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CONCHO- If you read the Recent Articles on here – No Housing Bottom in 2008, rents are falling. Don’t be afraid to make someone an offer. If you are a good tenant who isn’t throwing parties and appreciates keeping nice things nice, and you’re reliable for your rent, …there are condo owners out there who will rent at a price less than what they are asking so they can get a quality tenant. Looking at Craigslist you might think condo rents are going in the 1700-2K range in the Gaslamp for a 1 bdrm. Reality is that there are people paying 1300-1600 in fantastic locations (right in the heart of the Gaslamp /marina/ ballpark). Are you willing to move? If so, find a place to move, and let the mgmt co. know you’ll be moving in 30 days, unless of course the owner agrees to a lesser rent increase. If you move out, perhaps they’ll rent it the following month, but traditionally this time of year is slow. Is the owner willing to take a 1 or 2 month vacancy? If he/she can do simple math, it doesn’t compute to let you go.

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CONCHO- If you read the Recent Articles on here – No Housing Bottom in 2008, rents are falling. Don’t be afraid to make someone an offer. If you are a good tenant who isn’t throwing parties and appreciates keeping nice things nice, and you’re reliable for your rent, …there are condo owners out there who will rent at a price less than what they are asking so they can get a quality tenant. Looking at Craigslist you might think condo rents are going in the 1700-2K range in the Gaslamp for a 1 bdrm. Reality is that there are people paying 1300-1600 in fantastic locations (right in the heart of the Gaslamp /marina/ ballpark). Are you willing to move? If so, find a place to move, and let the mgmt co. know you’ll be moving in 30 days, unless of course the owner agrees to a lesser rent increase. If you move out, perhaps they’ll rent it the following month, but traditionally this time of year is slow. Is the owner willing to take a 1 or 2 month vacancy? If he/she can do simple math, it doesn’t compute to let you go.

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Specific to your question about bluff failures…the condo association should evaluate their bluffs hiring soil engineering firms- and the likelihood of failure over the next few years. The failure points are obvious to non-experts if you see clear areas where the setback is only a few feet.

You should ask the condo association / management what bluff repair work they have done, and what is planned. Its millions of dollars to put in seawalls for lower/mid and upper bluff failures. So consider what your HOA fees might look like given those expected repairs.

It can take years to get all the permitting from the Coastal Commission and the city/county so if a condo you’re evaluating hasn’t put up a seawall with obvious erosion / failure points, and you can see units in jeopardy, you may want to look at other places.

[zzz]

Specific to your question about bluff failures…the condo association should evaluate their bluffs hiring soil engineering firms- and the likelihood of failure over the next few years. The failure points are obvious to non-experts if you see clear areas where the setback is only a few feet.

You should ask the condo association / management what bluff repair work they have done, and what is planned. Its millions of dollars to put in seawalls for lower/mid and upper bluff failures. So consider what your HOA fees might look like given those expected repairs.

It can take years to get all the permitting from the Coastal Commission and the city/county so if a condo you’re evaluating hasn’t put up a seawall with obvious erosion / failure points, and you can see units in jeopardy, you may want to look at other places.

[zzz]

Specific to your question about bluff failures…the condo association should evaluate their bluffs hiring soil engineering firms- and the likelihood of failure over the next few years. The failure points are obvious to non-experts if you see clear areas where the setback is only a few feet.

You should ask the condo association / management what bluff repair work they have done, and what is planned. Its millions of dollars to put in seawalls for lower/mid and upper bluff failures. So consider what your HOA fees might look like given those expected repairs.

It can take years to get all the permitting from the Coastal Commission and the city/county so if a condo you’re evaluating hasn’t put up a seawall with obvious erosion / failure points, and you can see units in jeopardy, you may want to look at other places.

[zzz]

Specific to your question about bluff failures…the condo association should evaluate their bluffs hiring soil engineering firms- and the likelihood of failure over the next few years. The failure points are obvious to non-experts if you see clear areas where the setback is only a few feet.

You should ask the condo association / management what bluff repair work they have done, and what is planned. Its millions of dollars to put in seawalls for lower/mid and upper bluff failures. So consider what your HOA fees might look like given those expected repairs.

It can take years to get all the permitting from the Coastal Commission and the city/county so if a condo you’re evaluating hasn’t put up a seawall with obvious erosion / failure points, and you can see units in jeopardy, you may want to look at other places.

[zzz]

Specific to your question about bluff failures…the condo association should evaluate their bluffs hiring soil engineering firms- and the likelihood of failure over the next few years. The failure points are obvious to non-experts if you see clear areas where the setback is only a few feet.

You should ask the condo association / management what bluff repair work they have done, and what is planned. Its millions of dollars to put in seawalls for lower/mid and upper bluff failures. So consider what your HOA fees might look like given those expected repairs.

It can take years to get all the permitting from the Coastal Commission and the city/county so if a condo you’re evaluating hasn’t put up a seawall with obvious erosion / failure points, and you can see units in jeopardy, you may want to look at other places.

[zzz]

Rustico- I laughed so hard at your comment about people here. So tragically true about some people in So Cal

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Rustico- I laughed so hard at your comment about people here. So tragically true about some people in So Cal

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Rustico- I laughed so hard at your comment about people here. So tragically true about some people in So Cal

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Rustico- I laughed so hard at your comment about people here. So tragically true about some people in So Cal

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If you want to buy a 500K house, you still need to save a bit more to come up with 20% down. If you want to benefit from a lower interest rate, ideally you’d have enough money down or buy a lower cost house to take out a conforming loan. If you follow the advice of others, have 6 months of savings for loss of job or rainy day – at 4K savings per month, you’ve got a year and then some before you have the cash reserves to buy.

And don’t forget to budget the furniture costs and any work you may want to do on your house to make it livable. If you’re moving from an apartment, you’ll probably need to budget another 5K-10K for all the furniture and work you may want to do before moving in.

Like SD Realtor and many have suggested in other posts, before you make any real estate decision, sit down with a spreadsheet and model out the cash flow over the next few years to look at the impact of a home purchases, and how much you have left to enjoy life. What expenses will likely be incurred during that timeframe such as new car purchases / maintenance, medical expenses, etc. There’s nothing worse I can imagine than going to sleep at night worrying about whether you can make your monthly expenses. If you enjoy things like taking vacations and being able to eat out, make sure you can still do those things. I have known too many people who have strained their marriages due to overextending and stress of finances.

Also I hope you both love your jobs – making decisions like going to smaller companies or start-ups become much harder when you’ve got your mortgage as your ball and chain.

[zzz]

If you want to buy a 500K house, you still need to save a bit more to come up with 20% down. If you want to benefit from a lower interest rate, ideally you’d have enough money down or buy a lower cost house to take out a conforming loan. If you follow the advice of others, have 6 months of savings for loss of job or rainy day – at 4K savings per month, you’ve got a year and then some before you have the cash reserves to buy.

And don’t forget to budget the furniture costs and any work you may want to do on your house to make it livable. If you’re moving from an apartment, you’ll probably need to budget another 5K-10K for all the furniture and work you may want to do before moving in.

Like SD Realtor and many have suggested in other posts, before you make any real estate decision, sit down with a spreadsheet and model out the cash flow over the next few years to look at the impact of a home purchases, and how much you have left to enjoy life. What expenses will likely be incurred during that timeframe such as new car purchases / maintenance, medical expenses, etc. There’s nothing worse I can imagine than going to sleep at night worrying about whether you can make your monthly expenses. If you enjoy things like taking vacations and being able to eat out, make sure you can still do those things. I have known too many people who have strained their marriages due to overextending and stress of finances.

Also I hope you both love your jobs – making decisions like going to smaller companies or start-ups become much harder when you’ve got your mortgage as your ball and chain.

[zzz]

If you want to buy a 500K house, you still need to save a bit more to come up with 20% down. If you want to benefit from a lower interest rate, ideally you’d have enough money down or buy a lower cost house to take out a conforming loan. If you follow the advice of others, have 6 months of savings for loss of job or rainy day – at 4K savings per month, you’ve got a year and then some before you have the cash reserves to buy.

And don’t forget to budget the furniture costs and any work you may want to do on your house to make it livable. If you’re moving from an apartment, you’ll probably need to budget another 5K-10K for all the furniture and work you may want to do before moving in.

Like SD Realtor and many have suggested in other posts, before you make any real estate decision, sit down with a spreadsheet and model out the cash flow over the next few years to look at the impact of a home purchases, and how much you have left to enjoy life. What expenses will likely be incurred during that timeframe such as new car purchases / maintenance, medical expenses, etc. There’s nothing worse I can imagine than going to sleep at night worrying about whether you can make your monthly expenses. If you enjoy things like taking vacations and being able to eat out, make sure you can still do those things. I have known too many people who have strained their marriages due to overextending and stress of finances.

Also I hope you both love your jobs – making decisions like going to smaller companies or start-ups become much harder when you’ve got your mortgage as your ball and chain.

[zzz]

If you want to buy a 500K house, you still need to save a bit more to come up with 20% down. If you want to benefit from a lower interest rate, ideally you’d have enough money down or buy a lower cost house to take out a conforming loan. If you follow the advice of others, have 6 months of savings for loss of job or rainy day – at 4K savings per month, you’ve got a year and then some before you have the cash reserves to buy.

And don’t forget to budget the furniture costs and any work you may want to do on your house to make it livable. If you’re moving from an apartment, you’ll probably need to budget another 5K-10K for all the furniture and work you may want to do before moving in.

Like SD Realtor and many have suggested in other posts, before you make any real estate decision, sit down with a spreadsheet and model out the cash flow over the next few years to look at the impact of a home purchases, and how much you have left to enjoy life. What expenses will likely be incurred during that timeframe such as new car purchases / maintenance, medical expenses, etc. There’s nothing worse I can imagine than going to sleep at night worrying about whether you can make your monthly expenses. If you enjoy things like taking vacations and being able to eat out, make sure you can still do those things. I have known too many people who have strained their marriages due to overextending and stress of finances.

Also I hope you both love your jobs – making decisions like going to smaller companies or start-ups become much harder when you’ve got your mortgage as your ball and chain.

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