Random Thoughts - Part III The Search for Spark (No Politics)

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by Spuds

I hate MS Teams.

Maybe made up but I think it funny regardless.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

Bay area is crazy.

The neighbors I grew up with across the street from my mom's house just sold. They bought it new in 1957 for about $12k. The father died years ago. The mom just died a couple months ago at 96. The kids, same age as me and my older brother, listed the house for $1.6m. First day they got an offer for $1.8m.

California cityscape is one place I would definitely not buy a house right now. Even if I had that kind of money.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

First day they got an offer for $1.8m.

$1.8M McMansion in my neck of the woods, if you don't care about acreage. You can always trade house size for land though.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

$1.8M McMansion in my neck of the woods, if you don't care about acreage. You can always trade house size for land though.

The neighbor seems to hate plants though lol.

Also the first thing I saw on the listing was 3800/mo HOA fees. Lol wtf that's more than my mortgage...

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Spuds

The neighbor seems to hate plants though lol.

Also the first thing I saw on the listing was 3800/mo HOA fees. Lol wtf that's more than my mortgage...

Hah, I didn't look at those details, just the first house I saw for exactly $1.8M. It's a Private Golf and Country Club community. It's on one of the holes (you can see it behind the house now that I look)

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by humfrz

ahhhhhh.........but the view -

More like the unpainted side of my house that I redid last year lol

They took that house off the market. They where on one of Oregon's many legal drugs when they set that price

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Ok bot.

I am NOT a BOT!

I'm not smart enough nor clever enough to be a BOT.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Also, all of that is just someone making half-assed justifications for renting to get clicks. There are sooo many things wrong with those statements......................

Oh, I just posted that opinion to give ol @spike021 another viewpoint on buying vs renting.

Since he is in his mid 20's, single and living in the Silicon Valley, I just wanted to make him feel better about renting instead of buying at this point in his life.

Personally, with the exception of being on active duty in the military, I had never been in his situation. Over the years, I have bought and sold seven personal residences from California to Connecticut. Also, as a real estate broker for 10 years, I have brokered several hundreds of real estate deals.

Now, ol spike 21 has to ask himself, how would he rather spend his Saturdays, mowing his lawn OR .......

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

$1.8M McMansion in my neck of the woods..

$1.8m in South San Jose.

The new owners had it torn down to the studs inside and remodel. Workers are still working.

[NoHaveMSG]

I aggravated my sciatic pretty bad helping my buddy dig a trench to lay the new pipe for his new well. Can't hardly drive, sit, or stand from a seated position. Once I am up and moving I am mostly okay but what a MF'er. Made coming in to work at 4:30am to finish an order a ordeal.

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by Spuds

California cityscape is one place I would definitely not buy a house right now. Even if I had that kind of money.

San Jose is one giant suburb, by design.

Just all the orchards vanished over the years.

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

I aggravated my sciatic pretty bad helping my buddy dig a trench to lay the new pipe for his new well. Can't hardly drive, sit, or stand from a seated position. Once I am up and moving I am mostly okay but what a MF'er. Made coming in to work at 4:30am to finish an order a ordeal.

Hope you feel better soon.

[spike021]

So many replies since last night, so I won't try to quote-reply/@-mention all of you's, lol.

@humfrz yep we've had similar conversations on this topic here before.

My main considerations:

1. My current apartment isn't rent-controlled. I'm basically paying $3000/mo right now ($2800 for the rent itself, then $200 or so for utilities that the apartment management is a proxy for, like water, garbage, gas for the pool heater/hot water heater for my building, maintenance, etc.). This is my third year living here. Every year so far the rent has gone up 10%. So next year I'll likely be paying around $3300. It's a conglomerate place and they basically refuse to negotiate every year so far, but I'm also not into the idea of constantly switching apartments every year to find a lease worth $200 less per month or whatever. If I could find a decent place where the total monthly (mortgage + HOA) is maybe up to $4000 or even up to $4500 I think I'd be okay with it simply because like Spuds said (I think), a mortgage will basically stay the same (unless I refinance but that should only improve the monthly cost) whereas the rent will keep increasing and eventually get to that point anyway within 5 years.

2. Typically I stay pretty long-term in my apartments. When I was in downtown San Jose I lived there almost 9 years. I'll probably continue living here for now since other than the monthly rent it's a really great location. I think generally people say to only buy if you plan to stick around minimum 5 years, so that'd work well for me unless for some reason I screwed up my research and it's a bad place or I somehow lose my career and all savings (but I'd say that's a risk most people take on when buying unless they're completely rich).

3. Also, I was in my mid-20's 5 years ago I'm almost 31 now. Still young, of course, but also getting into the point where I don't see myself hugely changing my lifestyle I guess. I've basically had roots anyway so I don't see this kind of decision as an unexpected anchor that would keep me someplace I may want to leave.


As for the other comments like moving elsewhere where it's cheaper and you get more for your money, property-wise, while that's true I think there's still enough here in this area/state that I care about enough that it has value that makes staying worthwhile to me. I'm close to the beach/mountains, great driving roads, still in a tech center for as long as I stay in software, diversity in cultures and stuff that I know is much harder to find elsewhere.

I think the main issue at this point is the interest rates being like 7.5%. If they can drop to like 3-4% or even better by January it would make this an easier decision. That's basically what's keeping me out of the area I'd prefer here.

But we'll see, still ~6 months until I'd start trying to look more seriously.

[spike021]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

Bay area is crazy.

The neighbors I grew up with across the street from my mom's house just sold. They bought it new in 1957 for about $12k. The father died years ago. The mom just died a couple months ago at 96. The kids, same age as me and my older brother, listed the house for $1.6m. First day they got an offer for $1.8m.

There was a nice, though older, condo on the same block as my apartment complex put on the market a couple months back. It was listed at like $940k. 2bed/2bath, maybe 1100 sqft? 400-500 HOA?

I looked for shits and giggles just because I like this area and I wouldn't mind buying here (though that's still quite outside my price range anyway).

Anyway, it was sold not even a week after the sign went up. And I'm sure it sold for more than it was listed for. Zillow is showing a few recently sold condos in that complex going for a bit over 1mil lol.