First Time Poster…Long Time Lurker

[doublewide]

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..

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the insight you gained from this site! I agree that there is invaluable info and also very smart people here. Did you also have some questions? You mentioned early on that you had some…

[SD Realtor]

doublewide good for you!!! Perhaps we are neighbors as I rent in Scripps as well. Tell you mother in law not to give up on lowballing. For the moment the tide has turned against us lowballers but lets see how things look come the late summertime.

SD Realtor

[LookoutBelow]

Hearing stories like this warm my heart.

Good on ya Doublewide…..You've taken the red pill and saw through the hype and B.S.

[ibjames]

Good job, (I like the red pill referral) I had the same eye opener but I was the buyer almost signing the loan. 🙂

[Cow_tipping]

Yea I wish I had your type story.
Well the saving grace is … I live 12 miles from work, and paid 150K for a 2723 sqft brand new house in 2003.
But I am more than likely going to lose my shirt if I sell in the next 2-3 years.
Anyway we are living in it and not looking at it as an investment. That’s what helps me get through the day. Shouldv’e rented all the way across, but my house was cheaper than rent till 2006 property tax bump.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

[PerryChase]

150K for a 2723sf house. Cow_tipping, you live in North Carolina or is it (South?). So the most you could loose is $50k? Yo can ride out the market. But people in SoCal will loose much more than that. They’ll be scheduling appointments with bankruptcy attorneys.

[Cow_tipping]

Charlotte NC (heck its a border town). Border with mexico looks like :-)).
I know people there could lose more than what I paid for my house … DR Horton discounted houses 150K in some subdivisions in sacramento.
Yea 50K, dont forget I maintained the freaking house too.
Now I could have rented the same house for ~ the same and walked away from it. I managed to pay down the principal quite a bit. I owe 120K on it as of now. My neighbor sold (flipped actually) his larger but less versatile house for 189K this week (closed today I believe), maybe I dont have to be so dejected.
But I may have to move and it has me worried sick.
Anyway I hope to not lose too much if the thing goes to sheite nationwide. but I’ll take a trip down to south charlotte and ballantyne just to laugh at the 400K houses dropping like a rock. then go back to my little hellhole and take the loss. Silver lining …
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

[PerryChase]

cow_tipping, you got nothin’ to worry about. Your mortgage payments are what? $800/mo? And that has you worried sick?

Indeed, you’ll be able to laugh at the stupid Californians going into foreclosure because of $5000/mo payments.

[Cow_tipping]

Well I did a 15 year at 5. P&I is 1130 somehting.
Till 06 I was under 1400 all included. Taxes insurance etc. 06 taxes pushed me to 1487. That was when I started forking out more than rent.
I was unemployed for 7 months in 05. Didn’t even miss a payment. Did some bike parts and some selling bikes and fixing it and enjoyed life. Unemployment went in payments. I jus made some side $$ for groceries and …
5K per month … I’d literally choke anytime I thought about it. I am overly debt averse (being Injun … you live everyday like its the great depression – joke, and my own and a poor one at that)
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

[Author]

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