Tales of an RSF buyer (Eiplogue update)

[barnaby33]

Still after all this time and all your effort to inform us of your travail, I am disheartened. Either the decision to buy was more yours than you let on, or your wife has disproportionately high expectations. This is me parroting back what I’ve heard from you. I’m glad you like where you live, but it would scare the crap out of me to have a wife like that and I engage in all sorts of risky type ‘A’ behavior.

Either way, I am glad you decided to post a follow up. To many people have purchased, then gone away. Thanks Raptor Duck.
Josh

[raptorduck]

Rustico. My Bay Area house sold in 5 days at 99% of asking. Packaged it right, priced it to market, and moved on.

Josh. The decision to buy was equal between my wife and I. Perhaps I wanted to wait longer, or buy a cheaper house that needed more work or was smaller, or liked Santaluz more than she, but I started this with a buying mentality. Personally, I could have rented for maybe a year or so, but after that I would have wanted to buy something. My wife wanted things a bit sooner, but in the end, if she had to, she would have waited a year as well. So we compromised. After all, we had been looking for a year and a half already by the time we bought, that is a lot to ask of a spouse to wait and wait and wait after looking at hundreds of homes.

Remember that I was the anal one on specs and price etc. She just wanted a place to live in in an area she fell in love with. She was picky, yes, but for the things that mattered to her. I was the one picky on price and other stats. Also, as I said in my posts, finding one house that you “both” love was a challenge, let alone one that you “both” love and that is priced right in a neighborhood that you “both” love. I am sure as single people we would have taken half as long to find a home. But that ain’t the point.

And the reason I come back for the occasional tidbit update is because I won’t forget the great help I got from folks on this site along the way.

[raptorduck]

Rustico. My Bay Area house sold in 5 days at 99% of asking. Packaged it right, priced it to market, and moved on.

Josh. The decision to buy was equal between my wife and I. Perhaps I wanted to wait longer, or buy a cheaper house that needed more work or was smaller, or liked Santaluz more than she, but I started this with a buying mentality. Personally, I could have rented for maybe a year or so, but after that I would have wanted to buy something. My wife wanted things a bit sooner, but in the end, if she had to, she would have waited a year as well. So we compromised. After all, we had been looking for a year and a half already by the time we bought, that is a lot to ask of a spouse to wait and wait and wait after looking at hundreds of homes.

Remember that I was the anal one on specs and price etc. She just wanted a place to live in in an area she fell in love with. She was picky, yes, but for the things that mattered to her. I was the one picky on price and other stats. Also, as I said in my posts, finding one house that you “both” love was a challenge, let alone one that you “both” love and that is priced right in a neighborhood that you “both” love. I am sure as single people we would have taken half as long to find a home. But that ain’t the point.

And the reason I come back for the occasional tidbit update is because I won’t forget the great help I got from folks on this site along the way.

[raptorduck]

Rustico. My Bay Area house sold in 5 days at 99% of asking. Packaged it right, priced it to market, and moved on.

Josh. The decision to buy was equal between my wife and I. Perhaps I wanted to wait longer, or buy a cheaper house that needed more work or was smaller, or liked Santaluz more than she, but I started this with a buying mentality. Personally, I could have rented for maybe a year or so, but after that I would have wanted to buy something. My wife wanted things a bit sooner, but in the end, if she had to, she would have waited a year as well. So we compromised. After all, we had been looking for a year and a half already by the time we bought, that is a lot to ask of a spouse to wait and wait and wait after looking at hundreds of homes.

Remember that I was the anal one on specs and price etc. She just wanted a place to live in in an area she fell in love with. She was picky, yes, but for the things that mattered to her. I was the one picky on price and other stats. Also, as I said in my posts, finding one house that you “both” love was a challenge, let alone one that you “both” love and that is priced right in a neighborhood that you “both” love. I am sure as single people we would have taken half as long to find a home. But that ain’t the point.

And the reason I come back for the occasional tidbit update is because I won’t forget the great help I got from folks on this site along the way.

[raptorduck]

Rustico. My Bay Area house sold in 5 days at 99% of asking. Packaged it right, priced it to market, and moved on.

Josh. The decision to buy was equal between my wife and I. Perhaps I wanted to wait longer, or buy a cheaper house that needed more work or was smaller, or liked Santaluz more than she, but I started this with a buying mentality. Personally, I could have rented for maybe a year or so, but after that I would have wanted to buy something. My wife wanted things a bit sooner, but in the end, if she had to, she would have waited a year as well. So we compromised. After all, we had been looking for a year and a half already by the time we bought, that is a lot to ask of a spouse to wait and wait and wait after looking at hundreds of homes.

Remember that I was the anal one on specs and price etc. She just wanted a place to live in in an area she fell in love with. She was picky, yes, but for the things that mattered to her. I was the one picky on price and other stats. Also, as I said in my posts, finding one house that you “both” love was a challenge, let alone one that you “both” love and that is priced right in a neighborhood that you “both” love. I am sure as single people we would have taken half as long to find a home. But that ain’t the point.

And the reason I come back for the occasional tidbit update is because I won’t forget the great help I got from folks on this site along the way.

[raptorduck]

Rustico. My Bay Area house sold in 5 days at 99% of asking. Packaged it right, priced it to market, and moved on.

Josh. The decision to buy was equal between my wife and I. Perhaps I wanted to wait longer, or buy a cheaper house that needed more work or was smaller, or liked Santaluz more than she, but I started this with a buying mentality. Personally, I could have rented for maybe a year or so, but after that I would have wanted to buy something. My wife wanted things a bit sooner, but in the end, if she had to, she would have waited a year as well. So we compromised. After all, we had been looking for a year and a half already by the time we bought, that is a lot to ask of a spouse to wait and wait and wait after looking at hundreds of homes.

Remember that I was the anal one on specs and price etc. She just wanted a place to live in in an area she fell in love with. She was picky, yes, but for the things that mattered to her. I was the one picky on price and other stats. Also, as I said in my posts, finding one house that you “both” love was a challenge, let alone one that you “both” love and that is priced right in a neighborhood that you “both” love. I am sure as single people we would have taken half as long to find a home. But that ain’t the point.

And the reason I come back for the occasional tidbit update is because I won’t forget the great help I got from folks on this site along the way.

[jpinpb]

I’m glad you occasionally post here. Yours was a success story. You and your wife found a house you really love at a reasonable price you can afford. I don’t think it’s your intention to move any time soon, so if there is some depreciation down the road, it won’t really matter. Your happiness and that of your wife’s is worth more than any slight depreciation you may experience. Peace of mind is priceless.

[jpinpb]

I’m glad you occasionally post here. Yours was a success story. You and your wife found a house you really love at a reasonable price you can afford. I don’t think it’s your intention to move any time soon, so if there is some depreciation down the road, it won’t really matter. Your happiness and that of your wife’s is worth more than any slight depreciation you may experience. Peace of mind is priceless.

[jpinpb]

I’m glad you occasionally post here. Yours was a success story. You and your wife found a house you really love at a reasonable price you can afford. I don’t think it’s your intention to move any time soon, so if there is some depreciation down the road, it won’t really matter. Your happiness and that of your wife’s is worth more than any slight depreciation you may experience. Peace of mind is priceless.

[jpinpb]

I’m glad you occasionally post here. Yours was a success story. You and your wife found a house you really love at a reasonable price you can afford. I don’t think it’s your intention to move any time soon, so if there is some depreciation down the road, it won’t really matter. Your happiness and that of your wife’s is worth more than any slight depreciation you may experience. Peace of mind is priceless.

[jpinpb]

I’m glad you occasionally post here. Yours was a success story. You and your wife found a house you really love at a reasonable price you can afford. I don’t think it’s your intention to move any time soon, so if there is some depreciation down the road, it won’t really matter. Your happiness and that of your wife’s is worth more than any slight depreciation you may experience. Peace of mind is priceless.

[Anonymous]

raptorduck,
i have followed your story and totally agree with your approach–money and wealth facilitate life and life goes on…optimizing wealth is only one of many factors in optimizing life. in addition, the systematic way you went about looking for a home is near and dear to my heart.

i am actually looking at buying in rsf perhaps in 2009 and by 2010 at the latest. fairbanks ranch is high on my list as well–we are also very interested in rsf farms. i have two questions for you:

1. now that you have had time to settle in the area, given your former rankings of the rsf/near rsf communities, would you change anything in your analysis (e.g. traffic, convenience, community, etc.)?

2. for these various communities what absolute premiums/discounts in pricing versus one another did you find? e.g. does the covenant get the highest absolute dollar premium?

as an aside, i have lived in san diego, los angeles, bay area, new york. i would totally agree with your analysis that san diego is amazing in terms of value. if i ranked them by value i would rank san diego, bay area, new york, los angeles in that order (the last two might be the most surprising…).

[Anonymous]

raptorduck,
i have followed your story and totally agree with your approach–money and wealth facilitate life and life goes on…optimizing wealth is only one of many factors in optimizing life. in addition, the systematic way you went about looking for a home is near and dear to my heart.

i am actually looking at buying in rsf perhaps in 2009 and by 2010 at the latest. fairbanks ranch is high on my list as well–we are also very interested in rsf farms. i have two questions for you:

1. now that you have had time to settle in the area, given your former rankings of the rsf/near rsf communities, would you change anything in your analysis (e.g. traffic, convenience, community, etc.)?

2. for these various communities what absolute premiums/discounts in pricing versus one another did you find? e.g. does the covenant get the highest absolute dollar premium?

as an aside, i have lived in san diego, los angeles, bay area, new york. i would totally agree with your analysis that san diego is amazing in terms of value. if i ranked them by value i would rank san diego, bay area, new york, los angeles in that order (the last two might be the most surprising…).

[Anonymous]

raptorduck,
i have followed your story and totally agree with your approach–money and wealth facilitate life and life goes on…optimizing wealth is only one of many factors in optimizing life. in addition, the systematic way you went about looking for a home is near and dear to my heart.

i am actually looking at buying in rsf perhaps in 2009 and by 2010 at the latest. fairbanks ranch is high on my list as well–we are also very interested in rsf farms. i have two questions for you:

1. now that you have had time to settle in the area, given your former rankings of the rsf/near rsf communities, would you change anything in your analysis (e.g. traffic, convenience, community, etc.)?

2. for these various communities what absolute premiums/discounts in pricing versus one another did you find? e.g. does the covenant get the highest absolute dollar premium?

as an aside, i have lived in san diego, los angeles, bay area, new york. i would totally agree with your analysis that san diego is amazing in terms of value. if i ranked them by value i would rank san diego, bay area, new york, los angeles in that order (the last two might be the most surprising…).

[Anonymous]

raptorduck,
i have followed your story and totally agree with your approach–money and wealth facilitate life and life goes on…optimizing wealth is only one of many factors in optimizing life. in addition, the systematic way you went about looking for a home is near and dear to my heart.

i am actually looking at buying in rsf perhaps in 2009 and by 2010 at the latest. fairbanks ranch is high on my list as well–we are also very interested in rsf farms. i have two questions for you:

1. now that you have had time to settle in the area, given your former rankings of the rsf/near rsf communities, would you change anything in your analysis (e.g. traffic, convenience, community, etc.)?

2. for these various communities what absolute premiums/discounts in pricing versus one another did you find? e.g. does the covenant get the highest absolute dollar premium?

as an aside, i have lived in san diego, los angeles, bay area, new york. i would totally agree with your analysis that san diego is amazing in terms of value. if i ranked them by value i would rank san diego, bay area, new york, los angeles in that order (the last two might be the most surprising…).

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