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Where is everyone getting the money?


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2011 Jul 12, 5:04am   38,996 views  162 comments

by exfatguy   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

So all of you cash buyers, and those that can afford high down payments in pricy areas, if you don't mind my asking, where are you getting the money? Sometimes it seems like everyone but me in the Bay Area has hundreds of thousands in cash to plunk down on houses. Am I really the only one that doesn't?

So, if you don't mind, enlighten me. Where did you get your money, especially those that can throw, say, $300K-500K (or more) on a house.

Is it...

1. You just worked hard and saved. All blood, sweat, and tears!
2. Worked hard, got a bit lucky with stock options, made out like a bandit.
3. Inheritance
4. Lottery
5. Bought homes at start of (or before) bubble, then wisely cashed out at peak.

So which is it? The only things I might ever have a chance at are (1) and (2), but if that's not enough, then perhaps I shouldn't even bother trying, at least in the Bay Area.

Thanks!

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94   MoneySheep   2011 Jul 13, 11:24am  

E-man says

The minority people work based on trust.

E-man says

Some of the investors I currently work with got their money from over sea. Their relatives wire-transfered money on the order of $100k to $200k/month to the U.S.

It is quite true. That's probably why micro-loan (like Kiva) works in Asia. If we have micro-loan in socal, every one will jump in and using the micro-loan as downpayment for houses, then, do a strategic default.

95   corntrollio   2011 Jul 13, 11:30am  

MoneySheep says

That's probably why micro-loan (like Kiva) works in Asia. If we have micro-loan in socal, every one will jump in and using the micro-loan as downpayment for houses, then, do a strategic default.

Really? You think people will start using $383.72 loans for down payments? We are talking about relatively small amounts of money by our standards.

http://www.kiva.org/about/stats

It's fun to stereotype a continent with almost 4 billion people and all, but get real.

The reason Kiva works is the same reason traditional lending works (i.e. not "innovative" finance with "alternatives" to traditional A paper and alternatives to traditional subprime that aren't tested) -- people actually take the time to assess credit-worthiness:

http://www.kiva.org/about/risk

96   JG1   2011 Jul 13, 11:38am  

MoneySheep says

If I tell you how, I will have to kill you.

You are not going to believe it, I won a lottery. If you look hard enough, you will find my story on San Jose Mercury.

Is this you? http://abc.go.com/shows/lost/bio/hugo-reyes/39832

97   JG1   2011 Jul 13, 11:41am  

MoneySheep says

E-man says

The minority people work based on trust.

E-man says

Some of the investors I currently work with got their money from over sea. Their relatives wire-transfered money on the order of $100k to $200k/month to the U.S.

It is quite true. That's probably why micro-loan (like Kiva) works in Asia. If we have micro-loan in socal, every one will jump in and using the micro-loan as downpayment for houses, then, do a strategic default.

I don't see how these can work in the U.S. or at least in California. $300 to start up a business won't cover the business license and possibly other regulatory licenses in many locales and God forbid you want to form an LLC for liability or other purposes - CA wants $800 minimum for every year including the first/partial year, regardless of profit/loss/revenues. All this assuming, which these days is not a bad assumption, that local zoning ordinances allow you to conduct your business out of your house (can't rent much commercial space with $300).

98   B.A.C.A.H.   2011 Jul 13, 1:36pm  

If I had that kind of money, the last thing I'd do is boast about it or even mention it on a web-blog.

Jeez.

99   B.A.C.A.H.   2011 Jul 13, 1:40pm  

corntrollio says

Where the f*$& did you get that from?

Chill out dude.

And I did not claim to be an expert on dowries or anything like that (just passed along what I read during the dot.com), nor did I fabricate the story. But I did read it, and it did match a few stories of colleagues of mine.

Why would someone go through the trouble spend time to make up and spread lies on a blog? What would the point of that be?

100   thomas.wong1986   2011 Jul 13, 2:28pm  

corntrollio says

Really? You think people will start using $383.72 loans for down payments? We are talking about relatively small amounts of money by our standards.

Lol! you might as well give it away, better yet just donate to charity and get a tax write off.

101   Magic   2011 Jul 13, 3:51pm  

I know lots of Asian families are renting out rooms or living a few families in a house to pay down the house faster. One around the corner has 7 cars in their house.

102   Austinhousingbubble   2011 Jul 13, 4:00pm  

There are 3 supermarkets within walking distance

AND they are Publix supermarkets....some of the best in the land.

Your place sounds amazing, and a lot like one I used to live in years ago. Loved it.

103   Michinaga   2011 Jul 13, 9:39pm  

Entirely #1 for me.

I bought my condo in Tokyo for cash in my 10th year our of college for 14 million yen, or about $140k at the time. No assistance from anyone and no spousal earnings either.

My salary has risen from about $30k when I started to about $45k now. Thing were much harder in the beginning -- I worked 12-14 hours a day, speaking a foreign language all day long and commuting on packed trains; the sheer exhaustion and misery of those first three years meant that whatever I was doing after that, I wouldn't be complaining.

I keep my expensive vices to a minimum. I like those $4 Belgian beers and find myself buying imported snack foods too often, but I spend less on those things that a lot of people spend in a month on something like cable television.

I've never made a penny on investments -- the first $2000 I saved in my first job went into the stock market, was cut in half with in a month (crash of 2000), and so I decided to stick with cash. Just kept staying in the black every month and watching that bank balance climb.

The key is to (1) not live in the Bay Area, and (2) not buy too much house. My condo is urban-sized, which means no extraneous space and no pointless, time-consuming yardwork (and thus no long commute, and no automobile, and none of the other hidden costs of suburbia), and in the future when kids come along (hopefully!), we can move into something bigger and rent this out to pay for it.

My only regret is that I wish I could have gotten a loan back when I had 20% of the purchase price of my home -- it's almost impossible to borrow any money in Japan if you don't have citizenship or permanent residence. As it was, I had to continue to save until I had 100%, which meant many years of paying rent to a landlord and not being able to build equity.

104   mdovell   2011 Jul 13, 10:41pm  

I once told a coworker "If you cannot make more then the only way to have more is to save more" he stared at me as if I was inviting a rabbi to shura!

Sometimes it isn't so much how much people make but as to how they spend it. I have a close friend that inherited about 30K (relative passed away and the land was sold, they split it around). He went on a buying spree that made his house look like a best buy. Digital camera, digital camera printer, pda, tons of games, tons of dvds, books and booze. His excuse was that he was (and still is) at a dead end job.

He could have gone back to school and finished the degree and would have been in better shape..heck if he would have bought gold or silver he would have been better off.

During the bubble there was plenty of crazy buying. Even outside of housing. Post 9/11 we had zero percent financing on cars, trucks, suv's..not a bright move. Just because people can buy things doesn't mean they can afford them. Cash for clunkers might have increased car sales but now millions are in debt from this that probably didn't really need a new car to begin with.

The older I get the less affect advertising has on me. I just saw an ad for a medicine saying that half of it was sodium bicarbonate. If I was a kid I'd be impressed but that's common baking soda!

"it's almost impossible to borrow any money in Japan if you don't have citizenship or permanent residence"
I hear Japan in general can be very rough against foreigners working there. I know a few people who have visited there for awhile and they tend to say the same things. South Korea and China tend to be more open.
\There's a book that came out that 's a bit about working in Japan called The Year of No Money in Toyko
http://www.amazon.com/Year-No-Money-Tokyo/dp/0982055005

105   corntrollio   2011 Jul 14, 7:13am  

Sybrib says

And I did not claim to be an expert on dowries or anything like that (just passed along what I read during the dot.com), nor did I fabricate the story. But I did read it, and it did match a few stories of colleagues of mine.

Yeah, your friend's friend's friend's cousin's dentist's brother-in-law's neighbor said this. I get it.

Why would someone go through the trouble spend time to make up and spread lies on a blog? What would the point of that be?

You clearly do not read certain posts here on Patrick.net if you believe that. Also, being uninformed is being uninformed.

106   corntrollio   2011 Jul 14, 7:22am  

Magic says

I know lots of Asian families are renting out rooms or living a few families in a house to pay down the house faster. One around the corner has 7 cars in their house.

In fact this is common for any group of people who are more communitarian than the stereotypical more individualistic American, or any group of people for whom it's more common to have people of more generations living together. It wasn't nearly as uncommon even in the US only a generation ago -- my in-laws lived at one of their parents' house, even for some small period of time after they had kids in order to save money. In addition, each of them lived at their respective parents' house as adults until they got married, which is less common here in the US these days too.'

Michinaga says

The key is to (1) not live in the Bay Area, and (2) not buy too much house. My condo is urban-sized, which means no extraneous space and no pointless, time-consuming yardwork (and thus no long commute, and no automobile, and none of the other hidden costs of suburbia), and in the future when kids come along (hopefully!), we can move into something bigger and rent this out to pay for it.

But you do have to be careful that transaction costs don't kill you on this. Buying property has transaction costs, and if you have a short time horizon for staying in a "starter house," you can get nailed on transaction costs. You also have to make sure it makes financial sense to rent out the prior house, or it's better to just sell.

Not living in the Bay Area certainly helps with the value proposition in many cases. The Bay Area is certainly one of the worst places in the country to find rental properties to invest in (not suggesting you can't find them, but just that it's easier to find cashflow elsewhere).

107   B.A.C.A.H.   2011 Jul 14, 12:18pm  

corntrollio says

Yeah, your friend's friend's friend's cousin's dentist's brother-in-law's neighbor said this. I get it.

Actually, the first colleague I know who fit that pattern was my boss, this was during the dotcom days. After he returned, another engineer that was my peer, working in the same department for the same boss, did the same thing.

I actually showed my boss that letter to the editor to ask him if it's true. He was a very personable guy. He just smiled and didn't say anything. Yep. Better to be discreet than to boast.

A few years later a couple of other engineers followed the same sequence: green card, "bride from back home", then Fortress House, within a year or so time frame. One of them was also a peer in the department, the other was in a department we worked with.

I don't really care if you believe it or not, but that is what happened, these were other engineers, my coworkers, not some sixth degree of separation rumor persons. Believe what you want to. Call me a liar if you want to. Sticks and stones. I have better things to do than make up phoney stories for a weblog.

108   B.A.C.A.H.   2011 Jul 14, 12:33pm  

mdovell says

I hear Japan in general can be very rough against foreigners working there

That is interesting. Did you hear any specifics about it?

109   Â¥   2011 Jul 14, 2:31pm  

The sample of foreigners Japanese people are exposed to in Japan is far from a random distribution. They get their share of lechs, clods, crazy, and inconsiderate gaijin.

The Japanese, being relatively isolated on their own little island at the edge of the world for a millennia and more, have a right to be chauvinistic about their own culture and judgmental about other people that they become exposed to.

Hitler and Goebbels spun up some pop-culture racial superiority BS from 19th century Romantics, but the Japanese have the luxury of actually having a very deep and impressive cultural tradition of their very own, even if 90% of it was appropriated from others, often quite literally.

Unlike the US or (for the most part) the EU's new attempt at "multiculturalism", people not born in Japan of Japanese parents are (with very few exceptions) still very much out-group and 1.5 class citizens at best.

But things are slowly changing I guess and the zainichi Koreans are slowly assimilating I suppose. Much of the Japanese entertainment industry is Korean-Japanese, almost to the extent and sub-rosa visibility that Hollywood is Jewish-American.

Not a whole lot of effort is made by Japanese to self-understand or improve this situation. Things are as they are, and might get better, or might not.

As the generation that remembers WW2 passes on, and contacts within the Far East continue to intertwine the neighboring cultures, I think things will get better. The System does tend to do a real good mindfuck on Japanese kids growing up though, imprinting a certain degree of cultural conservatism coupled with an abject lack of knowledge of history, 1925 - August 5, 1945.

110   corntrollio   2011 Jul 15, 3:37am  

Sybrib says

I don't really care if you believe it or not, but that is what happened, these were other engineers, my coworkers, not some sixth degree of separation rumor persons.

What you have absolutely no knowledge about is the actual dowries -- you are just stereotyping and assuming. I doubt any of them told you anything, and even your boss appears to have smiled and muttered "silly American" to himself. The dowry system is largely extinct in Indian cities, and there's no way that village people are saving up $100K cash as you claimed in another thread.

111   chip_designer   2011 Jul 15, 3:44am  

edvard2 says

renting cheap, driving the same worn-out ancient beater cars, rarely eating out, picking up furniture from the side of the road, not buying whatever latest gadget exists out there

you are a cheap bastard :) or you are one unique caucasian
you must not be married, are there girls who likes cheap life?

112   Ace   2011 Jul 15, 5:54am  

Many buyers in higher RE markets have corporate relocation packages that include home sale help for their old place, down payment loan if needed, buy downs and all sorts of help built into their purchase. They also get the better deals from banks be/c the employer, and they are in a higher mgmt/exec salary bracket.

113   thomas.wong1986   2011 Jul 15, 6:37am  

Ace says

Many buyers in higher RE markets have corporate relocation

In the Bay Area, you mean very few... we had 400 public companies back in 2000, down to low 200s today.

Plenty supply of CEO, CFO, VPs, mid managers and staffers kicking the can the down the street. They are all begging for jobs today, and since SOX you can forget about Perks.

114   corntrollio   2011 Jul 15, 6:39am  

Ace says

Many buyers in higher RE markets have corporate relocation packages

A lot of relo packages that have housing-specific items (as opposed to "we are giving you $X for relo") focus on transaction costs, e.g. realtor fees and closing costs, often with a cap, and often they'll reimburse for hiring movers. More common is just either $X or "we'll pay for your movers."

If you're talking C-level, a lot of C-level people already live here.

115   Jimbo in SF   2011 Jul 15, 7:12am  

I'm an immigrant, definitely no help from parents etc.

This how I saved the $300k downpayment to buy a house in SF:
- Both wife and I are frugal
- Kept monthly bills to a minimum (only recently got cable TV as I wanted better Internet speed)
- 2nd hand cars which I keep for a long time
- Took advantage of rent controlled apt in SF which really helped savings
- Invested in the stock market, foreign currency, gold, property outside of CA
- HH salary rose from prob $80k to $250k over 13 yrs

116   burritos   2011 Jul 15, 7:32am  

JonnyG says

burritos says

JonnyG says

When I had extra money, you bought a ski boat and a nice vacation. I never took vacations for more than a couple days in my 20's and 30's and I invested any extra money in my own business.

When you missed payments occasionally and didn't work to protect your credit, I used my good credit to take out out loans for my business.

When you were avoiding risk, I put everything I had into my business and risked it all for 20 years.

Now that I am in my 40's I have some money in the bank. Go figure.

Good job. If 1/4 of the Americans were this industrious, we'd be in good shape. Unfortunately it's probably less than 1%.

Funny how my income is in the top 1% now...so was my effort.

I think there was a misunderstanding. What I was trying to say that more people should put in the effort that you've described. If people did, we'd be in good shape. However, I think less than 1% of the population works this hard. Therefore, it'd make sense that your income would be in the the top 1%.

117   mdovell   2011 Jul 15, 9:58am  

Japan certainly is a odd case because unlike say Germany it is an island and relations were not (and some could stay still are not) fixed with neighbors. US bases and involvement in the korean and vietnam wars coupled with the western isolation of Japan and the cold war itself contributed to the mindset.

When you combine a long life expectancy (which keeps growing) and low birth rate eventually you can have labor shortages. From what I understand it looks like it is Brazilians that make up some of the labor force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilians_in_Japan

118   Â¥   2011 Jul 15, 10:40am  

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/business/global/23immigrant.html

at this point -- strong yen and weak yuan -- it makes much more sense for Japan to pay Chinese to work in China.

There are 12 yen to the yuan. Y1200 is an average wageslave salary in Japan, but the 100 kuai in China is some big bucks --

http://en.ce.cn/subject/mncsinchina/mncsinchinamncs/201103/14/t20110314_22296258.shtml

says a MONTHLY salary is 1500 kuai, so 15 hours of cheapish labor in Japan is the same cost as a MONTH in China.

This was my theory for studying Mandarin back in 2008-2009. I didn't want to work in China or Taiwan, but I think being trilingual in Japanese/Mandarin/English will be useful, career-wise.

119   Dan8267   2011 Jul 15, 1:04pm  

agrifolia says

For me it's about half inheritance from grandparents and half saved income from being longtime DINK (until recently).

Wow, Dink. Haven't heard that acronym in 20 years.

120   ppexx   2011 Jul 16, 10:47pm  

It is easy:
Live the simple life, do buy/own a lot of junk
Live below your means
Immediately move from the hell hole of California
Do not buy stocks, buy RE
No credit card debt, no car loans, go in to debt for RE only
Do not listen to morons that recommend you rent, buy RE cheap

121   bubblesburst   2011 Jul 17, 12:59am  

Worked extremely hard for many years since graduating University. Paid off all debt and stayed out of debt. Lived within my means and took advantage of the power of compound investing since I was 21.

I've been fortunate that I've had executive level jobs all my life and made great income. Sold my house and all USA real estate before the crash and bought real estate in other places around the world where it wasn't out of whack like the USA. (And in most of those places now the real estate has doubled in value).

Although I'd continue buying investment properties, my primary residence I rented for 7 years waiting for real estate values in the USA to crash. I finally gave in and bought a home a few weeks ago.

Then it just became a matter of continuing to work really hard, spinning off rental income from the other properties and continuing that pattern and saving up.

Lots of blood, sweat and tears.... It's my opinion that short of winning the lottery or inheriting money or having a trust fund set up for you....there is no short cut to building up lots of wealth other than hard work or lots of luck maybe in picking the right stocks.

122   Tude   2011 Jul 17, 2:00am  

bubblesburst says

Worked extremely hard for many years since graduating University. Paid off all debt and stayed out of debt. Lived within my means and took advantage of the power of compound investing since I was 21.

I've been fortunate that I've had executive level jobs all my life and made great income.

Some people just don't have a clue....

123   bubblesburst   2011 Jul 17, 5:05am  

Tude says

bubblesburst says

Worked extremely hard for many years since graduating University. Paid off all debt and stayed out of debt. Lived within my means and took advantage of the power of compound investing since I was 21.

I've been fortunate that I've had executive level jobs all my life and made great income.

Some people just don't have a clue....

Tude,

NOW that we can both agree on. Some people have no clue is right. Never before have so many people woken up to the fact that they are worth NEGATIVE $0. Not only do they have no net worth but a negative net worth. Very scary.

124   ih8alameda   2011 Jul 17, 6:35am  

Now I see that Patrick really is filled with bad advice. Pretty much everyone who responded worked hard and got nothing from anyone else. Apparently most people can save $60k in 6 months because they drive 10yr old cars. Give me a f-ing break.

If you really live that frugally and can save $60k in 6 months just buy a house already, even if it drops in value, you can make it up easily. It sure beats being sour and stressed out about when the market will drop another 3-5-x percent.

125   Tude   2011 Jul 18, 2:38am  

ih8alameda says

Now I see that Patrick really is filled with bad advice. Pretty much everyone who responded worked hard and got nothing from anyone else. Apparently most people can save $60k in 6 months because they drive 10yr old cars. Give me a f-ing break.

You forgot the fact that you just need to go out there and get yourself one of the executive level jobs. I wish I would have just thought of that!

126   edvard2   2011 Jul 18, 3:23am  

ih8alameda says

Now I see that Patrick really is filled with bad advice. Pretty much everyone who responded worked hard and got nothing from anyone else. Apparently most people can save $60k in 6 months because they drive 10yr old cars. Give me a f-ing break.

If you really live that frugally and can save $60k in 6 months just buy a house already, even if it drops in value, you can make it up easily. It sure beats being sour and stressed out about when the market will drop another 3-5-x percent.

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Sure- it sounds like there's some people here who make a ton of money. I do pretty well but it sounds like I'm sort of in the middle compared to most of the folks here.

That said, I did not go to an ivy league school. In fact, my first 2 years were in community college. I transferred to a 4 year college after that ( you could do that back then) and basically came out with no college debt. But... the job market SUCKED when I graduated and I worked minimum wage jobs for 3 years afterwards. It didn't bother me as I had worked such jobs since I was 16. But after having done that and spent years scraping by I had a very keen appreciation of money when I landed my first "real" job. It took me almost 3 years to save $10,000 working at those low income jobs. Something that I was very proud of. In the last 7-8 years I can save a lot more then that in a year. But- having said that, if you've worked in a job where you make squat for years, you learn what "working for a living" is all about. Its hard. Its not easy. So you better bet that I count every single penny because I don't ever want to go back to making nothing for a living. I intend to never be put into that situation again and thus why I save as much as I can. If I had not had that experience of seeing what its like to live off of $8 an hour perhaps I'd be some big spendthrift and own a new Bimmer every 5 years. In a way I'm glad I had that experience. You learn how much a dollar is really worth.

127   JG1   2011 Jul 18, 3:59am  

bubblesburst says

I've been fortunate that I've had executive level jobs all my life and made great income.

Your first job(s) was (were) executive level? How did that come about? Even assuming a great education and resume, most people have to start below that, unless they have some special connections, nepotism, etc.

Now I see that Patrick really is filled with bad advice. Pretty much everyone who responded worked hard and got nothing from anyone else. Apparently most people can save $60k in 6 months because they drive 10yr old cars. Give me a f-ing break.

It is worth noting that those who were able to buy often sacrified in other areas, by driving old cars, not eating out, living cheaply, etc. It also makes some sense that those who are worried about what a $4 Starbucks a day adds up to over the weeks, months, and years, are going to be worried about buying and losing any money on their investment. To have nice cars and take vacations etc you either need to not worry as much about if and when you buy a house, or you need more money.

128   Akki   2011 Jul 18, 4:34am  

I always wonder this. But don't have any answer to it

129   FortWayne   2011 Jul 18, 4:35am  

dodgerfanjohn says

burritos says

JonnyG says

When I had extra money, you bought a ski boat and a nice vacation. I never took vacations for more than a couple days in my 20's and 30's and I invested any extra money in my own business.

When you missed payments occasionally and didn't work to protect your credit, I used my good credit to take out out loans for my business.

When you were avoiding risk, I put everything I had into my business and risked it all for 20 years.

Now that I am in my 40's I have some money in the bank. Go figure.

Good job. If 1/4 of the Americans were this industrious, we'd be in good shape. Unfortunately it's probably less than 1%.

What was the point of life again?

I think some people do miss point of life. We are all only young once.

All these old billionaires/millionaires out there, they'd give up every penny of their wealth just to be young again.

I'm not retired, but even at my age I do have regrets of not doing certain things when I was younger that simply are just not possible at my age anymore.

130   Katy Perry   2011 Jul 18, 4:37am  

Dan8267 says

agrifolia says

For me it's about half inheritance from grandparents and half saved income from being longtime DINK (until recently).

Wow, Dink. Haven't heard that acronym in 20 years.

because you don't live in the Bay Area of CA which is Dink-ville.

131   Katy Perry   2011 Jul 18, 4:44am  

EMan says

All these old billionaires/millionaires out there, they'd give up every penny of their wealth just to be young again.

I'm not retired, but even at my age I do have regrets of not doing certain things when I was younger that simply are just not possible at my age anymore.

all in your head maybe? we all set our own limits. what about the 65 year old yoga student in my class I attend.

or the guy with a traumatic brain injury working at Trader Joes.
makes me think many more things are really possible. Our limits are self imposed most of the time IMHO.

132   corntrollio   2011 Jul 18, 4:52am  

SF ace says

Me and my GF (now spouse) bought our SFH in San francisco for 729K in 2001 after renting together for one year.

I doubt it, considering you can't even get the name of Pacific Heights right. What part of SF?

133   JG1   2011 Jul 18, 4:56am  

SF ace says

Me and my GF (now spouse) bought our SFH in San francisco for 729K in 2001 after renting together for one year. borrowed 35K from my side and 35K from her side

This would be a violation of most lenders' rules, by the way - that side money would have to be an outright gift to be OK under pretty much all traditional lender loan scenarios.

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