[gzz]

Dealing with booking and answering people’s questions on airbnb takes about 3-5hrs a week and requires you to be on call all the time. You get downrated for not responding to inquiries within an hour. Just an endless stream of questions from people who never end up booking.

A cleaning lady will require training and supervision too. I did it for about 4 mo with my beach rental and realized the extra rent was not worth my time. If you are retired but active, sure, but i was working.

Trailers of any sort look junky on property, even classic airstreams. I think a permitted 2/1 modular construction house would be better. If you have acres, maybe even 2 of them.

[gzz]

Seems like the plan is to move the HQ of the combined co to the USA, unclear if SD or Irvine. If here it would mean we would get the HQ of a 200 billion corporation. Does the qcom campus have room to grow or excess space already?

Perhaps we might get a non-stop to singapore as a result. The 777 can go that far. The LAX to BKK route failed after a few years, similar distance.

[gzz]

I tired to shop around but did not have much luck. You are probably looking at about $300-400.

I ended up doing it myself. I did not need a formal one, and was lucky there were two survey pins on or close to my line already. One was a standard penny size one with a code on it and marked on the recorder map, the other was tiny, like a very worn and irregular nail head, and barely visible.

Not the most efficient route, but it was fun.

If it is for a side fence, tell your neighbor it is customary to split the cost.

[gzz]

The island’s working age population has fallen by a third and has the USA’s highest share of elderly. It has several times the municipal debt per person than the highest US state, and it looks like Congress will not let it fully default. It is quite possible the cheap land you might buy has negative value because rents will not cover tax and basic upkeep.

Despite being much poorer than the mainland, wages are higher than other islands, making tourism and agricultural uncompetitive.

[gzz]

Vine, did your buyer have an agent already before he found your listing?

It is kind of funny that seller agents are getting squeezed more than buyer agents even though they do more work and have higher expenses.

[gzz]

Newdad, to add something more specific to flyer’s advice, you should drop your buyer agent asap and look yourself for a place online.

When you find something you want, take one of these courses:

If a FSBO, do not use a buyer agent. This makes your offer better than anyone who does have a buyer agent, who will charge the seller 1 to 2.5%. You may have to pay someone a 1500-2500 to handle paperwork that realtors normally would.

If it has been sitting on the market and is otherwise not hot, use a discount agent who will rebate part of his fee to you.

If it is a hot place you will be competing with other buyers, ask the listing agent to refer both a buyer agent and mortgage broker.

A final point, we have been seeing prices rise pretty steadily the past 3 years, with the two years before that showing very large increases. All signs point to at least another 7% or so over the next 12 months.

So if you are looking at the 650k range, you can expect that prices will go up about $3800 per month on average, possibly more like 5k a month. So I suggest you buy something that is “good enough” and start being on the right side of those increases instead of waiting for something perfect.

[gzz]

Flyer, I did the same thing. Technically the listing agent referred their best buddy at the same agency. Also did an offer the same day as the listing.

I have no complaints since I got a place I love below market price. But the poor seller could have had an extra 25 to 30k if he had done FSBO and priced it better. I know this for a fact because I would have paid more and not cared at all if it had been FSBO.

Yet another example of poor pricing. There was a short sale that was on the market for several months priced like 20% too high. I put in a low ball offer, both by email and telephone. No response at all, though the agent got it because I was added to the agents email marketing list. A couple months later, the price gets cut by almost 25%. This is despite the fact I made a slightly higher offer. Listing agent does not even bother to tell me, the guy who offered more than the new list price in a slow market. I then put in a full price offer, below my prior low ball offer, and got it.

I am sure there are plenty of awesome agents around here, but both of my experiences buying the agent left serious money on the table.

[gzz]

I agree with you about ending defined benefit. No new public employees should be added to it. 98% of the private sector has already done this.

I do not agree about 100% funding of pension obligations. It would be highly pro cyclical, as pension assets would appreciate without contributions in a boom, but require government cuts or tax increases in a recession.

[gzz]

I would not name a cat Tigger because you could be misunderstood and offend people when you are calling him. Tiger would be OK, or Tyger if you are a fan of William Blake.

I am offended for SC that people would think he is a bad owner. A happy cat is one that is free to spend his time inside and out. Given the choice they seem to like a 50/50 split, often they like being outside when the humans are at work and school, inside in the early morning and evening, and overnight depending on the weather.

[gzz]

[quote=zk]I could be wrong, but it was always my understanding that you could specify the buyer’s agent’s commission in your listing. You can make it whatever you want.[/quote]

That is correct. We had an interesting thread here years ago on what to set it at.

Normal full service realtors in san diego charge 5 not 6% with an even split.

Personally if I sell my condo I will do FSBO, pay a little to get a MLS listing plus a free zillow listing, maybe pay for premium zillow placement, and not pay a buyer’s fee. There are typically like 3-10 condos for sale in all of OB at most times and they sell themselves very quickly.

I am willing to split a flat fee to the buyer’s agent to help with paperwork, maybe 2k each.

Areas like mission and carmel valley that appeal to high income job relocators probably you will need to pay a buyer agent to reach that market. But the OB market is investors, long time San Diagans who have always wanted to live and own here, and finally current local homeowners looking to up or downsize, in order of importance. These people do not need agents holding their hand and would rather you pass part of the savings on to them.

[gzz]

Tab
Orange Julius
William of Orange
Chat a l’Orange
Crush
Naranjo
Arancio
Appelsin

[gzz]

Russell Crowe, Cameron Crowe, Crow Diddley, Hume Crownyn, Gregory Peck.

Wait you said a kitten, not a crowling. Nevermind.

[gzz]

Termites: tent, replace some wood, patch the rest. No big deal.

Replace laminate flooring: no big deal.

Multiple outlets do not work at all? Sounds like a serious electrical fire hazard. If it were an easy fix and just replace the outlet box, it would have been done already.

Most houses on my street are 75+ years and have had complete replacement of their original electrical systems. It can be done, but it will be very disruptive and expensive.

[gzz]

Matt, getting THREE GCs in San Diego to tour a midrange house with you, give you bids and free advice, yeah good luck with that!

I am semi-seriously thinking of getting into this biz based on the fact it is so hard to even get one on the phone to set an appointment!

Bewildering, not sure what you mean by termite clearance, I purchased two san diego homes with serious termite issues no problem with conventional very competitive rates.

[gzz]

Flyer, most of those EVs that make up the Chinese 40% share are glorified golf carts too underpowered and lacking in safety features to be sold here. That is great for them, since middle class in China means about $10,000 to $15,000 a year, so something like the Leaf is out of reach to the large majority. We are the clear leader in EV and China is behind the US, Japan, and Germany in making actual practical electric vehicles that displace dirty hydrocarbon burners.

China’s closest thing to Tesla is Kandi, which was and still is a maker of shoddy go-karts before it hopped on the EV bandwagon to take advantage of government subsidies.

The big Chinese green tech success story is rooftop solar panels, where they dominate the world.

[Author]

Posts