[quote=UCGal]There are plenty of people on this board that annoy me regularly. But every now and then they post something that makes me think, or see an alternate perspective. I’m sure I annoy plenty of people, myself.
I wouldn’t come here to read/discuss if I felt I knew everything about everything, already.[/quote]
I wouldn’t either, UCGal. There are a LOT of subjects I don’t know about. I don’t have a full understanding of macroeconomics. I don’t really understand how the stock market works. I don’t understand how the yield on bonds is figured out. I don’t understand how to maximize passive investment income. Ad nauseum.
My education is highly specialized towards business, real estate and civil litigation.
I come by my opinions honestly …. by my own personal experiences and watching people fail miserably or become a victim of fraud and often having to help them clean up the mess as best as we can.
I don’t have a smartphone because I don’t want to learn how to use it and don’t want to pay for its services. I don’t text and have it turned off because I’d rather hear someone’s voice.
I don’t like rental cars because I don’t want to have to learn where everything is in order to comfortably drive it for a few days.
I would like to learn more about electronics and how to set up surround sound and home theatre properly. The manuals are all just too complicated.
I’d like to learn to fix my own sprinkler system.
Etc.
Things I DO know a lot about as they pertain to CA:
RE Agency, RE Law, Escrow, Reg Z, Landlord/Tenant law, examination of title, quiet title, land use issues, erosion, survey, the Subdivision Map Act, local permitting procedures, trust deeds, non-judicial foreclosure, fundamentals of a “short sale,” eminent domain, residential leasing and 1031 Exchanges and Starker as they apply to 1-4 units.
In addition, I am a nearly “self-taught” public records “expert.” I taught myself before the personal computer even existed. Having seen so many recorded documents, I can make a very “educated guess” as to whys and wherefores of the current condition of title of real property. I can also go through a title presented to me and determine if something is missing from it w/o a preliminary title report.
Litigation: civil procedure, criminal procedure, domestic practice, some probate procedure, appellate procedure, administrative law incl tribunal procedure and collective bargaining.
Notary law, Secretary of State business filings, FCRA.
Robert’s Rules of order and how local ordinances and regional and state law is made.
Etc.
In my areas of familiarity, I know when a subd was built, what the original floor plans were, how much they originally cost and can tell by looking at a tract house from the outside if it has been expanded. I know which subds had construction defects and which HOA’s have litigated them. Often I know what was there before the subd was built and what still lies under the ground under portions of it. Sometimes I know what the land was used for prior to a subdivision being built on it. I know which side of the street/portion of a subdivision has cut lots and which side of the street has filled lots. Sometimes I can tell just by standing across the street from a house if a structural or soils engineer needs to be hired in escrow. I know the school attendance areas and which areas have a choice of schools, w/o consulting a District map. All of this without asking any questions of any RE agents/brokers (assuming they actually know). There is much more and this knowledge comes from traveling the same streets for many years. IMO, any “street knowledge” one can gain (as above) is far more valuable than anything one can learn in school. All of the knowledge in this paragraph and more, combined with a near-photographic memory has served me very well in life 🙂
I have learned that things are never what they appear to be and the devil is always in the details.
If I can make a good contribution to a thread and have the time to do so, I will. If I can’t do so intelligently, then I won’t.
