[quote=bearishgurl][quote-no_such_reality]….Negative connotations aside of your post, you make our point, you need to down-grade your material lifestyle or make $200K plus to be in the good parts of Cali. And unless someone left you a house, $100K in Cali is lower middle income existence and it just gets worse as you go down from there. And I’m OC/LA where the housing and expense issue is even more pronounced than SD….[/quote]
IIRC, you are a SD North County resident, NSR. Let’s assume your grandmother on your mom’s side with whom you spent many weekends swinging on her tree swing as a child enjoying the view and good family times and remember them fondly, has recently died. She was widowed at 44 and you just found out she has left you her home and adjacent lot, free and clear with Prop 13 “protection” on it. Taxes are currently $505 annually, per SD Assessor.
Would YOU live in it? Would YOU move your family into it? Would you do repairs/improvements on it? Would YOU live there for the rest of your life in order to pay NO MORTGAGE and LOW TAXES and live “stress-free” in Cali (with lots of discretionary income)? OR would you immediately mortgage it and invest in the stock market or buy another rental and/or vehicles and bling. Would you rent it out and keep paying your current mortgage? OR would you immediately sell it and lose the Prop 13 “protection” on it forever?
The truth is that the vast majority of these “heirs” who were fortunate enough to be “left a house” in CA moved into it before or shortly after the death of the owner and will live out the rest of their lives in residence and perhaps even pass it on to their children. They weren’t “picky” about anything regarding the property, i.e. location, size, condition, etc. They simply did as much work they could afford to do on it when they took title of it (or did NO work if they couldn’t afford to at the time) and moved in. They don’t have a “glamorous lifestyle” but can live, eat and pay for their utilites (often at “lifeline rates”).
MOST of these heirs didn’t mortgage their “inherited” properties to death to buy vehicles and bling. And many of the ones who did lost their longtime family homes to foreclosure.
So, what would YOU do, NSR??
And where do you consider to be the “good parts of Cali?”[/quote]
BG,
You keep forgetting that there are multiple heirs in most cases. In most of the cases I’m familiar with, they need to sell the house(s) in order to settle the estate.
All too often, none of the heirs want to live in mom and dad’s house which might be located hundreds or thousands of miles away from where they’ve made their own lives. Most heirs that I’ve known over the years have no desire to be long-distance landlords, especially with a house that would require tens of thousands of dollars in order to make it rentable. This is despite the fact that many of these houses really are excellent investments as rentals; they just don’t want to deal with the hassles.
In the example you’ve given, it would be difficult to find tenants who would ALWAYS pay on time and not destroy the house. That neighborhood does not attract highly educated, high-income renters with stellar credit scores. It would be okay as a rental if one lived nearby and didn’t care much about how the tenants treated the house. It might be a good investment if the buyer could get it for a lower price, along with the extra lot, and then build a duplex (More? Zoning?) on the additional lot.
