patrick.net

That's odd, I'm a working professional two months into a move and I'm still not fully unpacked. Glad you took that into account...../golfclap

Plan to be unpacked the day after we move in. That is a choice you make to unpack. I've been there before, but now my goal is to get all the boxes back and folded and thrown up in the attic until the next move. No box left sealed. :)

Got the smart-tape that has which room the box goes to and took a picture of the contents and taped it to the outside. Makes unpacking pretty easy. Gotta love technology.

Just remember by not owning youre missing out on annuder year of vegetable gardening! (haha im still laughin at that one from 'duckhead')

RentingForHalfTheCost says

I can only sleep 9 hours every night now. I don't even enjoy the second serving of dessert I give myself for staying debt free all these years. It sucks! BUY BUY BUY!

We all want to acheive that happy balance. Right ? Ying & Yang, Harmony, all that good stuff right. STOP beating your fish up over tryin to decide which is better, Always stuck in that quandry , BUY or RENT, RENT or BUY.
Do what I did..... DO BOTH
BUY a Pier Can and RENT out a spot on top of mine.

Much nicer crib than half the houses in the fortress. However, I do like knowing I can just punch my way through the cheap particle boards and paper in these crappy houses in case of a fire. ;)

I'm getting kicked out of where I live in a month or two but I'm not worried about it. Worst part of it is, I'm trying to rent at the highest demand point of the year. Biggest problem I've had is people trying to talk me into becoming a homeowner again, been their, done that. I know quite a few people who co-own along with the banks, several properties. For the single man, the biggest pressures I get over all are to get married, buy a home, etc.

When I sold my home I knew my wages were stagnating, it's been three years and I make the same I did then, actually less not including inflation. Not everyone can have all the money all the time. In the college town I live in, it's not uncommon for a student to move here, buy a house or condo, live in it, then leave town, putting the property into the hands of a property manager for renting. Often, the parents paid for it anyways. They can afford to sell whenever they want, or just keep it as an income property.

PockyClipsNow says

funny!

After watching the TV show hoarders, I think lots of homeowners ARE HOARDERS and moving is impozzible for them as they cant pay anyone enough to move that shit and if they did it would take 10 years.

Moving every year: the fix for hoarding.

You got it! I used to look forward to my next place, because it was usually a move up. I used to move a lot. It would only take a couple of compact car loads and my brother's truck for the futon, tiny table and chairs. But, I got married and found out my husband is a closet hoarder. He had a massive secret stash of stuff at his parents home and when they moved, we had to find storage for all of it. I almost had a nervous breakdown when I saw load after load of crap coming into our loft. I am a minimalist and this just went against every fiber of my being.

Finally, after 10 years of marriage and 8 moves, we are down to a small storage space for his crap, which turned out to be collectors items that he has been steadily selling on E-Bay. If I didn't insist on getting rid of it and throwing lots of it away during each of our moves, he would still have it all. You have to be tough with a hoarder. No matter how much they scream and cry and act insane, you have to just push through it.

everything says

I'm getting kicked out of where I live in a month or two but I'm not worried about it.

This is a pretty cool site that lets you filter things on days on CL. Really helps not looking at the same properties over and over.

http://mapliv.com/

PockyClipsNow says

I think lots of homeowners ARE HOARDERS and moving is impozzible for them

THANK YOU! You just explained something I have wondered about ever since moving to the bay area. As I would wander around getting acclimated on the weekends, I couldn't figure why every driveway had at least two cars. And then when the garage doors were open, it seemed every garage, and I mean EVERY garage was filled to the roof with junk. Now I know: They are HOARDERS!

And here I was thinking the puny size of the over-priced and over-valued houses was the problem...

What color are the new walls???

Hoarding is really common. Many people are messy or just 'have too much stuff' they categorize them on the TV show like hurricanes = cat 1 thru 5. (5 is you cant walk in the house - shit up to walls, bathroom might not function).

I pretty much try to avoid 'collecting' things and if i dont use or display it i will eventually get rid of it (hopefully!)

Although one thing i have started collecting since selling my house and renting for 6 years is COMPLAINT LETTERS FROM THE NEIGHBORS BELOW ME. damn those are funny. I unplugged the dual subwoofers, now he complains about opening the window at night! (always live on top floor like me its awsome!!!!)

I will share my experience:

We just moved, from an apartment to a HOUSE! still renting :-)

It took us evenings of 1 week for packing. We have a toddler, so there is bunch of crap we accumulated that needs to be boxed.

Moving day was pretty ok... you just stand there and point and the movers did the work.

It took us 2 hours after the move to unpack basic stuff (remember we have a kid). Then another 2 days, to unpack 50% of the boxes to get back to 'normal' life.

We still have 30% of the stuff in boxes. Mostly stuff we don't use every day. I am keeping them in the garage. And will bring them in as needed.

Basically in 2 weeks, our lives are back to normal. We are enjoying the new home, that is double the size of our previous apartment for 30% more rent.

So yeah, I agree with you. It is not BOO-BOO as it is made out by a few. I can do it again.

Last year my brother was in the same situation. Unfortunately for him he did not find a rental in the same school district, so for his kids it was a bummer.

I am both a landlord and a renter. IMO, they both suck.

DukeLaw says

That's odd, I'm a working professional two months into a move and I'm still not fully unpacked. Glad you took that into account...../golfclap

So am I. Takes me all of two days to pack, all of two days to unpack.

Its really not difficult.

I don't think it's the actual moving that's the hassle. It's doing it on somebody else's terms.

It's not fun to wake up one day with everything planned out and have your life turned upside down because you need to move out in 30 days. If all you have is a duffel bag and a suitcase, it's no big deal, but you have roots or family or plans it can be worse.

There's a reason some rent-controlled cities have a huge relocation fee if you get removed without cause.

Rent4Ever says

What color are the new walls???

Depends on who is looking. As a renter I look at the nicely painted walls as a blessing. The perfectly textured and trimmed earth color paints are very pleasant to my eyes. It took no work from me, no trips and return trips to the Home Depot. I just paid the rent and deposit and there is was, all shinny and glowing. I see them in their full brilliance of browns, greens, and blues. Nature at its best.

To the owners, I'm sure it has a different look. The earth colors might symbolize their wealth exploding during the boom, to the point where early retirement seemed possible. After extracting gobs of money out of the house every refi and driving around in E-class vehicles, taking luxury vacations, eating out at every restaurant with no care, the recent reality really stings. The colors are a hint of coming back to earth. Falling from the virtual high with no hope of resurgence. Now working until you are 70 or more seems like the new norm. What you thought you had is gone. The colors appear more red than anything to them.

As I said, it depends on who is looking. ;)

owning really doesnt jive with tech workers or anyone who changes jobs alla time.

i would like to do a study about how many trillion of gallons of gas, and how much traffic congestion is created by people OWNING HOMES and then they change jobs and thier 10 min commute is now 1 hour.... Maybe property tax should be based on # of miles your job is to your commute! Longer commute=higher tax. Although an extra $5 per gallon tax on gas would do the same....

CA pretends to be liberal (only for pot and gay rights really) but at the same time we have prop 13 which cements you into a long commute at some point for most people who own a house long term.

Oh and all the federal loan mods, underwater REFI programs,and foreclosure slowdowns simply make this worse cementing people in place when THEY SHOULD BE RENTERS.

PockyClipsNow says

owning really doesnt jive with tech workers or anyone who changes jobs alla time.

There are job centers you can live in with plenty of employment for tech workers who like working for startups where very little time can pass until running out of money, an acquisition, and/or pivot suggests working elsewhere.The same places also have big companies where many people tend towards longer tenures.

Sunnyvale, CA is centrally located enough that anything between Menlo Park and San Jose is a comfortable bicycle commute and there are enough tech jobs that you can pretty much ignore everywhere else. Extra time commuting can count towards the six hours a week it takes to stay in decent shape so it's almost free (you don't have as many opportunities to change the scenery when traveling between home and work as if you just headed out in an arbitrary direction with no destination in mind).

Boulder, CO has enough going on within city limits that you can ignore the surrounding area. If you really want commuting by bicycle to Longmont and Louisville is also viable which covers the bulk of Boulder County. In the fifteen years I lived there none of my eight jobs required commuting by car.

Etc.

Property values in such locations might mean you get a double wide mobile home, town house, or condominium instead of a site built 2000 square foot single family house; although 1-2 people with one or more pets and flower/herb/vegetable gardens can be comfortable in a third of that space.

it still sounds like a nightmare to me but good to hear that you landed on your feet.

i remember when i was renting it was a bit like musical chairs. Onr time I found myself with no chair and ended up signing a 1 year lease at this horrible apartment with a half deaf russian guy living below me who i could hear talking through the walls all night long...ah those were the days.

We already have 20% equity after buying end of January in Danville.. Put a small amount of money into the house and I already can refinance and get rid of PMI! Plus I'm living in s 2600 sq. foot house much nicer than the rental cheaper than rent!! Prices/pendings/sales going high right now... Glad we bought...

NO I am not a realtor!! This is the TRUTH! I was even extremely active in Ben's housing bubble blog in LA for years!

guruoracle says

We already have 20% equity after buying end of January in Danville.. Put a small amount of money into the house and I already can refinance and get rid of PMI! Plus I'm living in s 2600 sq. foot house much nicer than the rental cheaper than rent!! Prices/pendings/sales going high right now... Glad we bought...

NO I am not a realtor!! This is the TRUTH! I was even extremely active in Ben's housing bubble blog in LA for years!

More like you think you have 20%. The data is not showing a 20% gain in Danville. You might have got lucky and bought below market value, but that is not the norm. Most sellers are hard pushed to get down to market value.

We did buy below market due to many years of research and watching the market plus some luck!

You never mentioned why you moved ley me guess. They raised the rent?

toothfairy says

You never mentioned why you moved ley me guess. They raised the rent?

Landlord moving back in. No rent raise. We actually found a nicer place for less rent. There are screaming renter deals out there! I have never seen it so good before. $2500 gets you close to a 1mil house if you look hard enough and are lucky enough to have great credit and no pets/smokers.

oh really? give an example of a 1m house that rents for $2500

Nothing in Danville has gone up 20% since Jan anyway, so it's total hogwash as usual.

So many tools.

CrazyMan says

Nothing in Danville has gone up 20% since Jan anyway, so it's total hogwash as usual.

So many tools.

We bought a fixer below market and remodeled cheaply.. OURS has went up!

Call it Crazy says

guruoracle says

We already have 20% equity after buying end of January in Danville..

The 20% is your original downpayment, it's YOUR money, not equity....

NOPE... FHA 3.5% down... Now I can refinance to a LOWER interest rate and remove PMI...

So you spent ~20% to have the value of the home increase by ~20%.

That's ingenious!

I'm going to borrow a million from the bank tomorrow and then I'M GOING TO BE A MILLIONAIRE!!!

Also, FYI, there is no such thing as "below market".

RentingForHalfTheCost says

$2500 gets you close to a 1mil house if you look hard enough and are lucky enough to have great credit and no pets/smokers.

Oh shut up... show me a link to a million dollar home that rents for $2500.

BoomAndBustCycle says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

$2500 gets you close to a 1mil house if you look hard enough and are lucky enough to have great credit and no pets/smokers.

Oh shut up... show me a link to a million dollar home that rents for $2500.

Doesnt exist. he needs to change his name to Rentingforthreequartersthecost.

toothfairy says

oh really? give an example of a 1m house that rents for $2500

Mine for the last 5 years of renting. Recent sells in my new area has me thinking that I am in a 1.2m now. And guess what? No property tax, no insurance, no PMI, no worry about the market continuing to go south. I just hang by the pool and smile. ;)

RentingForHalfTheCost says

toothfairy says

oh really? give an example of a 1m house that rents for $2500

Mine for the last 5 years of renting. Recent sells in my new area has me thinking that I am in a 1.2m now. And guess what? No property tax, no insurance, no PMI, no worry about the market continuing to go south. I just hang by the pool and smile. ;)

Lucky you! Most people aren't so lucky! Look on Craigslist to see reality... I am extremely happy we bought in February! When we refinance next month PMI will be GONE and our payment will be cheaper than rent for a larger/nicer house in a better neighborhood. I was a part of Ben's blog in LA and even hosted get togethers. Due to the knowledge I gained, I was able to get a great deal and live happily! I don't have to worry about an idiot landlord raising my rent or telling me what to do. NOW is a bad time to buy as I think there is a bump going on now. I don't care if prices go down since I have a 30 year fixed and it will always be lower than rent as I don't see rents going down anytime soon as I live in a high dollar East bay neighborhood.

toothfairy says

BoomAndBustCycle says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

$2500 gets you close to a 1mil house if you look hard enough and are lucky enough to have great credit and no pets/smokers.

Oh shut up... show me a link to a million dollar home that rents for $2500.

Doesnt exist. he needs to change his name to Rentingforthreequartersthecost.

I'll find you guys a house for a small fee if you want.

www.mapliv.com and you can do it yourself. Took me about 2 weeks of searching to change my renting status

Foster City 2900 for a 1.2m house
Pleasanton 3000 for a 1.2m house

Easy as pie. In total I visited about 10 houses in 2 weekends. There were a lot of 2500/mth for houses that could sell for 1mil+. Each area I checked the redfin sales data to see the prices. You can do the same if you are such inclined. I'd rather spend my time thinking about how to spend the other half of my ownership costs each month. Life is hard.

sheltielover1 says

Lucky you! Most people aren't so lucky! Look on Craigslist to see reality... I

That is the problem. People look on craiglists one day and make up there mind. If you are serious then you search multiple site daily until you find a place that fits. They are out there. Not everyone is trying to sneak every last dollar out of their rental. Some people actually love their house and are just looking for someone to do the same.

People will spend months to years looking for a house to buy, but look for days for a rental and then cry there are none cheap. Crazy behavior for such a large financial event. Invest your money to become rich, rent a pile of crappy wood to keep yourself safe from the outside elements. ;)

RentingForHalfTheCost says

sheltielover1 says

Lucky you! Most people aren't so lucky! Look on Craigslist to see reality... I

That is the problem. People look on craiglists one day and make up there mind. If you are serious then you search multiple site daily until you find a place that fits. They are out there. Not everyone is trying to sneak every last dollar out of their rental. Some people actually love their house and are just looking for someone to do the same.

People will spend months to years looking for a house to buy, but look for days for a rental and then cry there are none cheap. Crazy behavior for such a large financial event. Invest your money to become rich, rent a pile of crappy wood to keep yourself safe from the outside elements. ;)

Life's too short to live in a shithole! You can't take the money with you! Our payment is 25% of our monthly income. Quite reasonable. I don;'t want to be under someone's thumb..

sheltielover1 says

Life's too short to live in a shithole! You can't take the money with you! Our payment is 25% of our monthly income. Quite reasonable. I don;'t want to be under someone's thumb..

Huh? Being indebted to a bank in not under someone's thumb, it is under their whole body while they gyrate on you. I'd rather be paying 1/2 the cost of ownership to a person with a heart. Banks only care about your money, no heart. Good luck the next 30 years, hope you can always cover the payment. ;)

Btw, most owners in the bay area live in a shithole while they are indebted to the bank.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

sheltielover1 says

Life's too short to live in a shithole! You can't take the money with you! Our payment is 25% of our monthly income. Quite reasonable. I don;'t want to be under someone's thumb..

Huh? Being indebted to a bank in not under someone's thumb, it is under their whole body while they gyrate on you. I'd rather be paying 1/2 the cost of ownership to a person with a heart. Banks only care about your money, no heart. Good luck the next 30 years, hope you can always cover the payment. ;)

30 Years? I don't think so! Because we bought so cheaply - 10 years!

sheltielover1 says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

sheltielover1 says

Life's too short to live in a shithole! You can't take the money with you! Our payment is 25% of our monthly income. Quite reasonable. I don;'t want to be under someone's thumb..

Huh? Being indebted to a bank in not under someone's thumb, it is under their whole body while they gyrate on you. I'd rather be paying 1/2 the cost of ownership to a person with a heart. Banks only care about your money, no heart. Good luck the next 30 years, hope you can always cover the payment. ;)

30 Years? I don't think so! Because we bought so cheaply - 10 years!

If I wouldn't be able to make my mortgage I would not be able to make the rent payment either - hence why we bought! LIFE is DIFFERENT for everyone!

sheltielover1 says

If I wouldn't be able to make my mortgage I would not be able to make the rent payment either - hence why we bought! LIFE is DIFFERENT for everyone!

You don't live in the bay area then, cause rent is half of ownership costs around here. If you live outside then I am in agreement with you. Hardly anyone in the bay area can pay down a house in 10 years. They will be lucky to meet all the obligations while they tick away at the 30 years. I got many at my work that can't put any money in their 401k, or company share programs because it all goes into their overpriced house. Good thinking when they could have rented the same place for 1/2 the cost and actually be accumulating wealth each paycheck.