[earlyretirement]

Funny as I NEVER thought I’d be posting about circumcision on a real estate website!

However, I feel so strongly about the issue after having gone through this with my son.

Here is my background and thoughts on this.

I was from a strong Catholic family (although now I’m non-practicing and don’t even go to church). I think that the Catholic church actually takes a neutral stance on it but back when I was a kid it seemed like everyone was circumcised. I was the eldest son in the family and I was circumcised.

My younger brother was not. I remember my parents telling me that they didn’t want to go through the agony of watching another child go through that.

But I remember watching my brother grow up (this was many years ago when I was younger). There was quite an age difference between me and my young brother.

I remember in school he said he was always teased by the other kids (he went to an all Catholic private school) and I think all the other boys were circumcised.

I remember sometimes he would yell at my parents and ask them why they didn’t circumcise him too like me. He even thought about getting it after the fact when I talked him out of it. (Again this was a LONG time ago some 20 years ago).

Ultimately he decided not to get it done and I’m sure he is happy now with his decision. But growing up he was teased.

So fast forward 2 years ago when I had my son. I really debated on if I should have my son circumcised.

I read all the stuff out there and the supposed health benefits, etc. But part of the reason I think I went ahead of it is because I was circumcised and it was normal to me.

I researched the best surgeon to do this. Got many references and had it done.

I can tell you 100% I totally REGRET my decision to get it done. It was so painful watching. They say the baby doesn’t remember as they are so young but I can tell you as a parent, you won’t forget! Now I understand why my parents didn’t have it done on my brother after me.

To make matters worse, after the surgery his penis got all inflamed. We had to put some special cream on it for several days and it was just horribly painful to watch our son suffer like that.

And even today his head of his penis doesn’t show like a normal circumcised penis. Talking to some physicians they say that is normal and that since he has fatty tissue it will take time but eventually it will look normal.

The surgeon said when he is 2 or 3 it will be normal. But you know what? He is 2.5 years old and it’s still the same. It just looks like the end of his penis was snipped off.

His pediatrician here says it will become normal in time with the head coming out. But I have to tell you I totally regret doing it and have tons of regret for doing it.

The medical results are mixed whether it’s beneficial or not when it comes to Aids or STD’s.

But honestly, I would implore any parent out there NOT to have it done! I wish someone gave me a talk or advice like this before we had it done.

I’m sure that when things go right it’s ok but what if things go wrong? Even though the doctors tell us that our son will be normal and he certainly isn’t in any pain now, I still remember the horrible ordeal going through that.

I would definitely spare your child the knife. I should have taken the clue from my parents that didn’t have it done after seeing me go through the pain having it.

If I have another son I DEFINITELY will NOT have it done again and regret my decision on my first son.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=UCGal]I think I posted my stats earlier in this thread… but I’ll post them from the latest bills again.

From 4/27-6/27/2012 we used 24 HCF. (may june bill)
Our next bill will come out in a week or so.
We were gone for almost 3 weeks of that.

My mangy kids don’t bath as frequently as yours. Something about pre-teen boys feeling no need to be hygienic. It’s gross.

We don’t have much lawn (as posted above) and have hooked an outdoor shower into grey watering the shrubs. This saves on irrigation.
We use more water in the summer than winter – so irrigation is still impacting.

No pool.

Neighbor uphill from us waters a lot – we don’t water the fruit trees on that side of the yard… they thrive anyway.

We’re not typical at all. I suspect lawns have high impact on water bills (require frequent watering). By sticking to more trees/shrubs… using a combo of drip irrigation and soaker hoses for the trees, shrubs, veggies. Only the front yard and a side yard get spray irrigation.

Some more bills/usage.
March April: 17HCF (assume there was rain and irrigation turned off)
Jan Feb: 25HCF
Nov Dec 2011: 13HCF (assume there was rain and irrigation turned off)
Sept Oct: 24HCF
Jul Aug: 31HCF
May June 2011: 25HCF[/quote]

Ah..got it. Sorry..I missed your data the first read through.

I see you’re posting in HCF. Yeah, my total HCF for the last cycle was 46 HCF.

Definitely it’s a good topic and one that I’m going to pay more attention now. Before, I didn’t really think about it too much but the last bill was an eye opener.

Thanks again to those that posted info.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=UCGal]Some documents that show the percent of water use for typical residential irrigation.

http://www.cbia.org/go/cbia/?LinkServID=E242764F-88F9-4438-9992948EF86E49EA

http://www.calwater.ca.gov/Admin_Record/D-046947.pdf

57% or 61%, depending on which source.

Showers are 17%.

So even if you take longer/wetter showers than average – irrigation is still going to have the biggest impact on your bill.[/quote]

Thanks for taking the time to post this UCGal. It’s interesting.

What’s the typical average of daily gallons used for you Piggs? Our last bill when we were not home for all but 1 week says 573 gallons per day.

But the bill before that when we were home the entire 2 month cycle says 446 gallons per day average.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=flu]

I’m not getting out completely. But I looked at my overall wealth plan (or lack thereof)…And noticed that 75%+ was tied to stock/stockmarket… So i needed an excuse to diversify. Don’t want to blow it completely.[/quote]

Wow 75% of your net worth in the stock market is quite a hefty portion. No way I feel comfortable with that big of an amount, even considering I’m not yet an old fart (but not getting any younger either).

I know things move in cycles but you make a few bad choices or sectors and you can really get wiped out. So it’s all about diversification. I had a few friends in the financial sector that should have known better.

However, their idea of “diversification” was putting some money in Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Lehman Bros. Obviously the entire sector crashed and it’s not even a matter of some of them coming back because crap like LEH went out of business and Citigroup may never came back strong.

I probably have too much of my net worth in real estate but I feel more comfortable in non-leveraged real estate that is spinning off cash flow each month and has 0% chance of going to $0 unlike stocks.

Definitely I think you need a healthy balance. Actually you’ve probably done well if you continued buying in the market especially after the crash.

I did well shorting it on the way down but should have jumped back in for the ride up too. That’s one regret I have.

[quote=The-Shoveler]I have to go with NSR, HOA’s unless they are providing services such as pools/club houses and you can make use of them, they are just a waste of money and hassle.

Most Cities now have CCR’s so whats the point ?[/quote]

I agree. I actually don’t mind HOA if the management is very good and as you mentioned there are lots of services like pool, tennis courts, clubhouse, security gates/guards.

I live in Santaluz and I think the HOA is excellent! The fees actually went down $10 this year compared to last year. And they do an amazing job with keeping all 3,800 acres immaculate. The $440 fees include garbage pick up, high speed Internet (my house gets 20 MB service) and digital cable with some premium channels.

But I don’t get the communities that have HOA where there isn’t a pool, clubhouse or really anything.

Also, some of these HOA fees in buildings are insane! A few downtown are $800 a month. I just saw one in Miami Beach on a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom with no services other than a pool and doorman and the monthly HOA fees are $1050! The funny thing is units in that building are selling for like $125,000. So imagine paying $12,600 a year on HOA fees on a $125,000 property.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=ocrenter][quote=earlyretirement]

It said about $57 for the base fee and Water used was $185.

Sewer base fee was $30 and Sewer service charge was $76.

I wouldn’t be bothered if not for the fact that no one was home at all for almost the entire time!

PS Besides the base fees above it says:

14.00 HCF @ $3.6121= $50.57
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84
18.00 HCF @ $4.3978 = $79.16

Again, my biggest complaint is no one was home except for one week of that time. And I don’t exactly live in the sort of neighborhood where my neighbor would be stealing my water while we were in Europe. LOL.

But that could be the only explanation right? If the meter matches up? That my neighbor filled up his pool with my water?? Just seems odd.[/quote]

here’s my stat:

4700 sqft, 13000 sqft lot, 3 people, plus 35×15 pool, everything by drip, 1300 sqft of artificial turf.

Water Base Fee 56.92 (same as yours)
Water Used 06-13-12 08-13-12 127.40 (April to June was $66)
14.00 HCF @ $3.6121 = $50.57 (same)
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84 (same)
5.00 HCF @ $4.3980 = $21.99

Sewer Base Fee 30.66 (same as yours)
Sewer Service Charge 53.09 (slightly lower)
Storm Drain 1.90

the water use is progressive and you get significantly punished past 28 HCF. that extra 3 minutes your gardener added on were all at premium pricing, causing significant increase in your bill. compared to 2 months prior, we also saw an increase by about $60 during the summer months.[/quote]

I still have a tough time believing that the bill would be more just from that 2 minutes more at each station.

I mean both my wife and I take long showers. I installed a $2,800 Grohe double shower head in my shower a few months ago. It puts out a LOT of water and I usually shower with both of them on. I’ve never seen a shower before that put out so much water.

My wife also does the same thing and we give our kids a bath typically twice a day and we have one of those huge bathtubs in our master bath.

I just always assumed THAT took the majority of the water use. And not the watering in the yard.

I can see the water spraying out of the sprinkler head and it doesn’t look like anything too major. Certainly much less than the amount of water in our double head rainfall shower.

I just was surprised being gone all but 1 week of the 2 month cycle and having a higher bill.

Because I’d say I take at least 25 minutes worth of showers each day. My wife at least 20 minutes and then add in the kids. Still doesn’t seem to add up that the water use would be more with no use indoors during the time we were gone.

I guess the upside is not to worry about taking the LONG showers. LOL.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=no_such_reality]depends on how you water.

1 inch of water on 5000 sq ft of landscape per week over the month is 25 HCF.

The poster has a 4000 SF house (two-story) on a 9000 sf lot, halve the house and add 50% for garage and driveway, you ‘ve got 3000 SF of house footprint. 6000SF of land.

if they went from 4 or 6 minutes every other day to 6 or 8 minutes, that’s an even bigger jump. i.e. 50% or 33% respectively.

Minutes don’t matter, flow rate matters. Because flowrate controls water lay down and coverage.[/quote]

Hmm….well I don’t even think he increased the minutes by 2 minutes. I went to check now and the station run times say 3 minutes total.

I have to confess to not know much at all about anything to do with the yard. We have a gardener that comes every week and they handle all of that. In fact, he told me once best not to mess with the controls.

I just looked at it says 100% strength. I guess you can adjust the strength. I’m not sure what it was at before.

But I’m going to reduce the settings now. I got the meter reading. Sad to say I’ve never read a water meter in my life before today. (You can bet that will change!).

There is a box in front of the house. I never even knew where the water box was. But you can always see what the meter is at. You just have to lift up the cover and see the reading.

I guess they ignore the last 2 numbers. Mine had 6 digits. They just take the first 4.

My meter reading wasn’t wrong. Still hard to believe our bill was higher not even being here almost the entire 2 months of the cycle and it was more.

Good lesson and good to know.

PS. Also, for those of you interested, they also just emailed me this from the water company just now. I’m going to set up a scheduled meeting.

“We can offer a free Residential Water Survey. A Surveyor will come to your home and teach you to read the meter, look for leaks, and assess the flow of your interior fixtures. He/she will then run your irrigation system and provide recommendations for improvements and a recommended watering schedule.

We schedule our appointments Monday thru Friday during different time slots. Our appointments generally take about 45 minutes to an hour. Would you be interested in participating in this program?”

[email protected]

[earlyretirement]

Something was definitely out of whack this month’s bill. The bill was from the period 6-19-12 to 8-17-12 (60 days).

The bill was $350.61. Normally I wouldn’t be alarmed because our 2 month cycle before that was just over $300.

For frame of reference we have 2 young kids, and we have a 5 bedroom house. We all take two showers/baths a day typically. 4,200 sq. ft house and 9,000 sq. foot lawn. We do have sprinklers both in the front of the house where we have native plants and even some grass and it does stay green even in August. In the back yard we have plants as well as green grass that stays green as well. (We live in Santaluz).

Now the problem is that we were out of the country on vacation traveling and NOT home from the end of May until August 10!

There is no way it can be correct. I just called SD Water and Wastewater services today to ask about this or see if they misread the meter. I asked if someone can come out and see it and she told me no that if I wanted I could go out and read the meter myself.

She said it’s in front of the house. I just went out to see it but the number on the meter doesn’t seem to correspond at all with the number on the bill.

But no way it can be correct. Our gardener did say that he increased the time by 2 minutes for each station but no way that would make up for the difference.

We do a lot of laundry, dishwasher, showers/baths. So it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

It said about $57 for the base fee and Water used was $185.

Sewer base fee was $30 and Sewer service charge was $76.

I wouldn’t be bothered if not for the fact that no one was home at all for almost the entire time!

PS Besides the base fees above it says:

14.00 HCF @ $3.6121= $50.57
14.00 HCF @ $3.9171 = $54.84
18.00 HCF @ $4.3978 = $79.16

Again, my biggest complaint is no one was home except for one week of that time. And I don’t exactly live in the sort of neighborhood where my neighbor would be stealing my water while we were in Europe. LOL.

But that could be the only explanation right? If the meter matches up? That my neighbor filled up his pool with my water?? Just seems odd.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=flu]

Actually, not that much. 1 in san diego. 2 elsewhere in CA. I’m trying to get more here in sd. I’m pretty new to this locally.. Hoping for more in SD. I have lived around in CarmelV, and for while was looking at picking up townhome when the numbers looked like they were going to fall lower. There was a period of time i was looking at many townhomes in CarmelV and condos. Crest, Andulucia, Heights (apartment convert), Carmel Pointe (apartment convert), Pell Place (huge new buyer getting screwed ), Palmero,etc,etc,etc. It didn’t work out (well, hasn’t yet). I’m trying to juggle around resources anticipating hopefully soon purchases. Also, I’m trying to keep my thumb on what the equity markets are doing. Don’t want to miss any sort of rebound there either.

My goal starting beginning of the year was to move partly out of the equity markets for some lower/yet more predictable returns, just in the thing hit the fan… It sure looked like it was about Feb/March months ago in the stock market…Not so much right now…My regret was not being more agressive earlier.

Really, I’m small potatoes…So try to learn from bigger potatoes…[/quote]

Ah…thanks for answering. I edited it afterwards to remove that. I didn’t want to get too nosey asking about how many rental properties you own. Some people are sensitive with that kind of stuff.

I think no matter if you’re “small potatoes or big potatoes” you can never stop learning in this stuff. Things are constantly changing, laws are constantly changing so no matter how much time you spend with it things can always change.

My philosophy is you can’t know too much about any given subject. 🙂

I agree with you about the stock market. I don’t do too much in the stock market at all besides my kids custodial account I set up for them for their college fund. I dabble a bit in that but I really thought the market would have tanked more with all the problems in Europe and the US economy being so weak.

But I guess there is no where else to really put your money to make any money. Money chasing more money in the markets so it’s at near a 4 year high.

I think the key is not necessarily to try to hit “home runs” each time now. But to get up at bat and not swing out each time.

At this stage of my life I’m not even swinging for home runs. Having kids really tempers your risk levels. LOL. Or at least it does with me.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=flu]EA…. well for one investment property I’m trying to cash out refi… get this

Borrow $100k on an investment condo…
With 30 year fixed on 3.375% with 1.875 points (closing cost $6k)
Or 30year fixed on 4.875% with -1.551 points (closing cost $3k)…

Uh… yah…Cashing out $100k from the primary would be much cheaper..Maybe’s me think some times why even bother…But then, I guess I need to nickel and dime wherever I am…Save reserves for cases really can’t get a loan….

But yeah, I’m gonna be bending over on this one.[/quote]

Yeah, even though it’s cheaper to cash out on the primary, I agree with your strategy flu of exploring other methods. Call me crazy but there is a great psychological feeling of having your primary residence paid off. I know you’ll still have debt even if you don’t tap into the equity, I’ve always liked the feeling of having a paid off primary residence.

And I guess always good to save for a “rainy day” and be able to top into that.

You sound like you have a lot of experience with this and know what you feel the most comfortable with. 🙂

[earlyretirement]

[quote=bearishgurl]

Well, time to hit the pavement to research vacants, then, and, if not actually “lender shadow inventory,” contact the owners of record and make them an offer.

You don’t even need an agent for this and it is preferable to represent yourself in this situation. [/quote]

Yes, I’ve done that EXACT strategy in other cities. But that was when I had a lot more time and energy (and before I had kids).

I once approached every single owner in a residential condo before to buy their units. There were 28 units and I simply slipped a letter under each of their doors offering to buy their units. I ended up buying 7 out of the 28 units. But no one else wanted to sell.

So I have experience with that but I am not too motivated to own a lot of properties here. I don’t think San Diego is the market to do something like that. The yields are much better in other areas I’m sure.

Rental properties are a lot of work. People often underestimate the potential problems, hassles and expenses. I don’t strive to have a lot of rental properties in San Diego. We already own several rental properties and it can be a real hassle at times.

Once I’m older and fully retired, I won’t want a big yard. Big lot isn’t something that will be important to me once the kids leave the house. Yeah, it’s nice now for my little ones to play in the yard but I won’t care about that once I’m older and kids out of the nest.

[earlyretirement]

Ha, ha. Funny flu. No doubt, Carmel Valley is quite pricey. We looked around there when we were buying our primary and I just couldn’t justify it compared to some other areas.

I do have to say it was VERY convenient and close to the beach which was great. Once I’m an old fart, I think it would be an easy place to be retired.

Absolutely I totally agree about most investors not wanting to sit around a few years with 0% to 3% gains. That is about what I figured as well unless you get lucky doing shorter weekly rentals to tourists which I have seen some work.

But we already have many rental properties working for us so I feel like we can take a bit of a gamble on CV. We’ll see how it goes.

[earlyretirement]

Hi BG,

Oh don’t worry.. I’m NOT envious of those poor slugs that really can’t afford to buy. I’ve always been one of those people that thought if you can’t afford at least a 15% to 20% or more down payment you shouldn’t be buying.

Borrowing money to buy will probably not get much cheaper than it is now. I also negotiated with my realtor to kick back 1% of the commission she will split with the seller’s realtor to me. I did the same thing on my last purchase and everyone was happy as I did all of the due diligence and research.

If you have good cash flow, assets, high FICO score, now seems like to be the best time to buy a property with it being so cheap to borrow money.

0 points. $895 Lender Fee (they wanted $1300 but negotiated it down to match the lowest quote I got). Appraisal, credit, tax not to surpass $475.

The only problem seems to be finding great properties in great condition. There is almost no good inventory.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=SD Realtor]

Early remember that the reserve reqt I told you about was for us and we were doing it with Aim. It may vary with others.[/quote]

Yes SD Realtor. Noted. I’m sure the rules probably differ between various companies and also other areas.

flu,

I totally agree with you that the biggest issue seems to be actually being able to find good properties.

Absolutely you’re right about the CV area. The returns aren’t high in that area at all. Of course you have the capital appreciation potential, but I’m not buying for Capital appreciation really. (in one aspect I guess I do want to buy before I think prices will continue to move up).

I do think prices are near the bottom and I’m QUITE confident that prices in Coastal So Cal will surpass prime prices in the future. It could take a decade or longer but it WILL happen.

Plus rents are high in desirable areas and I don’t really see that changing at all.

I do know most people buy investment properties only for the cash flow potential but our goal, as explained as a bit different. We’re certainly not going to force a purchase if we can’t find anything or buy something that doesn’t make sense.

But I do believe in 15 years property prices here close to the Coast will be very expensive again and interest rates will DEFINITELY be higher. Let’s be honest..they can’t fall much lower.

So it seems to make sense in our situation where we can easily afford the mortgage payments and ideally would like to have a another place paid off (besides our primary) in 15 years. Any possible capital appreciation potential is just icing on the cake.

[earlyretirement]

Thanks again SD Realtor. Your posts are helpful. These boards are a wealth of knowledge based on people’s real life experiences.

I agree with you that there is a lot of “murkiness” when it comes to underwriting guidelines on investment properties. That’s why I still like to hear about others experiences but I agree it’s better to take up these things with the lender.

It does seem to be the best way to approach this is put down 25% to 30% as you did and just finance the rest at the lowest rate possible.

As far as 6 months reserves, that won’t be a problem. We could buy the entire property for cash if we wanted to but we want to have some “powder” dry on the sidelines in case we want to buy more. But that is good to know. The mortgage broker didn’t mention about this 6 months reserves. We just sent all our bank statements, tax returns, etc. and they sent a pre-approval letter.

Yes, I meant internationally foreign all outside of the USA.

We aren’t in any rush to buy and the other thing is there isn’t much good inventory on the market. And it’s not even really a cash flow play.

The idea is to possibly do short term rentals in it, have family stay there when they come to visit but mostly to buy a nice place not too far from the beach that will eventually be our place once we totally retire and the kids are out of the house.

We have a big 5 bedroom 5 bathroom house now that we definitely will want to downsize from once the kids leave and go off to college. So part of the plan is we will move to this place and both places will be paid off by then. So we can either sell the bigger house or just rent it out and use that cash flow.

Thanks again for your helpful posts.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=flu]

Yup, that sounds about right. Actually, I’m doing the reverse. I bought a cheap condo for cash, and now trying to do a cash out refi…

I’m hitting 3 issues
1. Cash out refi is limited to 70-75% (not really that big a deal)

2. Rate is about .75% higher, and I can’t find a decent no-cost option (even at absolute mortgage..My lender I did a refi with doesn’t finance investment properties.

3. Some places won’t make a loan less than $100k.

My broker friend recommended that the cheapest option for me would be to cash-out refi my primary… But I’m trying to avoid that because I want my primary to be free and clear sooner versus later…

I tapped my 401k with a loan @ 4% since I end up paying it back to myself, and since I wanted to reduce my 401k stock holdings at the time.

I have an untapped heloc @ 3% on my primary, that I can pull if I need to…Not sure if I want to go that route though. I mainly want to free up as much borrowed cash as possible for a hopefully pending purchase that will go through, as well as possibly more.

I wish the banks would relax the lending standards for rental props for people like me, but they’re still kinda strict about it.[/quote]

Thanks Flu.

I actually bought my primary residence last year and paid cash. Problem is I set it up under an LLC and it sounds like it’s complicated or at least I’d have to pull it out of the LLC to take equity from it (or at least that is what the broker mentioned) but honestly I have no experience with this at all.

If anyone has pulled out equity out of a house owned by an LLC I’d be interested in hearing about that.

Flu, yes the mortgage broker did say that 0.75% premium for condos goes away if you put down at least 25% vs. 20%. Of course you still have the premium for it being an investment property vs. a primary residence.

I also would prefer not to pull out equity out of my primary home which is free and clear. There is always a nice feeling about having your primary residence paid off.

Yes, it sounds ridiculous how strict the lenders are on these investment properties. The broker was joking that some deadbeat with a mediocre/decent FICO can get a VA or FHA loan and be fairly overleveraged.

He said one of his clients will have something like $40 left after his down payment and putting a very low downpayment yet those types can often get a mortgage easier than a solid buyer with a high FICO with great income buying investment properties.

[quote=spdrun]AFAIK, *current* rental income counts regardless of time as a landlord. Proposed rental income from the property you’re buying doesn’t count unless you’ve been a LL for several years.[/quote]

Hmm… I’m not sure about this as all my rental properties are foreign properties. I do have almost a decade track record renting out properties but not in San Diego.

Can you be an experienced landlord in any city as long as you have it well documented? Or does it have to be the same city from the proposed property you are buying?

[Author]

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