patrick.net

You found real wasabi at restaurants in the USA?

Where do you live? Can you send me a e-mail? My wife does not allow me to discuss our favorite Japanese restaurant on the blog anymore.

If you feel like eating lots of goof fish, Sawa sushi in Sunnyvale is a good choice. But they pretty much only have raw fish and nothing else. They have no menu and no prices. It is all up to the chef.

They will give you so much fish that you do not want to see sushi for at least two weeks. The quality is good though.

Still, USA is not Japan. The fish is never exactly the same.

When I posted Kathleen Pender's article yesterday, I did leave out the choicest part. Now this guy is definitely trying to do his part. I nominate him for (almost) real financial hero of the week.
Daniel Y. of San Francisco has a question that's on the mind of many homeowners these days. Daniel wants to sell his condo and move into a bigger one in a nicer neighborhood. He figures the price he could get would pay off his first mortgage, but not a $50,000 home equity line of credit he took out last year to repay credit card debt.
Daniel says the shortfall could be $10,000 to $30,000 and wants to know what would happen if he didn't pay it.
Non-recourse is starting to go "Main Street", and people are getting creative... I love Amerika.

El HARM-O
7/7/07 good for you and Mrs HARM?

Si, señor.
For the rest of you: this is the tentative date for SoCAL Blog Party III.

>> Daniel wants to sell his condo and move into a bigger one in a nicer neighborhood. He figures the price he could get would pay off his first mortgage, but not a $50,000 home equity line of credit he took out last year to repay credit card debt. Daniel says the shortfall could be $10,000 to $30,000 and wants to know what would happen if he didn’t pay it.

EBGuy:
> Non-recourse is starting to go “Main Street”, and people are getting creative… I love Amerika.

HELOCs are still recourse, of course, and will remain so. Daniel better puts the debt back on his credit card, if he wants the deal. But you're right, too: The question alone tells of an immoral mind.

"The question alone tells of an immoral mind"

Yeah, wazzup? Doesn't sound like "A Real Financial Hero" to me! Should any of us be surprised? Evidently the very mindset that allows one to get a NINJA loan is the same one that allows you to walk away from it. But just the fact that he's considering selling and moving to a bigger unit in a nicer area means he should at least be given "side-kick status". Not a "real" hero, more like Tonto or Robin (The Boy Wonder).

But just the fact that he’s considering selling and moving to a bigger unit in a nicer area means he should at least be given “side-kick status”.

And, quite possibly, he has inspired a 100% ARM holder in a subdivision where similar houses are now selling for $100k less to "upgrade" and then drop the less desirable home (mortgage).
Heck I am even giving consideration to a spec-u-vestment for the two year capital gains exemption if they are still writing 100% option ARMs. Well, maybe I'll wait to see if the Mortgage Cancellation Tax Relief Act of 2007 becomes law -- no reason to ruin one's credit if it doesn't work out. :-)

What are the 2 things you need to run a scam in Florida?

1. Phone

2. Air conditioner

Daniel Y. of San Francisco has fugging balls of fugging steel to even ask that fugging question.

I, too, would like to move to a 'nicer place' in a 'nicer neighborhood' and have someone pay me $30K to do so. I would also like a three-way with Jessicas Biel and Alba.

Licensed real estate agent complaining about the high prices

Housing prices are outrageous!!! Especially for what they look like inside!!!!!

OK rant over.

For the rest of you: this is the tentative date for SoCAL Blog Party III.

Blog Party III? For marketing purpose perhaps you should call it Blog Party 777.

Here's a new one in a rental property -
"(covered through your low $40 monthly HOA dues)" - not only are they asking for a lot of rent, but they want you to pay the HOA fees as well!

Uncle HARM, some candy please?

@Peter P,

;-) Nice catch, and all 7's --very lucky. Funny, I didn't notice that.

Maybe it is one of those cases where they are only prosecuting the crime they can prove (even though many more crimes were probably committed).

sawa sushi is excellent, I think my favorite is still Ebisu in SF. Reasonable price but great quality.

WW: I can't tell if you are a Troll or just ignorant. Tracking prices in a small area hardly makes you an expert.

sawa sushi is excellent, I think my favorite is still Ebisu in SF. Reasonable price but great quality.

WW: I can’t tell if you are a Troll or just ignorant. Tracking prices in a small area for one year hardly makes you an expert.

WealthyWoman,

Appreciate your insight and concern. Could you provide the following:

1) List of houses that you've been trying to purchase but failed
2) Original list price
3) Selling price
4) MLS number
5) Any other date that you deem pertinent

Thanks

- date
+ data

Dammit, you guys made Big Brother undergo a gender change? For shame. Although, well... it is San Fran, after all.

Wealthy Woman, I keep bidding on foreclosures, but they're going for 125%+ of the asking price with multiple bids. How's the sunny walk playing poker with the Confused guys of Marina?

Carl Says: I would also like a three-way with Jessicas Biel and Alba.

I would take just Biel. No need to be greedy when the quality is that high.

Where do you live? Can you send me a e-mail? My wife does not allow me to discuss our favorite Japanese restaurant on the blog anymore.

Why's that?

I hope to be able to make it. It will be fun to meet all of you in person.

PeterP we're going to be up your way tomorrow. If you and you wife are free for dinner you can send an email to Malcolm.Shaw@Cox.net.

no period after the .net

WealthyWoman:

If I may ask, why is it that you are in such a hurry to buy?

serpentor,

Reasons why "WealthyWoman" is a troll and not just ignorant.

1. The statement "the market is in a frenzy" is just a straight lie, when you consider every statistical report from the likes of Dataquick etc. is saying the exact opposite. Heck, even CAR is reporting a slow market.
2. "You guys should seriously wake up from denial." Right, let's denigrate the regulars on our very first post. Without. as BAN points out above, providing a single piece of hard evidence for why they are wrong.

(OK, I will admit it's just possible she's an incredibly crass MOTU who is talking about a vanishingly small top-end submarket with her condescending "areas ... that people want to live". Still not someone I'm interested in conversing with.)

It is funny to have someone say people here are in denial, especailly when the majority of us aren't even in the Bay area. I too am suspicious but I try to give the person the benefit of the doubt until I know for sure. It sure has been a long time since I've seen anyone dispute the bubble bursting.

i have spent several months in mainland china, and met hundreds of people... never heard Tang or poon back to a "nin gui shing?" ever...

i have spent several months in mainland china, and met hundreds of people… never heard Tang or poon back to a “nin gui shing?” ever…

Did you miss the part where it was pointed out that the last name Poon is mostly found in Hong Kong?

never heard Tang or Poon back to a “nin gui shing?” ever…

I have seen both of those last names on the cubicles around campus, but my mind never made a connection between them until this thread.

SP

A nice anecdote from dinner with some friends tonight - one of them is selling his house on the market. His agent from Boldwell-Canker has been pressuring him to 'expect to make concessions' (i.e. prepare to offer non-cash incentives) if he wants to sell at all, and to lower his desired asking price if he wants to sell quickly. This is in the heart of the 'Frickin Fortress'.

It looks like if you are trying to sell the damn house, the realtwhores sing you a different tune.

SP

All this spend spend spend and serfdom is terribly sad.
I have colleagues here in the East Bay who have not been to the beach for 6 years. All they do is work endless hours and shop for bling bling.
They think my siesta lifestyle with no debt and no mortgage is crazy.
This is absolutely crazy. People in Europe "work to live", but I guess it is "live to work" here in California.
I wonder if Californians would work so hard if it weren't for the huge debt load over their heads ??

One thing I have noticed here is that it is difficult to differentiate between the rich from the stretched middleclass. Everyone has bling bling here because of the easy credit. In Europe it is easy to differentiate between the rich and the middleclass.

Sorry uncle Ben, no debt for me.

Housing Bubble vs Great Depression.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLjo7-J1qho

azrob,

My dentist's last name is Poon and both Tang and Poon (Peng in Mandarin) are very common names. Quite a few board members are from China/Taiwan/Hong Kong. A couple month in China as a nonspeaker does not compare.

PS-in my almost 20 years in the United States, I've never met a Seward or Williamson, but I do not assume they are Norwegian nicknames if I should ever encounter them.

astrid Says:

PS-in my almost 20 years in the United States, I’ve never met a Seward or Williamson, but I do not assume they are Norwegian nicknames if I should ever encounter them.
_____

You should come to my work. I'll introduce you to T. Williamson.

WealthyWoman Says:

> Do you guys really think prices are falling in San
> Francisco, and other areas in the Bay Area that
> people want to live?

We don’t “think” they are falling, we “know” they are falling based on the majority of sale prices (sure every now and then a Google guy or VC partner will buy in Atherton or Presidio Heights at a super high price, but “almost all” homes and condos in “the places people want to live” are selling for less than they did last year)…

> I’ve been trying to buy a house for a year now,
> and the market is in a frenzy.

If you are a “wealthy woman” why are you just trying to buy a house now (Most on this blog have posted many times why they don’t own a home)?

> The houses i have tracked and wanted to buy are
> up about 7-10% since this time last year, and about
> 3-4% this year already.

Have the homes been on the market for over a year with the sellers raising the asking price or have you just been talking to Realtors (who say that 10% appreciation is the bare minimum you can expect)?

How about even one example of a home or condo that you feel is up 7-10% and let us know how you determined the increase in value (did someone actually sell a year later, did you ask the owner, did you look on Zillow)?

I never said they never existed in china at all... my god the people on this blog have nothing to do but look for ways to snip at anyone who writes anything...must be something with internal bitterness...

In a nation with 1 billion people, you can probably find every mathematical combination of roman letters used as pinyin version of someones last name...

However, they are remarkably common thai nicknames, and I am willing to be a non asian, ie "they all look the same to me" meeting a poon or a tang is much more likely to have met a Thai person then a chinese...

and fyi "wo hue shuo idian dian pu tong hua" and "Pom pood pasa thai nidnoy" I don't write pinyin well but ce la vie!

Ozman,

There's a lot more of us livin the siesta lifestyle than you might think.
See, since we're not conspicuously consuming, we are kinda like wallpaper.

All the Beautiful People look right past or right through us. We don't exist.

And we like it that way.

WealthyWoman,

The sharks er..Realtors are surrounding you right now. They have a live one. she's ready to buy. raise the price. ghost bidders...they are going to try to drain your $$ dry. I'll throw in some chum for ya.