Beautiful. Banana plants?

palms.

Please post visiting calendar so that we can all book up NOW!

Limey, you interested in doing a house-swap for a couple weeks? I'd love to go see the "mother land."

Uh ... yeah. Basically, yes. Are you happy to pet sit for 2 cats and a snake (he doesn't require any care as such, but he does live here!)
But is it always unbearably hot? My husband would find that hard to bear. And I'm not sure when. And our house is a tip. But uh ... yeah.

So I made an offer on another house today. It's 1900 square feet with a pool in the back, but it has a fence around the pool. It was built in '69 just like me. It's a 4 bedroom 2 bath with a fireplace, wet bar, granite countertops in the kitchen, etc. and it's in a decent neighborhood. They're asking $344,800. It doesn't have as many fancy upgrades as the last one, but it's very nice. The only drawback is there is an apartment complex directly behind the house. So as my daughter is growing up, the neighbors might be ogling her or my wife. That would make me uncomfortable. The other house has a pre-school directly behind the house so I'm not sure if it would be noisy during the daytime.

I put the offer in, and then when I got back to my job, I got a call that the place my wife and I really wanted (described in the previous pages) is available because the people fell out of escrow. I found out the offer they made was $450k. As much as I'm dying for this house, I'm not going to go over $400k period. I told my realtor to try to get me and my wife into the house.

I called my wife in Vietnam and asked her which house we should get and she said the other one....she hasn't seen the one I put an offer in on today.

I'm a little scared I'll get both. I don't want to come off like a jerk if I get them both and have to tell the guy I made an offer with today that I'm not interested.

It doesn't make you a jerk if you get both. You couldn't foresee what would be.

In the end, you have to do what's right for you and your family.

The new place sounds pretty nice. Got any pics?

I only have a photo of the outside. It reminds me a lot of the house I grew up in as a kid. I feel very comfortable there. When I went to see it, they had a cleaning crew steaming the carpets, cleaning the windows, etc. getting it ready for photos and showings. I was hoping to get my offer in before they published the photos.


If you click on this link, it's the house on the bottom.

http://socallistings.marketlinx.com/...tID=F207015068

You better believe they're soliciting multiple offers, don't feel bad about making multiple offers.

What an incredibly unreadable website. Yuck.

Radar, that second house looks nice too.

Good luck with both your offers!

That's how pretty much all MLS-generated sites look. This is what your realtor will send you when you're looking. Not pretty, but very informative.

My father drove down from Elko, NV and I showed him both places today so he could help me choose. They both have good points and bad. He's having a hard time helping me choose.

The real estate guy from the first house is telling me I'll probably get the house if I go up to $430k. My wife REALLY wants the house but she told me to stick to my guns at $400k. I was thinking of going to $420k just so I could say I got my house for 420. j/k

Seriously though, when I looked at the second house today I noticed some stuff I didn't the first time around . I didn't go into the garage before. This time I went in and noticed that the hot water heater is gone. They put a new stainless steel dish washer and oven rage in the kitchen and new granite counter tops. The walls are torn up above the granite because it looks like they ripped out the old backsplash. The sink is new and stainless steel, but there are no faucets. When I look through the hole in the counter top, I see plywood s I'd have to drill through it and do the faucet and other pipes.

In the hallway where the linen cabinets are, the horizontal top of the cabinets on the floor has had the Formica halfway ripped up. My guess is someone was fixing the place up and ran out of money. I'd have to rip up the rest of the formica and either change the top of the counter or replace the formica.

It needs some minor electrical work, but my father is an electrician and we can do that work ourselves.

Lastly, the people who had the place built some custom stuff in the bedroom. It reminds me of those HUGE waterbeds back in the 70's that had cabinets and shelves and a mirror and stuff taking up the whole wall with the bed in the middle. This was actually built onto the wall, and it must go because the bed part is too small for us.


House #1 will cost me $420k but it needs almost no work to get it the way we want.

House #2 will cost me about $350k but will need about $20k worth of work.

The downpayment on house #1 will be $84,000 and the downpayment on house #2 will be $70,000.

The difference in down payments will nearly pay for all of the repairs on house #2 to make everything right.

The payments on House #2 will be lower, but it will require more upfront cash to get it up to speed.

House #2 has 100 more square feet and has an attached garage rather than detached and it has a fence around the pool so kids can't get in.

House #1 has very expensive upgrades that my wife loves and which might make the value of the house go up faster than house #2.

House #2 reminds me of the house I grew up in as a kid and feels more comfortable to me and being comfortable at home is important to me.

House #1 will probably be more comfortable for my wife because she likes floors she can sweep.

House #2 has new carpet everywhere but the kitchen and bathrooms which I prefer.

House #1 has really fancy and cool bathrooms that are nicer than House #2


House #1 has a pre-school directly behind the house and has trees in that preschool that has limbs that drop leaves into the pool.

House #2 has an apartment complex behind the house with balconies that people can sit on and ogle my wife and someday my young daughter.

House #1 is within walking distance to my brother's house, and is also within walking distance to a movie theater, preschool, starbucks, grocery store, and fast food.

House #2 is within walking distance to an elementary school, pre-school, high school, and DMV. It is also very close to a couple of Vietnamese restaurants, Asian market, Costco, Jiffy Lube, and the 405 Freeway which I take to work.

House #2 is $70,000 cheaper than house #1. Over 30 years of payments this would be about $210k but since it requires about $20,000 in repairs the difference is really about $50k up front and about $190k over the full 30 years assuming I don't pay it off early.

House #1 has a ton of upgrades that over 30 years will probably increase the value of the house enough to cover the $190k price difference and will ultimately make the value of the home higher than house #2 from an investment standpoint.


It's seriously a tough choice.

Good luck

I just got a call from the realtor. They accepted my offer on House #2. That kind of makes the decision easier...

unless I get another call for the other house.