Ok, no — actually long-time member, irregular lurker, & posting today because of this nice thread, and to say that this site was my savior during the bubble.
In 2004 or so, I wanted to buy a home, but I kept hearing rumors about a “housing bubble”, so I got online, and found this site, and credit Rich and this community of users for SAVING me from buying at the top of the market. If I had purchased then, I likely would have ended up in a 1-bedroom condo in Mission Valley, and no gains.
Instead, I waited 5+ years, in 2011, & bought a fixer in S Mission Hills with a tiny view of Pt Loma and the harbor, and the home has since doubled in value. Thank you Rich and Piggs!
To afford my fixer’s fix-ups in Mission Hills, I airbnb-ed my converted garage. And then, I went on to lead a campaign to try to get short term rentals legal in San Diego, but after 5 years dropped out when it became apparent council was not going to get an ordinance done. I didn’t post much here during that time, because I was also pursuing a legal cannabis license, which I obtained, and then sold earlier this year. I am now using that capital to purchase property in opportunity zones. It’s not a great time to buy property, but because I have a solid understanding of how the RE market works, I feel as long as the fundamentals are in place, my investments will be fine in the long term.
All in all, Rich, and this site and it’s members have been an excellent resource, and I credit a lot of what I have accomplished to Rich and the folks here.
The best resource on here for me when it started (besides Rich) was user, “Bugs”. Not sure what happened to him, but his explanations of how things really worked were invaluable. I remember a couple of meet-ups, which were nice to put names with faces. I think we stopped meeting when the bubble burst, and we were all “right” about the housing market.
One last comment: I still continue to be amazed and shocked by some of the values/prices I see for RE in San Diego. But, I’m no longer intimidated by it. That said, many times I will read or hear something that does not make sense, (lack of supply, interest rates, trade imbalance, etc.) and I will just pop in here for validation of my own thoughts. Many thanks to all of you Piggs for your common sense attitudes and comments.