[bobby]

Speaking from personal experience, if one chose a major carefully, it’s a very good idea to borrow for an education.

[quote=bearishgurl]It is unbelievable to me that a “boomer” would be delusional enough to do the following:

Borrow to get ANY degree for themselves after the age of 45;

-borrow more than $20K to get a degree for themselves while under the age of 45;

-co-sign for their kids a student loan;

-take out a student loan for their kid’s education;

-co-sign a mortgage for a personal residence for their kid and going on title with them;

-co-sign a auto loan for their kid; or

-co-sign a credit card for their kid.

I’ve seen a LOT … Persons a few years away from retirement have financially WRECKED themselves by doing the above. There is a such a thing as giving money to your kid for part or all of a downpayment on a principal residence as a gift, or;

-opening up and regularly feeding a college fund while your kid(s) are young;

-giving your kid a gift or graduation present of a vehicle or a downpayment for one, paid directly to the seller;

-providing your kid with vehicle insurance, cell phone and medical coverage while a full-time student;

-taking out a 2nd trust deed on your kid’s principal residence for part or all the downpayment you “loaned” them (although this is fraught with peril as well) …

-and, taking care of your grandchild(ren) while your kid (their parent) works.

************************

Even with a college degree under their belt, as an adult, your kid could very well:

Get into an auto accident with injury or death for which they are liable and are uninsured or underinsured;

-become severely injured themselves and unable to work;

-get a judgment against them for collections on consumer accounts and have their pay garnished;

-borrow too much to buy property they really can’t afford and become upside-down quickly;

-try to start a business with all their savings and lose it all;

-marry someone who gambles or turns into a drug addict;

-marry someone whom they have kids with who refuses to hold down a job for any length of time;

-have a child with birth defects;

-have multiple children and have to pay child support for all of them or be unable to collect child support for any of them;

-become a drug addict or alcoholic themselves and be unable to work;

-get addicted to gambling;

-get arrested and convicted of a felony and sent off to the Big House;

-file for divorce and their spouse turns vengeful, charging up, making claims against the “marital” property and taking everything they can;

****************************************

Don’t laugh, Piggs. I’ve seen ALL of this happen to college-educated young people who have/had FT jobs where their parent(s) “over-helped” them throughout life.

For YOU, as a parent, who is “retired” or “soon to retire,” all of the above (your kid’s) problems will become YOURS if you enmesh yourself with your adult child’s (age 18+) problems to the degree where you actually can’t afford to help anymore. YOU need to be able to pay for your OWN food, shelter and Medicare parts B & D until you die. YOU have NO CONTROL over how your kids conduct their lives when they are an adult. If YOUR kids can’t properly manage their OWN lives, how the h@ll are they going to be able to help YOU if you become indigent in your old age as a direct result from helping them … long past the age (for you and them) where you actually SHOULD have done so?

Thanks for posting, scaredy. It’s an eye opener and those affected seniors should be grateful that the GOV is only garnishing 15% of their SS checks. I foresee a lot of these seniors with a balance still owed to Sallie Mae, etc at the time of their deaths.

Piggs, PLEASE COACH your kids to REFRAIN from taking out student loans ENTIRELY!!!!!!

Like flu posted earlier today, tell them get a job at Costco for $20 an hr. They likely won’t make that kind of money fresh out of college with a(n expensive) “Bachelor Degree.” If your college student runs out of money midstream …. tell them to finish the quarter or semester and WITHDRAW and continue another day when they have more $$.

That’s what people in my generation and those before us did. It’s really okay to go to school at night after work when you are working in a FT job – 1-2 classes at a time. You know exactly what you want to do by then 🙂

College is getting to be a scam … ESP private “for profit” schools.

[end of rant][/quote]

[bobby]

[quote=sdrealtor]Concidentially the coyotes in my neighborhood catch and eat about one cat per day. I can provide photos also.[/quote]

so let me get this straight..
we have a problem with wabbits, cats, and now coyote?
To deal with the coyote I suggest you get a road runner.
and for the cat, get a yellow tweety bird…

[bobby]

I agree with the ban in spirit but this is going to fail.
so the portion is smaller. what’s going to prevent the fat kid from waddling over the the fridge to pop open a second can of Pepsi to keep him hydrated while he’s on the 6th hour at the Playstation?

[bobby]

why would this story even matter?
I thought Joe Pa is dead. Can you still get retirement after going through the pearly gates?
https://www.google.com/search?q=joe+paterno&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[bobby]

I don’t think we have to be so cynical. Look around you: Most successful people got there through hard work and perseverance. The cheaters on the news are usually the exception.

[bobby]

[quote=harvey]I think $2 million sounds about right for the top 1% in net worth.

The curve is very steep.

I don’t recall the exact number, but Bill Gates has more wealth than about 100 million Americans on the bottom of the list combined. Makes sense, because that many people have essentially nothing.

For the political issues, income is more relevant than net worth because taxes are based on income.[/quote]

I think the number is 30million
source http://walmart1percent.org/2012/04/04/the-walmart-1-percent-one-family-richer-than-35-million-us-families/
However, it’s a misleading figure. To slightly change this: if you have 5 bucks in your pocket, you have more money than the poorest 29million Americans combined. The reason for this is so many people have negative net worth (CC debt, student loans, etc) that to be richer than 29millions Americans combined means literally nothing (i.e. zero dollars).

[bobby]

thanks for replies.
we are going to change our strategy a little. Our RE Agent is going the “early acceptance” route (to paraphrase college admission).
He is going to search out properties before they are listed and we are going to see if we can put in bids that will be satisfactory to the seller.
My wife’s nesting instinct is strong and I just want to keep her happy.

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=CA renter]“SOME time after the dotcom boom turned into a spectacular bust in 2000, bumper stickers began appearing in Silicon Valley imploring: “Please God, just one more bubble.” That wish has now been granted. Compared with the rest of America, Silicon Valley feels like a boomtown. Corporate chefs are in demand again, office rents are soaring and the pay being offered to talented folk in fashionable fields like data science is reaching Hollywood levels. And no wonder, given the prices now being put on web companies.”

http://www.economist.com/node/18681576

Yes, interest rates determine what people do with their money and change the risk/reward ratios. I would argue that low rates most certainly push people into all kinds of investments they normally wouldn’t make, and at prices they normally wouldn’t pay…including housing (for personal use and for investments), and other financial and non-financial assets.

It is what it is…[/quote]

Interesting article, CAR. I’m out of the stock market right now but I DO think there will be FB and Linkedin copycats who will try to cash in on the “irrational exuberance” of investors due to the huge IPO’s about to spin off. These two aren’t the only ones. One of my kid’s companies in the heart of SV is soon to spin off as well (unrelated to FB and Linkedin so has its own specialized mkt), and gave all their employees stock with an option to buy more shares.

In the OP’s case, I think it is sad that only mostly fairly nondescript 1100 to 1500 sf homes are available in his price range in their stated preferred 3 micro-areas. SV DID take a nosedive in value for about 1-3 yrs (2000-2003) and then its prices were back up again. In about 2007-2008, I was again seeing fixer 2000+ sf ranch houses with good bones on 1/3+ AC lots in Saratoga with asking prices of $475K – $550K. Those days are permanently gone, methinks. Like Fleetridge (SD), which has these same types of properties on slightly smaller lots, there are few to zero available now which have not already been remodeled. The cheapest (unremodeled) one I saw online about ten days ago had an asking price of $1.175M and is no doubt gone by now.

The OP is in a situation where he is “waterlocked” on two 45-mile sides. Save “Foster City” (encumbered by HOAs/CFDs) there hasn’t been any SFR tracts developed there in at least 40 years. He and his spouse must accept the inventory that is available to them in their price range and be happy that their daily “commute” will be =<20 mins.

The SF alternative might be worth looking into if they knew they would not have a family. It will likely NOT be a SFR. Cheaper alternatives are Daly City, Milbrae and San Bruno. Since they weren't too thrilled with what they already saw in their preferred areas, I can't see them liking what is likely on offer in these 3 small cities. Daly City, in particular, has many substandard (<5000 sf) lots.

The SJ/Morgan Hill alternative is would likely be a lengthy daily commute in heavy traffic for them, IMO.

The (bridge) alternative is having a completely different lifestyle entirely. It's not the same as commuting from 92028 Esco to Carlsbad. In the long term, it will likely prove to be unsustainable ... very tiring and "hardscrabble," IMHO, ESP if they start a family. It will likely eventually cause both of them to look for employment in their own county.

Given the choice, I'd make the best deal I possibly could on a 50's ranchette on as large a lot as I could get in one of my 3 preferred areas and be happy :=}

Overall, I'm bullish on SV, regardless of how "irrationally exuberant" it may sound to some. For many reasons, it has an extremely high quality of life which cannot be duplicated in SoCal or inland counties. One of which is very careful planning by the forefathers of its many jurisdictions. This is part of the reason for the higher values there which has nothing to do with the presence of tech companies.[/quote]

[bobby]

Sorry, my error.
property #2 sold for $107K above asking price. It closed at $1,162K.
[quote=UCGal][quote=bobby]a little update.

We had been going without an agent but met one who is very eager to show us some local properties. He showed us properties running about $1 to 1.1 million. My wife love them. This agent asked us to place bid of $25-50K over asking price. He thinks this will give us the best chance.
I am reluctant to do this b/c this sounds like a game. Also this requires stretching the budget.

property 1. Asking $1055K. Sold in 4 days after accepting bid (we drove by and verified this. Likely all cash and no contingency)
property 2. Asking $1050K. Sold in 6 days at $1062 (seller agent is partner of our RE agent so he got the scoop).
property 3. Asking $975. In escrow after 3 days. not sure of amount.
[/quote]

You only provide hard data for one case. And that one is less than the 25-50k above asking that your realtor recommended. Not enough data to say for sure your realtor is giving you less-than-optimal advice… but it’s the only hard data point you give.[/quote]

[bobby]

a little update.
this time I will use concrete numbers as this will be more illustrative.

wife and I dutifully go to open houses every Sunday 1-4pm.
we had originally budgeted $900-950K and below (in order to go under the conforming amount of $625K) and get the best mortgage rates. We could borrow more but don’t want to.
we found out that we don’t like anything at this price range.
So we started checking out pricier houses a couple of weeks ago.

We had been going without an agent but met one who is very eager to show us some local properties. He showed us properties running about $1 to 1.1 million. My wife love them. This agent asked us to place bid of $25-50K over asking price. He thinks this will give us the best chance.
I am reluctant to do this b/c this sounds like a game. Also this requires stretching the budget.

Wife and I decided to wait b/c we saw how crowded the open houses are – market is likely very heated.

To confirm our suspicion, our agent let us know the result of the properties we are interested in.

property 1. Asking $1055K. Sold in 4 days after accepting bid (we drove by and verified this. Likely all cash and no contigency)
property 2. Asking $1050K. Sold in 6 days at $1062 (seller agent is partner of our RE agent so he got the scoop).
property 3. Asking $975. In escrow after 3 days. not sure of amount.

we think we are better of waiting till fall. We will still be searching but it’s looking like 2005 all over again.

[bobby]

double post….

[bobby]

[quote=sdrealtor]I’ll tell you on 12/31/12 when I know[/quote]

me too… being a SBO, you don’t really know until Dick Clark sings….

[bobby]

closest I’ve found is patrick.net

[bobby]

duplicate post.. how to delete?

[bobby]

Thanks again. We are leery about getting into a bidding war against another buyer but I guess it doesn’t hurt to look. We’ll keep on looking.

[bobby]

… a little break at work…

thanks to everyone for taking the time to contribute.

to answer questions.
1. planning to buy in Belmont, San Carlos, and possibly only North Redwood City. I bike to work and don’t want to live too far. I know that East Bay will double my purchasing power but this is not an option. We accept that Peninsula will give less house for money but we like living close to work.

2. Price range is $800K-1000K. Fixer upper is undesirable as we are nitwits when it comes to that. As mentioned above, no HMB or pacifica – hate driving/traffic. We can wait since we are not bound by school year requirements (no kids) but we don’t want to wait only to find out that prices have gone up 20%.
agreed that the vast open lands will NEVER be developed. NIMBY is strong here, esp among the Woodside super weathy folks.
Any open house we went to was swamped with middle aged folks with children in tow. This makes me think buying frenzy is about to begin.
Better to wait but then local news about all these wealthy Facebook employees makes me want to bite the bullet and buy.

[Author]

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