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October 24, 2012 at 2:28 PM in reply to: OT- If you find a rattlesnake in your back yard-do you kill it? #753133
bearishgurl
Participant[quote=SDEaves]Our dear friend is a realtor who felt it best for us to look at homes in our price range this year before purchasing a property. Was that not a good idea? We have learned a lot in looking around. We are now in a position to put in offers (have ample savings to do the deal as of now). Our realtor friend, we feel, did us a great service in showing us around. Didn’t feel we would need to state that in our post/justify our price range/etc. since our post question is pretty specific- townhouse or SFR in the areas mentioned.[/quote]
Glad the Piggs could be of some assistance, but we usually need a price range in order to offer suggestions. Without it, we don’t have any way of knowing exactly WHAT you are considering in your areas of choice, which all have a variety of housing styles to choose from. For instance, there is a LOT of difference in exterior space and privacy between a townhouse (condo) and a townhouse (PUD). In your given price range, we would also need to know if you were willing to do major work on a property as some areas of the county generally have more properties which need more work than others. If you were, your options (size and area) would definitely open up more.
So what’s the verdict, SDEaves?
Townhouse or SFR . . . and where?
Participant[quote=SDEaves]Thanks for your worry about the neighborhoods being too expensive for us. If this helps, we have toured many homes in our price range in all four locations (over the past year). We’ve looked at many different neighborhoods in San Diego before narrowing down the search to these favorites. Now it’s just deciding townhouse vs. SFR and your posts specifically have helped us IMMENSELY! Oh and yes, we checked out La Mesa. Certain areas we found to be right up our alley (north of the 8 and near Lake Murray) but the south-west area (near Rolando) was pretty scary.[/quote]
SDEaves, you never stated here (until now) that you had been looking for a year and have not yet purchased a property ;=]
You also didn’t state if you would be willing to do any major (or minor) work before or after moving in. If the answer to “major work” is a “yes,” I feel your options for a SFR of 1600+ sf would open up exponentially, perhaps in LM.
Have you made any offers on properties which were not accepted?
During this past year (while you have been looking at properties) have you noticed an uptick and firming of prices in any of your areas of choice? Have you noticed if properties you’re seeing have already been snapped up by cash buyers?
North of the 8 and near Lake Murray is actually San Carlos (SD 92119).
I didn’t look at any properties online on your behalf so don’t have any idea of the inventory in your areas of choice right now.
The price you stated you could qualify for ($360K) just so happens to be within the range cash investors are willing to spend for a rental property or “flipper.”
The above reasons are why I felt some of the areas mentioned on this thread were “too expensive” for you.
Participant[quote=SDEaves]We found it very interesting that out of our four location choices presented in our original post, Mira Mesa was never recommended even once! Thank you all for your honesty.[/quote]
I didn’t recommend MM because I thought a (3 bdrm) SFR would be too expensive for you there. MM has recently been driven up in price by cash investors and flippers.
AN, are there any suitable SFR’s around ~$365K available for this family in MM?
Tierrasanta is also likely too expensive for you … for ANY size home.
I am fundamentally against a family of 5 with 3 very young children cramming themselves and all of their life activities into a condo … with its “all-encompassing” HOA board members undoubtedly “lurking.” That reason (and the extra cost) is why I suggested areas where you could buy a SFR with a bigger-than-standard lot with no HOA/MR.
SDEaves, have you had a chance to look around in LM yet??
October 24, 2012 at 11:26 AM in reply to: OT- If you find a rattlesnake in your back yard-do you kill it? #753112Participant[quote=UCGal][quote=bearishgurl]Navydoc, I see you’ve relocated back to SD and are enjoying your new digs w-a-a-a-ay out in lizardland 😉
[/quote]You don’t have to be in Lizardland to get rattle snakes… Just have to back to a canyon.
I live in UC – and we get the occasional snake in our yard.Prior to owning our dog – we’d relocate the snake.
Now that we have a dog – who might decide to go after the snake… We would kill it.
Haven’t had a snake recently, though, so that decision is moot so far.[/quote]
Have you ever found a rattlesnake behind your property, UCGal?
October 24, 2012 at 11:01 AM in reply to: OT- If you find a rattlesnake in your back yard-do you kill it? #753107ParticipantNavydoc, I see you’ve relocated back to SD and are enjoying your new digs w-a-a-a-ay out in lizardland 😉
If I were you, I would have killed it. I would have been too afraid it would later attack my dog or a family member. As you probably know, rattlesnake antidotes are horrible to go thru, for man or beast. And one doesn’t have to mess with one to get bitten. They could just inadvertently disturb it and it could attack. The recovery from their bite is horrible to go thru, as well.
If you see it again, I would advise you to kill it, or at the very least, trap it in a plastic garbage can with a lid and call animal control to see if there are any agencies who will to “relocate” it far away.
I have a feeling that one won’t be the last one you will see. Among other creatures, they are part of the “territory” when you are living in a recent development encroaching upon “lizardland.”
Participant[quote=mike92104][quote=bearishgurl]
If you’ve got any other ideas to put more money in CA’s coffers besides imploring your congressperson to lobby their brethren ad infinitum for more funds to reimburse CA for the effects of illegal immigration (which has been done and is being done, with mixed results), I’m all ears :=][/quote]
Legalize (and tax) pot?[/quote]
The amount of $$ the state would be able to collect from SF licensed “independent growers” alone may be enough to completely cure CA’s supposed “college deficit” (at least the CC deficit), IMO. Of course, CA renter should take note that they’re ALL likely living (and running their ultraviolet lights and fans on full blast) in a “Prop 13 subsidized rental flat.”
These SF landlords are making out like bandits! And just an FYI for flu, a good portion of them are likely “Chinese,” lol . . .
see: http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/PolicyInAction/KeyFacts.aspx
and: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/california-community-coll_n_1665108.html
btw, flu, I don’t know how old the piece you quoted was, but the current fees for a CA CC are now $46 per semester hr. I’m not sure they qualify for the “cheapest in the nation” anymore.
Good idea, Mike! I see you’ve got your thinking cap on 🙂
ParticipantI can’t right now but later this evening I want to show examples where in all of those states I mentioned, in-state university tuition is currently the same or lower than in CA. The last 10 fee hikes at CSU (abt 4-5 in the same time frame at UC) have equalized CA’s university “tuition” to other, less populous states. Those states also have illegal immigrants, TANF, people collecting UI, etc.
I vote we end the ~exorbitant~ attorney, court, jail and prison bills for non-violent “three-strikers” and also abolish CA’s death penalty (which is a bad joke unto itself, IMHO) by voting “yes” on Props 32 and 34.
I’m all for lobbying to repeal Prop 13 for all affected property owners except for the “original” owners who still occupy their affected properties which they have resided in since April 1978, until their deaths. However, my (or anyone else’s) “lobbying” won’t do any good due to our fine legislature allowing this perk (originally passed to keep senior citizens in their primary residences until their deaths) to be passed down to other family members via the (later-enacted) Props 58 and 193. There are now too many younger voters in CA who stand to be unjustly enriched from this (very expensive for the rest of us) perk for life and into perpetuity after they die. Prop 13 has now been allowed to feed on itself for nearly 35 years and for that reason it isn’t going anywhere.
If you’ve got any other ideas to put more money in CA’s coffers besides imploring your congressperson to lobby their brethren ad infinitum for more funds to reimburse CA for the effects of illegal immigration (which has been done and is being done, with mixed results), I’m all ears :=]
Participantflu, I believe educating our own residents is more important than choosing to educate foreign or out-of-state residents instead (taking our OWN residents’ slots).
In another vein, I also don’t agree with the US participating in foreign wars at a HUGE financial cost and sacrifice of our young people, while we have millions of people in this country who live in “food deserts” and are medically uninsured.
Our state and country’s priorities need to be focused on our own people. Other states and countries prioritize their own “citizens and residents” over outsiders so why doesn’t CA and the US?
In the case of CA public universities, the deans, dept heads and instructors need to get off their high horses and settle for less retirement pay for their 12-32 hr workweeks, eight months per year. A big part of the reason for rate hikes and budget cuts is because the state has to fund these ~exorbitant~ academic pensions which are way higher than other types of rank-and-file gov’t pensions in CA. This creates the slippery slope where the campuses begin recruiting elsewhere (and admitting students left and right from out of state/country for extra revenue). Meanwhile, there are less and less admission slots to fill every year due to the cuts.
Ask yourself why public universities in states in the midwest and southwest aren’t as impacted as they are in CA? Ask yourself why it is so much easier for an in-state student from one of these states (KS, AR, OK, TX, NM, AZ, for example) to be admitted to one of their own public universities than it is in CA. It’s very likely that these states don’t pay out these ridiculously-high pensions to their university staff members. Are these schools lesser schools than CA public universities? NO! In many ways they are better because a student can actually graduate in four years without constantly crashing desperately-needed classes of 500+ students and repeatedly being turned away semester after semester.
Even once admitted to a CA public university, a student has no guarantee of actually graduating there (thru no fault of their own) in the major field of study that they decided to attend it for in the first place! He/she may very well have to attend other campuses to get all the needed credits or take much longer to finish, costing him/her 25-50% more to actually obtain the degree. It’s no wonder that many 20-somethings are saddled with exorbitant student debt upon finally graduating!
Being a public college student today in CA is akin to (unwittingly) participating in a (very expensive) “comedy of errors.”
It’s ridiculous. College isn’t a “career.” It is simply a means to begin a career.
flu, how should HS seniors of today who do not at least have a 3.9 GPA be advised by their counselors? Should they all be advised to pay for separate applications to 10+ schools to see if any spaghetti sticks to the ceiling? Should they all be advised to crowd into the CC’s and hope they will all be able to get all their (needed) GE’s there, along with the rest of the masses? Can the CC’s accomodate all these students?? How many of these assoc degree holders do you think will actually be later admitted as juniors in CA public universities? Do you think HS counselors should begin recommending ROP (training in the trades) and cosmetology school (like they did in the ’60’s and ’70’s)?
Given that we can’t expect CA HS graduates with a ~3.7 GPA (or lower) to get accepted to a public university in CA in the future, what’s the solution for this crowd (90%+ of current HS grads)??
And why do all these foreign students from Asia want to attend school in CA (at great expense)? Don’t they have good colleges to apply to over there?
Participant[quote=ctr70] . . . The only reason I’m here and not in a place like say Seattle is the weather. I always ask myself WTF I’m here…it always comes back to weather. That is the only reason. And I will probably still eventually move out of here despite the weather. The people on go on about how great SD is make me sick…come on folks, it’s just the weather that makes it a good place to live.[/quote]
WOW, ctr …. I don’t see the same things you do.
I see well-groomed older hoods, some with sidewalks lined with 80+ yo trees. And I see many older residents who have lived in the same home for 50+ yrs.
And I have access (3 mi or so) to “big box” stores, but being a very small household, I have no need for them so don’t shop there.
Of course, the beach areas and the ~newer~ areas would be far more transient. The beach areas within 4 blocks of the beaches have large populations of young people (college students, etc). The ~newer~ areas (car-oriented & full of big box and strip mall stores) you speak of are full of “transplants” who didn’t know any better when they bought. Many of them (who still “own” their homes) are likely “underwater.” A native San Diegan (with local family guidance in these matters) wouldn’t have been compelled to leave their “home turf” just to move to lizardland. Just an FYI, those “cookie-cutter” areas aren’t considered “move-up” areas for lifelong well-located San Diegans who know better :=)
I’m sorry to see that you feel that SD’s weather is its only redeeming quality and am a little surprised that you haven’t moved away yet.
Have you ever considered moving to Durango (CO)? I think it’s reasonably affordable, has all the modern conveniences (incl nearby challenging skiing and an annual “fall display” that would knock your socks off) and is only a hop and a skip from your hometown of ABQ. Check it out! I might be right behind you 🙂
Participant[quote=Ren][quote=flu]I don’t get some of you folks. On one hand, some of you argue that the decline of the education is due to immigrants because immigrants pull the curve down. On the other hand, some of you also argue that certain immigrants are making schools overly competitive to the point that you don’t like the schools being so competitive for your own kids. So which is it?????[/quote]
Both 🙂
The former is worse, though. I don’t want my kids in the same class with kids who are incapable of learning and therefore occupy themselves with distracting the kids who do.
I also don’t want my kids surrounded by the product of tiger moms (who, IMO, are sacrificing good childhood memories for a slightly increased chance at later success, which is APPALLING), damaging their self-worth because I refuse to make them endure 6 hours of homework and music lessons every night.
The only answer is segregation! But seriously, I have an answer for myself (pick the district that suits me), but those with lesser incomes don’t always have that choice.[/quote]
flu, I have a problem with the influx of foreign students being admitted to UC and CSU campuses (but mostly UC). In addition, BOTH UC and CSU admit a LOT of out-of-state students. Why? Because these students pay nearly triple the fees that in-state students do, and, after ten fee hikes since 2005, CSU is supposedly “broke.”
UC and CSU were created and set up to serve primarily native Californians and/or in-state-resident students. It is currently very difficult for mid-B and high-B-average HS grads to get accepted to a CA university as a freshman, due to all these “foreign” students taking their slots. Due to concurrent budget cuts, if all these “B” CA HS grads still won’t be able to get accepted into a major program of study (as a junior) at a UC/CSU campus (after completing GE’s at a “community college”), their only hope for finishing college is either private school (exorbitantly-priced Univ of Phoenix, for example) or leave the state and either pay out-of-state tuition there or take a break from school and work there for at least a year to establish residency before enrolling as a junior. The vast majority of CA families can’t afford out-of-state tuition, ESP if they will have more than one child attending college.
This situation is a bunch of BS, IMO. The “bar” is now ridiculously high for admission to many CA public university campuses. The avg CSU campus now wants a 3.91 HS GPA for an entering freshman!
A high school grad with a 3.5 to 3.75 GPA was not a “bad student.” I feel a “qualified” CA HS grad who attended all 13 years of their public school in CA “deserves” to be admitted to a university in their home state.
“Qualified” does not necessarily mean only 4.77 GPA HS grads (with multiple HS AP credits).
I don’t feel CA universities “owe” admission slots to foreigners and out-of-state students at the expense of deserving in-state students being admitted, whilst their parents are paying taxes to run these institutions. It is WRONG and other states realize the importance of giving their “own” HS grad-residents admission priority.
Even SUHSD’s well-known “Compact for Success” program was eliminated (guaranteed freshman admission to SDSU upon a 3.3 graduating GPA).
And Ren, picking a district that “suits you” will NOT enable you to control WHO attends your child’s school …. not even if you are able to choose a particular school within it. As a parent, you have no say in the matter and never will … even if you choose a private school for your child. Your “family income” makes no difference.
All parents who think they can (or will be able to) “cherry-pick” their kid’s classmates need to put their “control freakery” by the wayside and allow their children to experience “diversity.”
Or, you can try your hand at “home-schooling.” And good luck :=)
Take your pick.
ParticipantHi jstoesz, I just got an e-mail today with this video attached and after a “disappointing season” last year, it looks like Heavenly is in the process of having a bit of an early season 🙂
For starters, they’re expecting 3 feet this week. That should help build a nice base 🙂 Unfortunately, it’s no longer a ~45 mi drive for you :-{
You might have to fly back this winter if it gets really good . . .
Participant[quote=Kishy]- I think I’d like to build custom, though if the right thing came along…[/quote]
Kishy, here’s your chance to build in SD County on 6.65 AC!
http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-120048628-1911_Greenfield_Dr_El_Cajon_CA_92019
There is currently a (likely uninhabitable) 2/1 on the property and in CA bureaucratese, this means if one decides to build a 4000+ sf custom home in place of the existing structure, it is commonly referred to as a “gut-remodel,” LOL. This means you will leave the existing slab or stem walls and enough studs to support the SDG&E meter and leave the water meter on the ground, attached. This will save you $28K-$70K in permitting fees, depending on what you build.
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/pds/zoning/index.html
Or remodel the 2/1 for use as your “guest house” and build your “dream home” from scratch! This parcel has privacy galore if you don’t subdivide! Property is on septic, as is common over there. It’s an absolutely fabulous (and “upscale”) place to raise kids! It is largely out of the fire danger zone (which is higher up the hill) and so shouldn’t have an exorbitant fire insurance premium as some other more “rural” areas of the county will. I’ve personally and repeatedly seen the following “pets” over there roaming around:
goats
horses
sheep
chickens, incl roosters
alpacaSituated about 23 miles east of dtn SD, the public schools are Madison Elem, Greenfield Middle and Granite Hills HS.
You’ll need to keep a few cats for gopher control. There are no HOAs or CFDs (MR) in this part of the county and there are many high-end custom homes in and surrounding the area. Some are very large and some have expansive views. This property is in a relatively flat, entirely usable area, however, less than five mins from an Albertson’s supermarket.
Check it out when you visit (IF it is still available)!
I foresee a spec-home builder gobbling this up in short order … and immediately subdividing, building a cul-de-sac and bringing each parcel up to the sewer.
ParticipantIs keeping poultry allowed in RPV? I thought (most or all of) it was situated inside a covenant . . .
Participant[quote=The-Shoveler] . . . in Bonsall you can get a very very nice place for around 1.5 mil.
School link,
http://www.bonsallusd.com/Bonsall schools are rated about the same as San Marco’s, Not too shabby,[/quote]
Good area for the OP also!
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