Its peak price was 744k. This home is a crazy good deal for the area.
Just submitted an offer on my first home.
- Thread starter Total Heckler
- Start date
I didn't realize you and the wife were 78 years old.SO our offer got accepted over the other 2 that the sellers had. We are officially in contract with our first home. Pretty crazy how quickly all of this has come together. Home inspections (pest and general home) are hopefully getting scheduled for tomorrow. Were also going to the city hall to check out all of the homes records sometime this week too.
I am pumped!
LOL
Honey, here's a shovel and a bag of bulbs. Get digging.
Oh, and I love you.
Edit: Good luck on the house hunting. I put in an offer on my place mid April, and finally closed July 1. Had to do battle with the seller's kids (seller just wanted out of the place) on the price. Had to do battle with the mortgage company on the appraisal (VT is kinda stagnant market, no comps). Super frustrating when you have 20%, 750+ credit, you're barely tapping into your income, and they still say no.
but it IS a sick pad. I wanna get up to do another weekend of digging before cold weather sets in. When's leaf season?
Word. The desireable areas in Cali aren't really going do depreciate any more. You might fluctuate a few percent either way....but a SFR in an area like Santa Cruz is never going to hit 200K. It's a good investement, especially if you plan on being there for a while....
My sister's house is next to a house that is 5000sq ft, with a HUGE-a$$ 5-car garage, a pond, and 15 acres. Went into foreclosure after a divorce and the market tank. It sold for ~$210K recently.
$744K?SO our offer got accepted over the other 2 that the sellers had. We are officially in contract with our first home. Pretty crazy how quickly all of this has come together. Home inspections (pest and general home) are hopefully getting scheduled for tomorrow. Were also going to the city hall to check out all of the homes records sometime this week too.
I am pumped!
Cali really is retarded. No wonder they picked Arnold to run it.So...where does the ladder drop go? And the TLD banner?
yes, cost of living in California is pretty nuts. But bear in mind its a coastal region (where a lot of the more expensive properties are), and it rains maybe 2 weeks total a year (at least in Socal).
Fair enough.You guys have wives?
'Cause the average Ston^H^H^H^HJoker is talking about is AVERAGE. So when your wife demands a $50K kitchen remodel and $25K in landscaping that average starts to look realistic.
Single guys need not worry about this "average."
I stand corrected
Let's also not forget, the job of the realtor is to get the highest possible price for the seller, not get you the best deal. Yeah, I know they're real nice to you and want to help you out & all that, but keep in mind, they work for the buyer and it's the law.
One earthquake in CA and these prices drop 40% or more.
It rains a whole lot more than that in other parts of California... particularly in the north, Dec -> March, not to mention the snow in the sierras.
Interesting article.
Wow definitely wouldn't find anything like that here. That sucks for your sister man. =\My sister's house is next to a house that is 5000sq ft, with a HUGE-a$$ 5-car garage, a pond, and 15 acres. Went into foreclosure after a divorce and the market tank. It sold for ~$210K recently.
my buddy (jimmysal, posted earlier in thread) bought a decent sized house with a 2 car garage on about 23 acres for a price that would blow most people's mindsMy sister's house is next to a house that is 5000sq ft, with a HUGE-a$$ 5-car garage, a pond, and 15 acres. Went into foreclosure after a divorce and the market tank. It sold for ~$210K recently.
Now the real fun starts.....SO our offer got accepted over the other 2 that the sellers had. We are officially in contract with our first home. Pretty crazy how quickly all of this has come together. Home inspections (pest and general home) are hopefully getting scheduled for tomorrow. Were also going to the city hall to check out all of the homes records sometime this week too.
I am pumped!
Good luck, Joshy.
Again... Earthquake insurance is so frickin' expensive, I don't know anyone that has it. Our friends, nor our families carry earthquake insurance.
You're looking at over $200 per month, and something like a $50,000 deductible. It's absolutely retarded.
Again... Earthquake insurance is so frickin' expensive, I don't know anyone that has it. Our friends, nor our families carry earthquake insurance.
You're looking at over $200 per month, and something like a $50,000 deductible. It's absolutely retarded.
I have it (as a renter
)
Good luck TH!
For the naysayers, the variation in the California housing market is stunning. Yes, there are areas with literally dozens of foreclosures on every street, and the market may not have bottomed out in those areas yet. But there are also areas that will pretty much always be desirable, and Santa Cruz is one of them.
It probably seems crazy to some of you but I can look at that one picture and guess that $400K for that place is a good deal so long as there are no major issues.
I'm looking to buy a place in San Francisco, and even though prices have come down a bit - a bit - there are still lots of people at open houses, and with very few exceptions the homes I've been tracking are selling for asking price or more. And $400K barely gets you a studio in the areas I'm looking.
For the naysayers, the variation in the California housing market is stunning. Yes, there are areas with literally dozens of foreclosures on every street, and the market may not have bottomed out in those areas yet. But there are also areas that will pretty much always be desirable, and Santa Cruz is one of them.
It probably seems crazy to some of you but I can look at that one picture and guess that $400K for that place is a good deal so long as there are no major issues.
I'm looking to buy a place in San Francisco, and even though prices have come down a bit - a bit - there are still lots of people at open houses, and with very few exceptions the homes I've been tracking are selling for asking price or more. And $400K barely gets you a studio in the areas I'm looking.
Prices have fallen (a LOT), but who knows where the prices are going from here. When we bought at the end of '07 the price of our house had fallen ~33%, and has stayed relatively stable since then. However the NY market took another year/year and a half to drop, and then when it did Zillow thinks my parents house is worth maybe 1/2 of what it was in '07.
If you're planning on living there 10+ years don't bother trying to time the market. Prices could go up or down, mortgage rates can go up or down, etc. Buy it as a place to live, a place to (slowly) pay down/off your mortgage, and a place where you know that rent prices are never going to go up unexpectedly.
Santa Cruz has an advantage over some locations in that the amount of build-able land is quite limited.
was that who you visited in michigan?My sister's house is next to a house that is 5000sq ft, with a HUGE-a$$ 5-car garage, a pond, and 15 acres. Went into foreclosure after a divorce and the market tank. It sold for ~$210K recently.
Yup. Sis, BIL, niece, nephew, mum as well as a gaggle of old friends.
Rock n roll! Congrats!
Keep in mind that your expenses will run VERY high for the first 3-6 months owning the place. For me, the first 2 months were accompanied by an uptick of nearly 100% over my typical expenses. Now it's coming down to around 20% over what I anticipated.
You'll find yourself needing all sorts of stupid **** like lawnmowers, shovels, rakes, drills, etc. That doesn't even account for the previous owner's jackassery that slipped by on the home inspection and your personal inspections.
I know people advocate throwing everything you have at a down payment, but I think it is prudent to keep $5-10k liquid to cover these "incidental" expenses that homeownership seems to bring up. For reference, I budgeted a little over $22k when I closed on the place that jon mentioned above. Nearly $15k of that was for a tractor, snowblower, implements for road maintenance, and groundskeeping.
You'll find yourself needing all sorts of stupid **** like lawnmowers, shovels, rakes, drills, etc. That doesn't even account for the previous owner's jackassery that slipped by on the home inspection and your personal inspections.
I know people advocate throwing everything you have at a down payment, but I think it is prudent to keep $5-10k liquid to cover these "incidental" expenses that homeownership seems to bring up. For reference, I budgeted a little over $22k when I closed on the place that jon mentioned above. Nearly $15k of that was for a tractor, snowblower, implements for road maintenance, and groundskeeping.
it should be noted that it is a sweet ass tractor that made brush clearing for a pump track a piece of cake. Cleared and de-sodded around 4000sqf in less than 6 hours.
Then threw up the base for 2 180+ berms in another 6 hours.
Then it started vomiting hydraulic fluid all over the work area.
Now all you need are some kids so don't forget to factor that in 
Show us some more pictures of the house when its yours.
Only been to CA once back in 1992 so I just Google mapped Santa Cruz - that area looks really nice. At least from some random satellite
Show us some more pictures of the house when its yours.
Only been to CA once back in 1992 so I just Google mapped Santa Cruz - that area looks really nice. At least from some random satellite
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Protips:
An electric lawnmower is not a lawnmower.
An electric weed whacker is not a weed whacker.
An electric chainsaw is not a chainsaw.
An electric hedge trimmer is not a hedge trimmer.
Electric tools are meant to be used inside. Gas tools are meant to be used outside. Anything that looks like an outside tool but is powered by electricity is merely an expensive toy.
An electric lawnmower is not a lawnmower.
An electric weed whacker is not a weed whacker.
An electric chainsaw is not a chainsaw.
An electric hedge trimmer is not a hedge trimmer.
Electric tools are meant to be used inside. Gas tools are meant to be used outside. Anything that looks like an outside tool but is powered by electricity is merely an expensive toy.
Buying a house from an old retired couple (and ex-marine) that was moving to a condo across the country = came with snowblower, tractor, weedwacker, hedge trimmers, rakes/shovels, all appliances (including brand new front load washer and dryer) = epic win.
If you require a gas yard tool you have WAY too much $hit in your yard to maintain. That's a tip coming from a non-pro yard guy who has all electric yard tools and has for his entire house-owning life.
Lucky stuff man, I envy you. The previous owner had a riding lawnmower, but I wanted a tractor.Buying a house from an old retired couple (and ex-marine) that was moving to a condo across the country = came with snowblower, tractor, weedwacker, hedge trimmers, rakes/shovels, all appliances (including brand new front load washer and dryer) = epic win.
I mow 3 acres every week. I cut down trees, skid the logs out of the woods, and chop them to offset my heating costs. I grade my own driveway so my girl can get in and out in her car. Come winter, I'll have to clear 1200' of driveway every time it snows. It may seem like a bit much, but consider this: I can ride downhill, cross country, ladders, trials, and a pump track without leaving my property.
Win some, lose some.
Edit:
What I was getting at wasn't so much a flat out writeoff of electric yard tools, only a warning that you get what you pay for. Most of my experience may not really be pertinent to someone in the suburbs, I realize that because the last house I bought was in a development.
My main point was, get ready to spend a lot more money on things you didn't know you needed to buy, and get ready to do work on things you didn't know you needed to do.
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Good on ya. I prefer dense development and driving a bit to get to:
Trade offs I can live with...
While I wouldn't NOT do one, home inspections are such a scam.......
(oh and congrats)
(oh and congrats)
Congrats Josh! Now just make sure you find out where the gas pipeline runs.
Ours saved us probably 5,000-6,000, including a new furnace. Pretty good $500 investment...
(Things noticed in addition to said furnace: overloaded fuse box, live wire in the basement, open junction boxes in the attic, non-regulation plumbing, a tree that could pose a structural problem, etc. The report was about 17 pages long, and we cherry-picked 3 of the bigger problems to demand money off for, electrical, plumbing and the tree. They installed a new furnace without our even asking once we showed them the report.)
Ahh... hopefully they didn't install a total cheap-a$$ crap furnace? When we bought the furnace had a cracked heat exchanger but we chose to just deduct $$$ so we could pick the furnace...
maybe they're just a scam in canada
Yup on the cheap ass crap furnace... Although even the lower-cost ones today are light years ahead of the ones from 30 years ago. We would've taken the $$$ and gotten a better one, but by the time we heard about it it was already replaced. Ours had the same cracked heat exchanger. Wonder how many of those are out there in people's homes.