[SD Realtor]

I agree FLU. This is totally f’d up. Be a good parent, teach your kids to accel academically but because of your race, they may not be able to go to these schools.

Freeking disgusting.

[SD Realtor]

Yes if the liens are recorded you can go to the county assessors office on Pac Highway and see any and all liens.

[SD Realtor]

I have always been curious about tax sales but never did extensive research on tax sales. Every state has substantial differences and there are (or were) a few states that offered really nice deals for tax sales. Now I do not know California law at all because when I was doing research on this stuff, it was pretty clear that California was not a great state for tax sales compared to the way other states implement them.

Your particular question implies that once you bid at auction, even though your bid may be the winner, the original property owner has a year to object and can thus get the property back through the objection process, (in addition to paying off any penalties and all back taxes).

The one thing about buying any property through auctions that are from tax lien sales or trustee sales is that you need to research any other liens or judgements associated with the property. Because as the winner of the auction you will need to cure those at some time in the future.

As I said earlier some states had some pretty interesting things. For instance if you were the winner of the auction, you would get the property but again, the owner had a period of time to cure the lien even after auction and if they cured the lien you get your money back plus interest, and in some states that rate was pretty darn nice. In others it was lame… The cure time varied as well.

All in all it was really interesting. Research the heck out of it and do alot of legwork.

Of course like trustee sales these are cash deals, no financing.

[SD Realtor]

A man alone without the pressing demands of family can be a sad creature.

True that Scaredy… true that.

[SD Realtor]

I don’t know scaredy… the guy is married man just like you and me and others. I bet ya 10 bucks he actually did tell his wife what he thought the market was gonna do and you know what? She probably said she didnt give a sh-t. Obviously the guy has a decent job and makes good money.

Looking back at the timing of the purchase, depending on where they bought, they may have very well caught the very bottom of the trough and are actually doing really well.

I recall when you were making the decision to purchase and correct me if I am wrong, you, (like me and most other men) were “incentivized” to buy by our wives correct? I can say with all honesty that many of the purchases my younger family clients make are done in the name of family harmony.

More often then not, “knowing better” really doesnt matter.

[SD Realtor]

Wrong scaredy, bananas, nuts, oatmeal and veggies are all approximately 20% more then 5 years ago.

Now the herring may not be!

[SD Realtor]

Yep no inflation here. Except that that the food you buy is more expensive and packaged in smaller quantitied. You pay more for water, more for sewer, and more for energy. It has been staring you in the face for the past several years.

Don’t worry though, you can always eat your cheap flatscreen and keep warm by burning your low priced cell phone plan at night.

[SD Realtor]

Definitely Jeff… Had a thread on this site about 5 years ago about gray water systems. That should have been well thought out about oh…. 40 or 50 years ago and should have been mandated for builders to install them for residential landscape irrigations.

Also agreed with nsr. In fact regardless of the typical or atypical nature of the weather patterns, fresh water (as it is gathered and distributed now) can be essentially considered a finite resource. So the weather patterns don’t really matter. Population growth will exhaust the supply eventually. At that point water supply will come from the ocean.

California is at the front of the line but the entire midwest is not far behind. There is a large aquafir under much of the midwest that is being consumed without adequate replenishment.

[SD Realtor]

It was simply stat based. Trditionally the 4 months with the highest number of closed sales are March through June. So yes part of it is most likely based on the school year calendar. Part of it may also be because that is when the most inventory or perhaps the best quality of inventory is available. So if you factor in market time and the escrow period, getting the home on the market in February would fall into getting a closing in that timeframe. However…. past performance doesn’t gaurantee future outomes. Also seasonal patterns are easily disrupted by greater events like we saw in 2007-2009 on the slow side and in 2012 – spring of 2013 on the fast side. In both those cases the inventories were skewed. So in a normalized market without substantial external forces seasonal patterns in the past showed statistical higher closings in certain months. As for why? Points like you made have merit. Also conclusion of the holidays, and the end of the previous tax year may have a little influence.

[SD Realtor]

There are alot of large volume producers that you can pick from down there. You should not have a problem finding one. Ask the ones you interview to bring you a list of recent transactions (that they have performed) for the area you live in.

Agreed big time with what cali said about advertising. Unfortunately we are not in the age where mailers and magazines sell homes.

The commission you pay covers everything. If they try to add ancillary costs (for instance you will want them to send a professional photographer to shoot the home) make sure you don’t get stuck with that cost.

You pay essentially two commissions, a listing commission and a coop commission (the CBB you referred to). I personally feel that 2.5% is a good cbb. As an exercise, as the agents you interview to bring you the breakdown of the cbb for the last 3 months of sales in the area. That way you can identify if there is a strong skew towards 2.5% or 3.0%. My guess is you will find that about half are 2.5 and half are 3.0.

You can try to negotiate that if the listing agent also becomes the selling agent (selling agent = buyers agent), then the CBB is reduced. Some listing agents will go for that, some will not. You can even be ambitious and try to say that if the selling agent comes from the same office or same company that the CBB will be reduced. Again, unlikely but you can try.

Essentially 6% is meaningless. Think of the commissions as independent and try to get each one as low as possible or at least one of them.

Pre-inspections are never a bad idea. Get a physical inspection, and a termite inspection. The termite inspection should be free. The physical inspection will run you around 400-600 depending on the size of the home.

Get the home on the market asap. Do not wait until May. I cannot stress this enough. You wait til May you lose out on the large pool of buyers who are starting to look for a home NOW. If that means you do a rent back or a long escrow or a combination of the two, then do it.

Make sure your agent gets a professional photographer.

[SD Realtor]

Cantab if you are going to sell my recommendation would be to try to hit the market as soon as possible. The best time to list a home traditionally would be Feb/March.

[SD Realtor]

Could be Joe… We have several rentals in Texas and we are out there alot because of family. In several of the neighborhoods we know many Cal transplants. Some of them moved because of the tax policy but more of them moved simply because of ideology.

[SD Realtor]

Rich definitely go for it. PQ trail is a nice place to start. There are two entry points, one near Black Mountain Canyon park near the horse stables and another down at the bottom of the canyon kind of near the base of Qualcomm Hill. Basically it is the Sorrento Valley exit off of the 5 but it is hard to explain on the blog but easy to find with a map. Not so sure about renting bikes but yeah try Performance. If you do end up doing it more DO NOT go buy a new bike. Used mountain bikes are the easiest thing to find on craigslist. Make sure you talk to the guys at performance about how to figure out the correct size for you.

The best piece of advice so far is the flat repair. Patch kits are cheap but for beginners just brink an extra tube or two in a backpack and a small pump. As CE said know how to change the tube. Although the PQ trail is so well travelled that someone will be able to help you within a few minutes of your flat.

Another nice starter trail is the park that runs along the 52. Nice easy flat trail there as well.

Once you get your legs under you we can go up to Noble Canyon and ride.

Here is a link to some trails. San Diego is an awesome place to ride. Don’t listen to any BS about mountain biking being dangerous or any of that crap. It is no more dangerous then riding a bike on cement, it is all just how much you want to challenge yourself on the trail. On PQ and the park off of 52 you can take your kids on a big wheel and they will be safe.

http://www.singletracks.com/California-bike-trails_5.html?sortBy=field168%2BASC%2B%2B&filterBy=&pageNo=5

[SD Realtor]

Actually most people who badmouth areas don’t or have not lived in them for a long time. The best advice comes from those who have lived there for a long time. Like when people bash Mira Mesa who have never lived there or people who talk about how horrible it is to live in other states but haven’t ever lived there.

It is a simple form or one upsmanship. I have never lived in Temecula and don’t have a desire to because it isn’t for me. However most of the people I know who do live there seem to really enjoy it. Seems like Temecula residents on this blog speak well of it as well. I know lots of people who like Lakeside and even Santee because of pricing and in Lakeside they can buy acreage, but those communities get dissed by outsiders all the time.Same with all of my friends who live out of state. Not places I would live but they really enjoy those communities. Even those that left California.

[SD Realtor]

That is a good point FLU. Gotta keep them tax revenues rolling in.

CDMA you also brought up a good point about the viability of getting tenants due to the market value. This is something the OP would have to test out by looking for advertisements in the same area for comparable rentals. Subsequently then test it out by running advertisement and measuring the responses.

As for all those not understanding the mortgage payments… find a friend with a 5 or 10 year fixed rate loan, and ask them what their amortization period is.

Post the results of how many come back and say they had a 5 or 10 year amortization period. I will be quite surprised if we get an answer above 0.

[Author]

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