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I have a friend who is a serious watch collector – over 40 Swiss hand wound aka manual movement watches, some are 200k minute repeaters, special edition. His collection contained many high end watchmakers including Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, IWC, Breguet, Vacheron Constantin, Rolex, Girard Perregaux, Ulysse Nardin, A. Lange & Sohne

Here’s what I learned while watch shopping under his tutelage:
1. Don’t spends thousands of dollars on a brand name watch if it has an automatic movement – you’re basically buying a piece of mass produced jewelry with a cheap $2 crystal from china or asia – this watch was not made by a highly skilled watchmaker- think Tag, most Breitlings. Many of the “luxury” watches that have crystals are not cheap – you can find a manual movement watch with much better craftsmanship, value, reputation.
2. Rolex price protects, which means authorized dealers cannot discount on their own. However, Rolex is often considered money in the bank. The watch prices go up year to year so many people find their watches hold their values for resale. Not true of all, but certain ones are made more limitedly – like an all gold band. Rolexes are mass produced watches, not hand made, and except for some finishes, not made in limited quantity.
3. Most watches if you find the right authorized dealer- IWC, Girard, Panerai, Jaeger – you can buy between a 25%-40% discount, if you become a serious watch collector, you might be able to get an even larger discount (meaning you buy a lot of watches). You’ll have to shop around.
4. Watches with complex movements like minute repeaters or special edition watches in particular hold their value the best- they are hand made. They are like fine art- people collect them and you can often sell them with little depreciation. In some cases, expensive limited edition watches where say less than 100 or 200 are made actually appreciate.
5. Steer away from the “jewelers” or other brands that don’t only make watches but rather also make “fashion” watches versus the ones who specialize in high end watch making. Ex: Harry Winston or Montblanc. Fine watch collectors don’t view those watches as “premium” because they are not specialized watchmakers.
6. You’re not likely to get a great deal from a chain like Tourneau – try the non chain watch shops & jewelers
7. Know what is standard vs jewelry shop aftermarket ads to the watch – Ex: diamonds added to the dial. Aftermarket bezels, etc. Perhaps you like it, but realize serious watchmakers buy watches often with the original design by the watchmaker- they feel that the aftermarket adds is bastardizing the watch so it can hurt in resale

Happy shopping!

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[quote=FlyerInHi]I already have a fake Rolex. Nobody can tell the difference. But I know it’s a fake so I don’t feel good wearing it.[/quote]

I learned from my watch collector friend how to discern a fake Rolex. First is the weight. Real Rolexes are much heavier. He’s watch savant…he knows going back 15+ years which model was produced in what finishes. So he can spot a watch and tell someone that Rolex didn’t make a watch with a stainless steel band or that particular bezel, etc.

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dupe

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CAr, who is your GC? Could you pls share the details? Thx

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thx BG, its a 3yr old german car, i negotiated a good deal on it, so its pretty straightforward. i think i can make a quick few grand on it just based on the very low mileage i put on it and there have been very few services required and its required for me to keep maintenance records. good shape, still under warranty. thx for tip on selling it through leaseholder, i haven’t even asked the lender what needs to happen – i think theres some paperwork i need to fill out.

i still dont’ know about having them to come to my house. not worried so much about the car getting stolen – thats why i have insurance right? but as a woman, i don’t know if want someone coming to my house.

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TeCK….Interesting feedback on the RAV4 EV…I’m in the market for a car as my lease is almost up. I started out leasing hoping to get an electric car at some pt.

Were you able to negotiate off MSRP at all, or do they just offer the incentives and thats it?

Anyone had any luck selling a car off lease? I don’t want to deal with some fixes I need to make on the car before I return it, and I know I will get dinged. Plus I put very few miles on this car, so I’m thinking I can at least break even, if not make a few hundred just compared to residual. But will definitely SAVE if I can just sell at residual and not have to do any repairs.

If so, please pass along details. Suggestions on how to handle security issues- how do you handle test drives, etc and where do you meet people? Office isn’t an option. Thanks

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Who’s selling to capitalize on the bubble? Or considering listing their home to see what bites?

There are moments I think about putting our house on the market at 200k more than we paid for it- I think we can get it based on recent comps and we’ve done a bit of work on the house since we bought it. But I love my neighborhood, my neighbors and the home, plus where in the heck would we move? It took us years to find this house in the limited zip codes we were looking in. Rents are outrageous. And I became so tired of renting. At one point, I moved 4 times in 4 years. The first move was from a condo to a house. Then the owner wanted to move back in and I had to move out. I ended up moving into a property my SO owned, but was trying to sell. Then we sold that place and rented another house, until we bought the one we’re now in. I’m quite tired of moving!

On the other hand, my parents live out of state and they are getting older, and I’d like to move them out here. One of my parents became seriously ill and I spent a year and a half flying back and forth. It was very straining on my health, my relationship with SO, and on my career. I had to check out on my other aspects of my life to basically take care of my parents.

Im thinking of telling them to sell now while the market is hot as they need to sell within the next 5-7 or so years anyhow due to age/health. But ideally they will live on their own. It will be better for the sanity of all of us. Unfortunately what they would get for their house won’t buy them even a small condo in the metro area unless they buy in the less desirable areas which they won’t do.

Rents are so high, I don’t want to see them pay what little money they have into someone else’s equity bucket. Lets assume they rent a 1 bdrm condo nearby for $1500/month, they will run out of cash from the sale of their home in about 10 years. They would have to buy in cash as they are both retired and have very little in assets.

Ideally, we would take the cash from the sale of their home and I would purchase a property for them to live in but I’m not in a position to take on another mortgage. I spent 10s of thousands helping my parents financially during the illness, and I just started my own business so I’m not going to qualify for a loan anyhow.

Ideas on what to do?

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[quote=deadzone]All valid points zzz. These are the main reasons that I personally would never choose to live in Mexico, nothing to do with the real or perceived crime rate.

If I had to choose one 3rd world country to live, it would definitely be Thailand. Distant 2nd is Brazil. Alot of bad perceptions towards Brazil too, by the way. But outside of Sao Paula and Rio, I don’t think crime rate is that bad. When I travled to Brazil, I felt a lot more comfortable than Mexico or any other Latin American country I have visited.[/quote]

I know several people who have retired to Thailand, including family. Its quite the life. Personally I love Asia, so I enjoy traveling in that part of the world. I think people need to distinguish between enjoying traveling somewhere, and living there. Its night and day. You get to come home at the end of a vacation – its like a honeymoon. You can LOVE a place when you visit, but you really need to look at the practicalities of day to day living. And do you have enough money to get back and forth to the US if staying in touch with friends and family is important to you?

Money goes a lot further there, and living in beachfront property is completely within reach. Theres a lot of medical tourism in Asia, so the quality of care can be quite high. However, people still come back to the US or Europe for cancer treatment. If you live long enough – cancer will likely be a factor- its a disease of age as our bodies are less able to deal with cell mutation and free radicals.

For people who are still working and looking for growth regions, Asia is such an opportunity for growth – I think people should be learning Chinese and considering living in Asia. Its getting very expensive to live well in many places in Asia however. Or learn Portuguese and move to Brazil – one of the fastest growing countries economically. Despite the growth opps- people from both regions are still trying to come to the US, so it makes you think what we have so good here- we really do take a lot of our civil liberties and daily living conveniences for living. Very dependable trash pickup, mail service, relative lack of corruption, ease of doing biz. If we find dealing with cable providers or phone service difficult here, should try going to some 2nd and 3rd world countries!

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Code wise, you need a permit to do all kinds of things in your home. A kitchen or an addition – yeah you definitely need a permit because there is usually structural or electrical outlets/ plumbing being moved or entirely redone.

That said, I’ve seen a TON of home when we were looking that have additions done without permits. Some were clearly not done well. If you have the money, then hire a general contractor with a good rep, and he will handle pulling the permits. It will add cost, but it just is what it is. I’m not advocating either way, its ultimately what you are comfortable doing/ how much risk tolerance.

I don’t know what style your home is – craftsmen, spanish, etc? but if you want your home to be architecturally consistent or period, you should look for a GC that does a lot of work and can build /remodel to account for such.

If you have an old home and has NOT been updated specifically, and you are redoing a kitchen or bathroom, its a good time to have your contractor go through the plumbing and electrical and make sure its updated. You’re already ripping the entire damn thing out, you might as well make sure your plumbing/sewage isn’t going to fail on your beautiful new bathroom / kitchen. So while it costs more, I believe you will save in the long run + make an investment in your home if you plan to stay there.

With a kitchen, like I stated above, some contractors will want you to work with their cabinet vendor. Personally I like to have choice – because that means either I can shop for quality/design/have more choice but also that means I can ensure the pricing for things like cabinets are competitive. Because I negotiate in my day job, i’m pretty good at it, so I like to do my own negotiating when making large purchases. If you’re like me, you may need to find a GC who’s ok with this.

If you do opt to work directly with suppliers – have your GC order the product for you once you agree to terms/pricing if they will be the ones installing them. Whoever is doing the install of anything that requires specificity down to the inches should do the measurement and do the ordering.

If your kitchen remodel doesn’t mean reconfiguring your entire kitchen/walls, etc you can also consider IKEA…they have a range of cheap to more expensive materials. i know several people who’ve done really nice IKEA kitchen. they have a team who come out to measure your kitchen and work with you to customize. it was significantly cheaper than going the GC / custom cabinet route.

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Contractor- it really depends on the scope of the project + how much work do you want to do? Are you talking a major remodel or addition, or just a project here and there?

if you want to sit back and only make the big decisions, and babysit 1 person, don’t want to negotiate on price for each sub/items purchased and, and you are willing to pay a premium, then definitely go the contractor route. The few I’ve talked to charge 10-15% or more just to manage the project. So if your kitchen costs 50k, then they charge at least 5k just to oversee the ordering of cabinets, appliances, and install even if they don’t do the install. And I have found most want you to work with their subs/suppliers.

If you have specific plumbing, electrical, need a new roof, etc you can do this yourself if you have the time and the patience. I have found that you HAVE to be there for at least part of the time to check up on work/quality/progress. No matter how great the reputation. And you have to be willing to get multiple bids and compare what each one bids.

You should expect:
1. get widely varying quotes, confidence levels on doing the work- i call this sandbagging so they can charge you more, i won’t hire someone who is wishy washy about whether they can do the job or start talking too much about the unknown once they start on a relatively simple project (like fixing venting or windows)
2. go back and forth between quotes to ask questions about differences, and potentially beat em up on price
3. workers /contractors to be flaky and unreliable including – not show up entirely, not be on time, not get you a bid in a timely fashion, not complete the work in timeframe estimated. i highly recommend you always confirm via text message the day before as to time/date of appt- especially if you are taking off work to accomodate. can’t tell you how many time ppl didn’t show up or showed up an hour late.
4. get sloppy with their work – you likely have to ask them to fix something, redo something, or catch something they said they would do, that they are charging you for, but do not do.

Also for handyman type projects- you can find people who just charge you for the labor- and you pay all the materials. This is one way to not pay the markup. The materials however might mean you buy a lot more of something you only need a small amount of that you’ll likely not need again. Sometimes its more cost effective, other times its marginally less expensive, but not worth the hassle to track all the receipts.

With any and all of this, GET it all in writing- down to the nitty gritty. Sometimes this means YOU need to write up your expectations/understanding of the scope of the project if the service provider doesn’t – down to how many layers of paint someone is applying. Because most of these guys are not organized. And they will forget, so its best just to get everyone to agree, and then there is no disagreement- just wave an email in front of them.

Estate attorney: I haven’t personally used him but several friends have.
Dan Morrin
858-541-1777

CPA- very reasonably priced
Richard Bruno
(619) 275-0511

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Forgetting about crime for a second, for those considering living in LATAM, who are not of latin / spanish descent, some things to consider:

1. you are considered a gringo and will be treated as such
– people will assume you have more money than they do, if not consider you rich. you are rich by their standards, even if you are not rich by US standards
– you will get gringo pricing

2. things are SLOW there. stuff does not get done efficiently. if you buy a home, prepared to take forever to get work done on your home. things will not make sense to you and if you take your American expectations there, you will be frustrated ALL the time

3. most American friends I know who live there also have private insurance that allows them to come back to US for treatment of major medical issues- like cancer

4. the quality of life – it really depends on what you are used to, which country you pick, and whether you are in a major city. if you have a pretty high standard of living now – its not necessarily cheaper to maintain that standard of living. eating out at nice restaurants or drinking at high end establishments is not that much cheaper. expensive clothing is not cheaper.

pros- you can have things like cooks or maids clean your home super cheaply, you can likely live ( rent or buy) more cheaply than comparable to US.
you can eat out at average / local spots more cheaply
local grocery is cheap – if you still want to enjoy your American food brands, or buy fruits from outside LATAM, CA wine, or french wine, be prepared to pay WAY MORE

All of my friends- even the ones of latin descent who have gone to places like Panama, Rio, Sao Paolo to work and live, have all opted to come back to the US. The quality of life is better here. Its safer, its more efficient. And ultimately, its where friends and family are- a little extra cash can’t replace that.

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jpinpb…have you used Antonio Fletes recently? i’m looking for someone who can tune wood clad windows, both upstairs and downstairs, strip and repaint all windows. its a really labor intensive job, and shockingly i’m having a hard time finding anyone who either wants to do the work, or is even qualified to do the work (meaning they have a clue about how to tune windows)

anyone have a good wood working handyman suggestion?

if anyone is looking at wood clad windows- be conscious they have to be maintained. our south and west facing windows (Anderson) that are 7 yrs old are peeling, cracking and warped from sunshine and lack of maintenance ( inherited mess). and i’m not ripping them all out- its going to cost a small fortune to replace them.

also i have an excellent electrician to recommend.

Dan, owner of Zapp electric. 888.430.9277. licensed.

Dan was someone a good friend / real estate agent recommended- he’s been using Dan for over 10 years both personally at his houses and suggesting to client. i got 4 bids before choosing Dan.

he not only put in new outlets and rewired our sub (fixed the problems) but also did the drywall so it looked like he was never there. he was the most reasonably priced and didn’t give me the runaround like several other electricians. several other guys hemmed and hawed about not knowing how bad some of our wiring was etc and how they needed to do T&M. the other guys also said they don’t do drywall, so any mess they make, we’d have to find someone else to finish it up. he was confident he could fix any of the issues and gave me a fixed price to do the work.

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Anyone know who the mortgage broker is that AN/FLU used? Thanks

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I recently bought a Kitchen Aid. I posted asking about dishwashers myself. Several ppl here suggested them. Then I went shopping and talked to several appliance. Basically was told Bosch is the quietest but it doesn’t clean well…hmm kinda defeats the point right? Several friends have said they don’t last, always have mechanical or electrical probs with them.

The KitchenAid was the right price and had a stainless steel tub as well. It cleans just fine. Check out Pacific Sales on Morena, the Sears scratch and dent is right near there as well. If you’re in N County, Yingst sells new dented or scratched appliances as well.

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