Figured I’d better introduce myself before blurting out questions…
Husband and I are recent rental converts..since 1999 have owned (one at a time mind you) a condo in Rancho PQ, a home is Olde Sabre Springs (that area N. of Poway Rd built in about 1989)and a home in Temecula. Each purchase was an effort to gain more space as our daughter grew up and we began accumulating pets (two dogs).
We bought the place in Temecula in 5/04 for 30K less than what we’d sold the Sabre Springs place for and thought we’d done well…
Fast forward to 3/06 and we were sooo ready to sell. The commute sucked for my husband (Temecula to La Jolla), the community was so petty and materialistic we made no friends and can I tell you how sick I was of dusting a 3200sf house?
We put the place on the market, got an offer 1st weekend but they wanted us out 5/20 (we’d put it on the market early thinking we’d be sitting for a while and have time for our daughter to finish school). We countered with 5/30 and told them to take a leap over a 10K credit they wanted back at closing and they walked.
Sat on the market for another 6 weeks. Found and read this site trying to keep ahead of the curve and figure out what was going on in the market because the real estate agents we’d encountered were useless. I could write a sitcom about the agents that came through my house over that 6 weeks – one was drunk and reeked of beer, more than one called at 6:pm to say they had clients who wanted to see the house only to show up alone..(previewing the house my backside – I’m convinced they were checking out the competition !)
Got a few crazy offers, then got a real one from a family who were in escrow on their house in OC and who claimed their buyer was non-contingent. We negotiated price, commissions (each agent agreed to 2%)and luckily a rent back of two weeks. It almost came apart at the end..the buyers of our buyers’ house was contingent after all and the whole domino thing almost blew everything up as we waited for loan after loan to close and fund. I was on the phone with escrow officers for 3 deals, 4 different real estate agents (mine was out of town and totally out of the loop)…I’m getting a headache just rememebering.
In the end we ended up making 42K after subtracting our original down payment and some upgrades we did to the place. If we take into account all the gas to commute to LJ and all the excedrin I took living up there (don’t get me started on the schools, traffic…) we probably broke even.
So here we are back in San Diego renting in Scripps Ranch.
We’ve run the numbers and will probably never buy again.
We’re 35, have a nice little nest egg in the bank, are able to sock away 10% of my husband’s salary into a 401K Fixed Income Fund and never have to pay another property tax bill or fix a problem with our house again. We even ran the taxes for next year when we have no interest or property tax to use as write-offs and if everything remains the same (salary, interest earned, etc.) we’ll still get 400.00 back from Fed. and 60.00 back from State..and the bonus will be we get to keep it all compared to every other year when our tax refund went straight to the tax assessor.
We’ve even converted my mother-in-law..she’s been renting in downtown San Diego for the last year after selling her place in RB. After looking and looking and having offer after offer rejected (she’s been lowballing everyone) she finally ran her own numbers and realized that if she can find a place to rent for 2400.00 or less she’ll actually be saving money. Since she’s a single woman with great credit and no pets the sky is the limit for her rental possibilities.
Thank all of your for your insight over the last year..without you guys I’d have never figured out what was going on and gotten agressive about lowering our price up in Temecula – my poor husband thought I was nuts and just trying to sell the house to get out of Temecula until I made him sit down and read all the bubble blog sites to get a handle on what was REALLY going on..