[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

JG – great points, though I will say that the broadband infrastructure is what the railroad was in the 19th century, and commerce will blossom as it gets built out. There are some crazy applications for blazingly fast downloads that can make life easier.

Renting and saving….

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

I resemble that remark

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

SFM, TT, sdr,

Thanks for all the words of encouragement. I come to this site as the posters/responders tend to exhibit more intellectual reasoning than other sites. Many on the Lansner blog lump me in with the bears, but I’m just a young professional with a family trying to navigate my way in a fiscally responsible fashion.

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Masayako,
The key to my question revolves around the SV market – is it more resilient than SoCal due to higher wages/less available quality housing stock/less number of desirable areas?

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

TT,
Thanks for the feedback. I would take Campbell, SJ Almaden Valley, Cupertino of course as well. Sorry – I wouldn’t consider Fremont, Newark, Milpitas, most of SJC. Lots of crappy areas up here. The real trouble up here is that there in no place like South OC i.e. no Irvine/Mission Viejo-ish place within a 1-1.5 hr commute. That is the commute from Pleasanton or Danville, which are both really nice places that approach the OC median but have really horrendous traffic – think HB-Irvine 405S in rush hour, or better yet Westside LA 405 N/S anytime.

A crappy place in Palo Alto is $1M. I can get there in a few years on 3:1. Today I could buy a condo with no garage in Campbell. I’ll wait it out in my rental, sitting on my cash and trying to save more.

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Thanks sdrealtor. The line of folks willing to move to San Jose is real short, so perhaps some would say I am “the greater fool” for accepting this job.

Your advice is exactly what I am doing. Who knows? Maybe it will decline by 40% up here too. I wouldn’t bet on it, and I don’t think I can stomach the 1-2 hr commute to where that may have a chance of happening (East Bay).

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Bugs,
You’re right – it was a little caustic. I was trying to amplify what I think is the no-brainer choice to go back to law school. I speak from experience wrt going back to schol mid-career to launch a new career. Not only was it monetarily rewarding, but to be re-awakened intellectually and challenged harder than I ever was before was completely revitalizing. I came out of it a changed man.

I’d love to move back to SoCal. LA and OC were all I knew before I moved to New England a few years back. I haven’t found the kind of jobs available back home that I have in other areas as I have articulated ad nauseaum. I might have to wait until some small firm wants me as CEO to come home, but I’ve made my bed, and I sleep fine in it. On the jobs/investment note, did anyone happen to catch the article in the NY Times last Sunday on why Silicon Valley continues to spawn more new and re-born companies than any other place in the world? The net message was that the best and brightest seek out the best and brightest. Kind oflike going to get an advanced degree.

For the record, I’ve never owned a boogie board. Many shortboards, one longboard and a pair of Churchills for body surfing, but never a sponge.

I know some wildly successful folks that are huge Tony Robbins fans. The whole concept of mind control is very interesting, and I use many of the tactics in negotiations, but I haven’t drunk enough of the Kool-Aid to spring for the seminar and walk on hot coals. I may sometime soon!

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Whoa – who said that you can’t raise a high achiever that is also kind and responsible? That is what some self-help gurus would call a “limiting belief”.

Going to law school at this stage of your life is a ballsy, risky move. Risk-taking is the quality that 99.99% of successful (OK, defined usually monetarily) people share. Education, especially an advanced degree, further one that leads to an actual license to practice a high paying profession, thereby limiting entry to the field and thus your field of competitors, is ALWAYS a sound investment.

It sounds like you’ve already given up on going balls to the wall to rule at law school and snag the big $$$ job you’d apparently like to someday get. Good luck in Mizzou. It’s the safe choice.

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

The peoplehere who reference legal salaries as 100K or less must know different lawyers than me. My best friends are all attorneys, and they went to tier 2/3 law schools like USD. Our peer group is late 30s. Grades in law school are VERY important, however that shouldn’t be an issue if you’re sharp and know how to work hard and work smart.

Don’t let anyone here kid you: A law degree is a license to print money. My friends make huge $$$ ($300K – $1M – $1M is a Wall Street guy), and the thrill of structuring corporate transactions or working a trade secret case is infinitely more professionally and intellectually rewarding than any 73K/year govt job. Take risks and don’t look back. A law degree gives you a shot at making 7 figures; the govt job doesn’t.

I completely agree with the notion of family first, but one should also think about the message we send to our children through our career choices and actions. If we want our children to aspire to accomplishing great things, shouldn’t we be role-modeling that sort of behavior?

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Those sales prices threw me for a loop. In my mind, they are the canary in the South OC market.

Cashman – I could have bought an SFR on 7K sq ft lot in Lido Sands (private community on the Balboa Peninsula) for $400K in 1995, but had no wherewithal at the time to pull off such a transaction. I think we’ll get another crack at these sorts of bargains (adjusted for inflation) in the next few years.

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

sdrealtor,
Kind words. Thanks. My time at Piggington is usually during lunch or conf calls that I can go in and out of. I scan many blogs but have yet to find the same sort of productive dialogue and feeling of “community” that I find here.

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Bigtrouble,
Hey, I was just pragmatic. After competing with the smartest guys anywhere in school, I knew I didn’t have what it took to be a superstar R&D guy. No way. But I did have the stomach for sales. As for the mentor, he was just an older guy that I met, already in the industry, who was nice enough to listen to my questions and offer some advice. Just one surfer to another while changing wetsuits at the car. On your friend’s advice, he is correct. My oppty currently is with another firm, leveraging my current status to jump a little higher than the next rung in my current company would be. Luckily I found an even bigger (by market cap) company to move to. I expect that at some point the real pot of gold will come with a smaller company that wants someone trained in an F500 environment.

Cardiff,
You and I are pretty much the same age. I was in your wife’s shoes about 10 years ago, and went back to finish my engineering degree, which launched me to where I am now. Best of luck to you and your wife. Your memories of coaching youth baseball are worth more than any amount of money. You are helping children develop character, discipline and a work ethic. When my children are old enough I fully intend to coach or somehow be involved with their youth sports.

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Here is the post, from a 2/11 article on commercial vs residential markets:

“Speaking of nasty home prices…check out these 3 homes which closed escrow in January in Dove Canyon:
15 Glen Echo, 2900sq. ft. – $837,500 – $288 sq ft
6 Russet – 3525 sq.ft. – $875,000 – $248 sq. ft.
10 Golf Ridge – 3371 sq.ft. – $870K – $258 sq. ft.
The last one has a golf course view…hmmmm…prices coming down for the desperate seller??

Posted by: shouldasold at February 11, 2007 05:22 PM”

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Cardiff,
No MBA here. Just a BS from a top 10 engineering school. I’m in sales. Unike the vast majority of my truly brilliant classmates back in school, I sought out industry mentors to answer questions on how I could maximize my “non-engineering” personality in the high tech world. One guy I met (ironically surfing Old Man’s) to whom I will be forever indebted was in sales at Sun, and recommended the same path to me. I took the advice and never looked back. I went with a different firm, but the ride has been awesome.

The combination of an engineering degree and the F500 sales experience is now leading to even greater opportunities. Because of where this wave is headed (or at least where it appears to be headed) I’ve decided to dig my rail, get in the crouch and ride it with as much vigor as I can.

My kids are young, so we can do this for a while. I need to get to my final destination before they get to junior high. I will never sacrifice their happiness for mine. Money doesn’t mean that much.

The real goal to which I keep alluding, but few here seem to want to discuss, is engineering maximum savings, personal balance sheet health and hopefully an EARLY RETIREMENT. I personally feel that I’ll need at least $4M to retire, assuming 5% rate of return, to enjoy the lifestyle I envision in retirement. What figure do others think will be sufficent for their needs, and what is the status of your plan to get there? My plan is to try and make lots of money while avoiding debt like the plague. This means I will never go beyond 3:1 to buy a home. Never.

[BostonAndOC_RE_perspective]

Actually I work pretty much 9-5. I am no workaholic, as any of my close friends will attest. The key is building and maintaining visibility with the right execs, working smart, and understanding how to prioritize key deliverables.

I have a family, and my career choices allow my wife to stay home raising the children. I hope to follow the example of the poster who had a friend who did the same move but to Houston, planning for a return to SD with a big salary and lots of $$$ in the bank. CAVEAT: Houston sucks!!!! I would have a very difficult time swallowing the move to Houston, however $200K there would let you sock away at least $2K/month in taxable savings after maxing all 401K/stock purchase plan etc. Houses there are dirt cheap.

It sounds like most on this board aren’t exposed to the executive job market. Directing a large organization and participating in high dollar transactions is great fun; I don’t even consider it work, and as such I find I have very little job-related stress (or any stress for that matter). It is a privilege to associate with all of the brilliant people that I interface with every day.

To the poster that asked about L.A.: I grew up in L.A. There are some good jobs, but the ratio of F500 companies between LA/OC/SD and SF/SJC are like 1:3. The only place in CA to make real money is the Bay area. Take a look at the recent Bureau of Labor Statistics on average weekly earnings to see where the $$ are: NYC, SF/SJC, Boston. L.A. was higher than OC and SD, but not by much and lagged the aforementioned metro areas considerably.

The RE market is really starting to bear out the income picture. A post on Lansner’s blog in the OC Register today stated that 3 homes in Dove Canyon (nice South OC area with a private country club) , all over 3K sq ft, just went into escrow for the high 800’s. These are very nice homes in a very upscale area that just two years ago were going for $1.5M and up. But in today’s stringent underwriting environemnt, guess what? Very few in OC make the kind of money that would allow them to buy those homes on a conventional mortgage. Those prices were a real stunner, and a wake up call to every over-priced area of SoCal. Where will the buyers come from?????

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