[quote=Jazzman]LOL! Great to get some feedback BG! Nice to see you are still on form and sounds like you had a great trip. We’ve to’d and fro’d over this so many times, but I just wanted to hang some tangible meat on the core issue, which is that (comparative) value can still be had out there. All (most) Piggs know what caused the bubble and what prevented a full correction in prices. Those causes and preventions are not innate to and binding on all RE markets, despite the contagion that spread well beyond bubble prone markets.
I am a little surprised by one or two of your comments. Having spent several years searching for a home in CA, it could hardly give rise to the notion I never intended to buy here. Also, if you have never been to Europe that wouldn’t qualify you to comment on local services, which I can promise you are at least as are good as anywhere in the developed world. These kinds of comparisons are not very meaningful IMO.
The main thing is I feel very content that overall I’ve come out on top. That of course is subjective, but then isn’t that what it boils down to? But the maths is fun too. I get two beautiful homes in two very sort after places, for the price of one in a place that has not convinced me is twice as good. Put that in ya’ pipe and smoke it![/quote]
Jazzman, we know you initially wanted to buy your retirement home in CA very much. I never meant to imply you didn’t want to buy here.
[quote=jazzman][quote=bearishgurl]Jazzman, the coming “retirement” you have planned for yourselves sounds absolutely extraordinary![/quote]If you consider my wife waited 15 years to get her green card to be with her family in her old age, you’ll realize the decision to leave was not taken lightly. We felt that strongly about it. Having seen dozens of homes, the reaction was nearly always YMBJ if you think we’re going to pay that. Are we better off than most? Yes, so we shouldn’t whine, but our “retirement plan” had to offset the heartache and disappointment my wife felt. It’s nothing personal against California. My home town of London is a lost cause, with tens of thousands of potential buyers probably permanently priced out, and if you dig around enough you’ll find the deep seated frustration that still consumes so many. It makes you wish there was something you could do to help. But then I suppose, many parts of the world would scoff at our pleading poverty.[/quote]
What I was stating is that you didn’t want to do what it takes to obtain a retirement property of your choice in 2010-12 … when you were actively shopping and placing offers in CA. The prices in your selected “coveted” areas weren’t palatable to you at the time … even is a “down-but-slowly-rising” market. Of course, they are higher now. Different strokes.
In your selected (CA) shopping areas, your problem was not insufficient motivation or an inability to buy. It was all about your level of desire to buy. You didn’t have the “fire” to perform as a buyer and there’s nothing wrong with that … or you. Because this “fire” or “passion” didn’t exist (and if it once did, you probably had stiff competition on a few of your offers), you later opted to buy elsewhere, rather than shop in areas of CA outside of your choice premium areas … and that’s okay, too. After you made the decision to retire elsewhere, you decided you wanted TWO retirement homes for the same amount of money you were willing to spend in CA, so didn’t shop in the premium areas in those locales. And it appears that strategy worked out okay for you.
In other words, while shopping CA, you had much higher standards for a retirement home than you did in HI or France.
From an agent/broker’s point of view, insight into a buyer or seller’s actual true motivations and desires is paramount. More often than not, what a buyer WILL actually buy or what a seller WILL actually sell for or the terms they WILL actually accept (when push comes to shove), is a completely different animal than any initial or subsequent representations they make to their broker. This knowledge is what prevents brokers and agents from spinning their wheels into oblivion, accomplishing nothing and subsequently wasting dozens (hundreds?) of hours of their time, money and gas on transactions which will never consummate.
If you feel you “came out on top,” far be it for me to judge. Yes, you DO get two beautiful homes but you have to pay dearly to travel by air between them as you have no other truly viable alternatives. In my mind, this raises another major reoccurring expense two or more times per year for at least two people that needs to be accounted for in your retirement budget. If this additional expense doesn’t bother you, it doesn’t bother me 🙂
