Mendocino Real Estate Tax Ripoff

 We have mountain property in Mendocino County California. Recent legalization of cannabis and the way Mendocino County managed it caused property values to plummet where we live. Out property that was "worth" almost one million dollars about 10 years ago is now worth $300,000 if we can get it.

Mendocino county is trying everything they can do to rip off tax payers because tax payment have gone down and they are trying to get money any way they can.

When we bought out our co-owner of the property it was reassessed (half) which was allowed under "prop 13" guidelines. We were prepared for this but the property value has dropped not increased.

The assessor appraised out property with no reference to "comps" that would have reflected the decreased value. They just made up a number out of the blue.

If we are going to apply for a lowered assessment we need to provide comps (i think they want three in tea past three months) but there are no comps. However the worst thing is what Mendocino did in order to prevent lowered assessments.

Appraised valuation and actual market value have always been two different numbers. There is a ratio that is applied by the assessor to the market value to get the assessed valuation on which taxes are based. In Mendocino county taxes are 1 percent per year of assessed valuation plus add ons for voter approved bonds. Prop 13 allows for 1% per year tax increase. When property is sold all bets are off but the assessment ratio should still apply. 

I can go to a lot of effort to determine what the assessment ratio has been for the last 20 years but this will involve a lot of research, getting comps for each tax period and calculating the ratios.

I know for a fact that the ratio was never 100%. Our assessed valuation was something like $200,000 when the market value was close to $1,000,000 These are not actual figures, I need to do a lot of research to provide true values. However I do know that the ratio was never 100% Even after reassessment our appraised value is less than the paltry market value.

In order to apply for a reduction in taxes we need to get recent comps and they need to be lower than our assessed valuation in order to change the tax base. This is because Mendocino has decided that the assessment ratio is 100%  This is total bullshit, it is their way to make tax reduction impossible just by lying about what the ratio actually is. 

Really clever, I think it is time for a taxpayer's revolt.

Protect Your Dog With Remote Temperature Sensor

I previously posted about a device by Motorola that sends alerts about temperature and humidity via cellular network. It worked well but the product has been withdrawn.

Fortunately there is another device that works very well. Iwish I had known about it instead of wasting time with the Motorola unit.

It is called the Marcel by "Sensored Life" If the following link does not work just search for Marcell by SnesoredLife

https://www.meetmarcell.com/?_ga=2.123306190.452975794.1717878614-1885916765.1717878614

This is a new model but I do not see any difference between my older model and the new one.

The device reports every 30 minutes to a server from which data can be downloaded. Alarm points can be set and text messages will be sent immediately when the alarm point is reached. However this does not offer the degree of protection that I want. If any part of the system went down (battery charge, cellular network etc) there would be no notification even though a hazardous condition existed.

You can purchase bundles of instant access tokens so you can use the phone based application to interrogate the device. However you need to check regularly and keep purchasing tokens. I found a way around this:

The device reports whenever power is cut to the device or restored. My solution is to use a programmable cycle timer which turns power on and off to the device alternating every 5 minutes. This forces the sensor to send reports every 5 minutes without my having to remember or pay for tokens. 

If I do not hear a SMS notification for 5 minutes I know something may be wrong and I should check on the dogs. 

This is a fail safe solution. If five minutes has expired without a notification a physical check is required. 

The temperature and humidity are included with the power off/on message so you can check every time you get an alert.

You do need to be aware enough that you notice if no report has been sent for more than five minutes.

I post a sign on the curb side window to let passersby know that the dogs are safe in the car. "Well meaning" people may call the police or break a window if they think your dogs are unsafe in a locked car with the windows partly up. Hopefully they will call the number on the sign instead. I did have a nasty note left on the car before I posted the sign.

 
Saffie and Darcy will be safe this summer thanks to Marcell

Wazer Desktop Waterjet Machine Review

 I am posting this reluctantly because I really like the idea of a desktop waterjet machine for the small shop. I have owned the Wazer for a little over a year. It is really cool what it can do when it is actually working and I have the patience to deal with the horrible software and work-arounds.

I did not do my homework before buying the Wazer or I might have known how horrible the necessary software that makes gcode files for the machine is. I own and have built several CNC machines so I know the good bad and the ugly.

My favorite machines are my CNC router and laser engravers. Both are a joy to operate using a variety of programs for creating gcode files. 

LightBurn is a well though out versatile program suitable for both amateur and advanced users, pretty much the opposite of WAM (the program provided by Wazer)

The garbage software that comes with the Wazer is an embarrassment. I have given them many opportunities to improve it. Many owners agree with me that the software it badly written to say the least  and forces the user to spend much more time making test cuts etc instead of just making the parts they want.

The firmware that drives the machine is equally horrible treating the user as a total moron and requiring a lot of wasted time and provides few useful options.

This is a hobby machine at best forget about fine degrees of control or precision without a lot of extra effort.

If you are making stained glass and your requirements for precision are low this might be the machine for you. If you want to make precise prototypes prior to professional manufacturing or for one offs that need to be accurate, basically forget it. You are better off with some files, chisels and a other hand tools.

In order to placate those who want a reasonable degree of control over the design and cutting process, Wazer offered me a plugin for Corel Draw that was contracted by their European Distributor. This offers some degree of improvement but they have not been able to get the plugin to work with the new 2024 version of Corel that I bought specifically for this purpose. It has been six months and no success yet. I did get the plugin to work on an older hacked version of Corel but at some point in experimentation the installer for the plugin (I am not making this up and have never seen this before) erased the contents of the activation code file. So at this point I can not even use the hacked version and multiple communications have not prompted Wazer to do anything about it.

It is interesting that Wazer now has a new model that supposedly fixes some of the issues with the older version. They are offering a new version and have not bothered to improve their crap software first? Yes they did fix a few bugs but the whole program is a joke. 

There was also an issue with the display blanking out during a cut and although it was possible to finish the cut there was no control such as speed override or pausing without a display. The problem is pretty obviously caused by electrical interference due to bad design of the communication between the display and the main control module. I was jerked around for months over this and finally was given an add on dongle to replace the display. This does work but it is going to make it difficult to sell this thing if I am able to at all. Makes it look a lot more like the piece of junk that it is.