[burger007]

I have some money in MARS (Municipal Auction Rate Securities), the gains are tax free but is equivalent to 5-6% CD, but without being locked down on a term to hold it. This is liquid as you can sell anytime without penalty, you just pay the commision like you do when you buy/sell a stock. But they typcially have to be bought in 25k chunks.

[burger007]

1) OWN
2) N/A, but I did sell my place in Cary,NC in 2004 after renting that out for 5 years, it was an impulse buy out of college.
3) N/A
4) news, independent analysis, Piggingtons. Combo of all of the above.
5) N/A
6) No
7) N/A

[burger007]

I had a neighbor also who did this, they bought the townhouse near us for 550k supposedly on the san diego assessor record and also on zillow in May2005, and they listed it now for 399,999 – 409,000. And the weird part is that back in May last year, the townhouses in our neighborhood at most were going for 470k(most were in the 440k), but they bought theirs at 550k(and they had no upgrades, nothing). I am confused on this , unless they were dumb enough to pay almost 80k higher then what the comparable sales were at the time, it does not add up.

[burger007]

A co-worker just got a BMW M3 2002 with 25k miles for 36k, car has no issues, pretty good deal I think. Plus I like the body style versus the new body style of the current generation.

[burger007]

PeryyChase:
Yah, after it closed we dug it back up. My wife believes in harmonizing the house too, so we had a fun time trying to find a house with that right aurora when we were looking a while back(translation:many open houses we went too, too many, many weekends lost). But hey, whatever the wife wants, makes for a peaceful household i have learned…….to an extent.

On a side note:
I was at a catholic store here in san diego trying to get a St Joseph statue for a friend’s kid who was getting confirmed(typically you pick a saint when you get confirmed), but anyways, I went there and the first thing she asked after looking for a St. Joseph statue was”Are you a realtor and/or are you trying to sell your house, we are sold out and they are back ordered since a bucnh of realtors and/or people selling their house buy these a lot in the spring time” .

Long story short, it took me 2 weeks to get the statue and all the shipments they had were all accounted for and back ordered again. Ding Ding: Business opportunity!!!!

[burger007]

Hehehe, this is not new, this has been going on fro years, my mom and my moms cousin are very strong minded about this, the have countless stories about it. SHe put one in our house(5 years ago back east) and we sold in 1 month versus the typcial 3-6 months the market was doing, she says it was because the st. joseph statue, I say I just priced it right 🙂

[burger007]

PS: oh and about the 10-15% or 30% the answer is yes to all three. We borrowed only as much as we can afford through a 30 year fixed but figured saving 1-2 % back then using an ARM was a good decision, but always wondering when/if to refinance, like you said, where rates will be in 2-3 years is something I do not know either and will just monitor things closely. Thanks for the responses, I appreciate everyone’s feedback.

[burger007]

PS: yah i just double checked my loan documents and called the bank about it and it is confirmend that the max rate is 8.5%. Yah, to me it sounded too good to be true when I first got the loan, but it is what it states. Thanks for looking out for me, I was pretty sure my statement was correct since I like to read the fine print in things(people laugh at me for doing that sometimes, I am pretty anal on checking documents).

Job wise: Yes it is stable also the wife’s job is as well(qualifying for the payments would not be an issue from my analysis/talking to the banks about this).

[burger007]

currently have an 5 year-ARM that has 3 years left, no prepayment penalty, capped out at 8.5%(1% max increase per year), rate is 4.65%. Not interest only deal, initally had that, and quickly refi’ed within 6 months, went throug a former “buddy”(he was a friend of friend, never again, we were not looking for exotic loan, he was just an idiot, and me an idiot for going through him) of mine and he screwed our paper work early on which caused us to get an interest only first, but then i rei’ed into a 5 year arm. I am aware of the payments when they do go up, not worried, could refi now , got a quote at 6.5% (no points) but will refi when my rate is higher than the 3o year fixed. Qualifying for a 30 year fixed is no problem.
I would like to hear if this is a good strategy or not, refi now or later(either way the payments would not be a burden on us. I just thought I would run with this since it is 2% lower than a 30 year rate now, and if by then rates keep increasing maybe my cap rate is higher then the 30 year fixed. If not then refi would be the case then. ANd the case of not being be able to refi b/c of lack of equity would not be an issue, I bought before the whole crazyiness began on the price run up(and i did not use a any equity to buy new cars like my crazy neighbors did).

[burger007]

Places where my frined was looking into 92131 townhouse’s Nob Hill:

Saw that 1000-1090 Sqft town homes (2 bed/bath/2 car garage) on sale for a range from 370-405k (there was a total of 4 homes, took 3-5 months to sell) have not checked it lately, a couple were pulled(not sure if in excrow or relist).
1150-1400 sqft townhomes (2 bed/bath/2 car garage) rnaged from 415k-455k.

[burger007]

Poway seller:

Do you have the info on the CPA that you recommend?? I am still looking for a good CPA(not a shaddy CPA, had one of those and felt very uncomfortable) I have tried 3 the past 3 years and so far none of them has found anything that i have missed(I am not a CPA, just read a lot of the tax laws). I did my own taxes and then sent over my info to the CPA’s(1 different one per year, not 3 CPA’s in one year) and when they all have come back each year, they come out with the same numbers as I have, but then I had to pay 400 bucks (yah I probably got ripped off , but then again I had a house and also a rental which may have added to the cost)each year, so that is why this coming tax year I may just do it myself( no more rental house, just a house and regular stock stuff that is pretty straight forward). I am open to finding help.

[burger007]

RTP/ Raleight area:

I moved away from RTP after working there for 6 years and moved to San Diego in 2001. I grew up in SOuth Carolina and had enough of south, I still love the place, just do not want to live there even though my house only cost 150k there in RTP in Cary, NC, 4 bedroom 2000sqft, 0.4 acre lot. But man it is HOT AND HUMID. My wife and I were thinking about moving back to RTP area, but I was there just recently for business and quickly remembered why i had left. It is a good place to raise family in Cary where I lived, non-existant crime, you can leave your door unlocked( although I never did and never understood why others would). GOod schools. But in the end I was a little tired of the heat and sometimes the “good ol boys” that gave me some daunting stares. Life goes on.

[burger007]

house i live in lost $400 the past week.

[burger007]

To play games??: ANswer: No, best friend is my realtor and my wife and I decided to pull it off the market, and NO PLANS TO RELIST….Please do not make assumptions. Also , we are expecting our first child in 4 months so the timing of things is not ideal for us, we like where we live and we bought a house to live in, the extra bedroom was more of a want(I wanted a movie/video game room,) not a need right now, so we will stay put, also if we got a new place just for the one more bedroom, property tax for my cse would double, so another reason why we took it off.. The other two houses have not been relisetd and it has been 1 month for one house and 6 weeks for the other. So that is my experiece.

[burger007]

Testing the market:

THat is what we did, had it listed for 3 months, took it off, decided to stay, we were looking for a bigger place 4 bedroom versus 3 bedrooms, but decided to stay put and wait it out. Payments on mortgage is not a problem(we do have an 5 year ARM at 4.5% and capped at 8%, even with that cap we can afford it when it does reset in 2009), just wanted to see if anyone would bite, but no one did, so we stay, just finshed doing some remodeling, and will just stay put…. We had 2 other neighbors who did the same and pulled theirs off a couple of weeks ago.

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