just tell them your new Mezoo Trailing Red is a variety of Dorotheanthus bellidiformis, which was formerly known as "Mesembryanthemum criniflorum."

Norman Winter is a horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the

This

Rockin’ Blue Suede Shoes salvia, Uproar Rose Zinnia, Luscious Marmalade lantana and Mezoo Trailing Red Livingstone daisy

South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook @Norman WinterTheGardenGuy. He receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.

Norman Winter

NORMAN WINTER/TNS PHOTOS

Mezoo Trailing Red Livingstone daisy is a tough as nails succulent groundcover, or exotic spiller for containers or baskets. Here it shows its wonderful contrast with magenta-colored petunias.

large container features

tumbling over the rim.

The hanging basket features Amore Queen of Hearts petunias, Boldly White geraniums, Diamond Frost euphorbia, an unseen mandevilla and Mezoo Trailing Red Livingstone daisy spilling over the rim.