[an]

I completely agree with blue_sky. I did the same thing when I rented in an apartment. I negotiated and always got it down much lower than the original amount. Usually, they wanted, $100 raise, I told them I was a good tenant, always pay on time, and no complains. I walk out w/ a $20-25 raise in rent instead. Everything is negotiable, remember that.

[an]

Even with an alley design (which I prefer immeasurably over the ugly “snout houses”) the garages generally hold at least two cars. Do that many families out there actually have 3+ cars?!? Do they really NEED that many? I live in an older neighborhood with alleys (Kensington) and I don’t notice a huge problem with all the street parking being taken…

I guess it all depends on the people who live there. For instance, Asian in general, tend to stay home with our parents much later than other nationality. I’ve seen many Asian families where their sons/daughters live with then until they get married or at least engaged. Imagine if the parents have 2 kids, that’s 4 cars already. If each kid have a bf/gf that come over often, that’s 6 cars. Now what happen if the parents have 4 kids? See where I’m getting at? These are all adults who NEED cars to get to work. They just decide to live together and want to live together. With these 3k+ sq-ft house & 4-6 bedrooms, there’s plenty of rooms to house all those people comfortable but there won’t be driveways to hold all those cars. Then you have people who live in a certain place for a very long time and start to accumulate things and use their garage as a storage. Now, the 2 car garage can only hold one or none. That would be another 1-2 cars on the street. Then there are people who have project car in their garage being rebuilt, so there’s no room for daily drivers. Alley houses with no driveways are not very suitable for families with 3+ cars. I’m sure that’s the majority, not minority.

[an]

Even with an alley design (which I prefer immeasurably over the ugly “snout houses”) the garages generally hold at least two cars. Do that many families out there actually have 3+ cars?!? Do they really NEED that many? I live in an older neighborhood with alleys (Kensington) and I don’t notice a huge problem with all the street parking being taken…

I guess it all depends on the people who live there. For instance, Asian in general, tend to stay home with our parents much later than other nationality. I’ve seen many Asian families where their sons/daughters live with then until they get married or at least engaged. Imagine if the parents have 2 kids, that’s 4 cars already. If each kid have a bf/gf that come over often, that’s 6 cars. Now what happen if the parents have 4 kids? See where I’m getting at? These are all adults who NEED cars to get to work. They just decide to live together and want to live together. With these 3k+ sq-ft house & 4-6 bedrooms, there’s plenty of rooms to house all those people comfortable but there won’t be driveways to hold all those cars. Then you have people who live in a certain place for a very long time and start to accumulate things and use their garage as a storage. Now, the 2 car garage can only hold one or none. That would be another 1-2 cars on the street. Then there are people who have project car in their garage being rebuilt, so there’s no room for daily drivers. Alley houses with no driveways are not very suitable for families with 3+ cars. I’m sure that’s the majority, not minority.

[an]

I think these alley house design are OK if the people who live there are the typical 2 kids and a dog type and the kids are not at the driving age. Imagine what happens if the family is larger and all the kids drives. Where would you park your 4-6 cars? At least with these “snout houses”, there’s drive ways you can park 2 more cars in to keep the street clear. If you don’t have drive ways, the streets will be full of cars and visitor won’t have anywhere to park. That’s one of the reason why I hate alley homes. They’re just big giant condos to me.

[an]

I think these alley house design are OK if the people who live there are the typical 2 kids and a dog type and the kids are not at the driving age. Imagine what happens if the family is larger and all the kids drives. Where would you park your 4-6 cars? At least with these “snout houses”, there’s drive ways you can park 2 more cars in to keep the street clear. If you don’t have drive ways, the streets will be full of cars and visitor won’t have anywhere to park. That’s one of the reason why I hate alley homes. They’re just big giant condos to me.

[an]

Neighborhoods Considering: Sorrento Valley, Carmel Valley, Mira Mesa, old Scripps, Rancho Penasquitos, Cardiff, Solana Beach
Condo/House: SFR
Price Range: $450-$600K
Size Range: 2000-2800 sq-ft
Currently (Rent/Own): Rent
Shopping the Market?: Looking around but not making any offer until listing price comes w/in 10% of what I’d consider reasonable.

[an]

Neighborhoods Considering: Sorrento Valley, Carmel Valley, Mira Mesa, old Scripps, Rancho Penasquitos, Cardiff, Solana Beach
Condo/House: SFR
Price Range: $450-$600K
Size Range: 2000-2800 sq-ft
Currently (Rent/Own): Rent
Shopping the Market?: Looking around but not making any offer until listing price comes w/in 10% of what I’d consider reasonable.

[an]

’m guessing we are at a cycle peak – prices will be flat for awhile.

This sentence doesn’t make any sense. You can’t have cycle, peaks, and not valleys. You don’t get valleys by being flat. Have you ever seen price stay flat after it peak in any cycle? So far, I saved myself $100k for waiting this long instead of buying in 2005. $100k drop is not flat to me, is it to you?

[an]

’m guessing we are at a cycle peak – prices will be flat for awhile.

This sentence doesn’t make any sense. You can’t have cycle, peaks, and not valleys. You don’t get valleys by being flat. Have you ever seen price stay flat after it peak in any cycle? So far, I saved myself $100k for waiting this long instead of buying in 2005. $100k drop is not flat to me, is it to you?

[an]

There’s no right or wrong as far as I’m concerned.
Yep, we agree to disagree.

[an]

There’s no right or wrong as far as I’m concerned.
Yep, we agree to disagree.

[an]

SD Realtor, I completely agree with you. Most people didn’t buy the house in 99 expecting this kind of run up. Even if they did, if they take their profit and roll it into another property, then I would say it’s no different than someone who took the profit from qcom in 2000 and roll it right into another tech stock. It’s all paper gain until they sell and not roll the profit into another one. And base on what have been discussing here in this board, people who sold and sit on the sideline and rent is the exception, not the rule. So DaC, I don’t count paper gain as gain at all. I know plenty of people who were millionaires with their paper gain in 2000 as well.

[an]

SD Realtor, I completely agree with you. Most people didn’t buy the house in 99 expecting this kind of run up. Even if they did, if they take their profit and roll it into another property, then I would say it’s no different than someone who took the profit from qcom in 2000 and roll it right into another tech stock. It’s all paper gain until they sell and not roll the profit into another one. And base on what have been discussing here in this board, people who sold and sit on the sideline and rent is the exception, not the rule. So DaC, I don’t count paper gain as gain at all. I know plenty of people who were millionaires with their paper gain in 2000 as well.

[an]

DaCounselor, but your scenario is very similar to the scenario I described as well. How many people you know bought in 99 and sell now without rolling it into another house? If you don’t have the profit in cash, then it’s just paper gain. Your example is picking buyers at the bottoms selling at the top. So was my example, pure and simple. It’s all theoretically. I know several people personally who got a tone of stock options, cashed out at the top and retire. Those are just as real as your buyer in this case. Except the people I know took that money, bought a house for cash and take the rest of their profit to live off until they die. So the next time you take this gravy example of home ownership to show how much it’s better than the stock market, don’t forget that we’re at the peak of one of the largest RE bubble in the last century. Lets see who will fair better in 10 years when this bubble play itself out. Paper gain doesn’t count.

[an]

DaCounselor, but your scenario is very similar to the scenario I described as well. How many people you know bought in 99 and sell now without rolling it into another house? If you don’t have the profit in cash, then it’s just paper gain. Your example is picking buyers at the bottoms selling at the top. So was my example, pure and simple. It’s all theoretically. I know several people personally who got a tone of stock options, cashed out at the top and retire. Those are just as real as your buyer in this case. Except the people I know took that money, bought a house for cash and take the rest of their profit to live off until they die. So the next time you take this gravy example of home ownership to show how much it’s better than the stock market, don’t forget that we’re at the peak of one of the largest RE bubble in the last century. Lets see who will fair better in 10 years when this bubble play itself out. Paper gain doesn’t count.

[Author]

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