Was able to take a glimpse at some will/contracts. Seems once my grandmother does pass (which, to be honest.. I wish she'd live forever.. she's been nothing but kind to my new wife and I).

It looks like the expected 100k I was getting isnt right, i'm actually going to be pulling in a cool 250k.

Meaning, this is what i'm using to buy a Loft or house.

It seems that Lofts are going up and up in price, hell.. my good friend's already made over 200k in her loft in a short 2 years.

Do you guys think this would be a wise choice to invest money in? It seems the "urban lifestyle" is just getting BIGGER and BIGGER.

Wow...with only 250K I'm glad you decided against blowing it on a Ferrari at present. You'll need a whole lot more than that if you want a sustainable big hitter lifestyle.


My only advice is to do your homework. I can't speak to the situation in SoCal, but around these parts the smart money is either holding off major(1mil and up) real estate purchases with the idea of picking off an unfortunate party that excercised poor judgement in the boom...or purchasing real estate with the idea of developing it themselves.

Good luck...

How the hell do you save up a million dollars? I have 2 friends that moved there in a similiar field as me. One lives in Santa Monica and makes about 100K. The other lives in Santa Clara and makes around 135. So what you're saying is that these people can barely afford bungalows? Just being curious here as I have no idea about realestate in cali. Here in the nicer Cleveland suburbs 250k would buy you a 4 bedroom 3 batch house with 2-3 car garage with maybe 1/2 acre. One on my street with the above qualities just went for 230.

How the hell do you save up a million dollars?

For folks who have played tha Cali real estate deal properly over the last 5-7 years...1mil is a drop in the bucket. Seriously...



I have 2 friends that moved there in a similiar field as me. One lives in Santa Monica and makes about 100K. The other lives in Santa Clara and makes around 135. So what you're saying is that these people can barely afford bungalows?

Not at all. I'm sure their homes are very nice as I'm sure their mortgages are rather large.



Just being curious here as I have no idea about realestate in cali. Here in the nicer Cleveland suburbs 250k would buy you a 4 bedroom 3 batch house with 2-3 car garage with maybe 1/2 acre. One on my street with the above qualities just went for 230.


In my chicken shit podunk neck of Cali...230K (at present) buys you a 1300sqft crackerbox on a 6000sqft lot in the nasty part of town.

OR...2 acres(if you can find it...which you can't) of prime development land.


OR...10 acres of land that may become useful for development sometime in the next decade. Or maybe not depending on the whims of the city council and the projected econ situation.



I don't know the situation in Together's area, but I'm guessing $250K isn't enough to be "set".


My personal opinion is there is still money to be made in real estate(short term) in Cali...but only if the investor is positioned properly. I also think properly researched real estate is still a good investment in Cali. Unlike other commodities, there will be no more made. What we got is what we got....

You know you have lived your life well when people view you as being worth more alive than dead. I am not at all excited about my inheritance from my grandparents- if i had my way i would never have to get it.

If my parents give me their money to me it could be huge, but big whup- ill probably be too old to care much by then anyway.

Was able to take a glimpse at some will/contracts. Seems once my grandmother does pass (which, to be honest.. I wish she'd live forever.. she's been nothing but kind to my new wife and I).

It looks like the expected 100k I was getting isnt right, i'm actually going to be pulling in a cool 250k.

Meaning, this is what i'm using to buy a Loft or house.

It seems that Lofts are going up and up in price, hell.. my good friend's already made over 200k in her loft in a short 2 years.

Do you guys think this would be a wise choice to invest money in? It seems the "urban lifestyle" is just getting BIGGER and BIGGER.

Couple of things to note....first of all congrats on the good fortune but think about doing something besides putting all of the money in a loft. Use some of the money as a down payment and stick the rest in investments that are managed by a professional. Preferrably an advisor not a broker. This way you get advice. This takes away the emotion so that even if you are a good investor you don't get burned by getting greedy or holding on for a comeback. Typically speaking the returns you can expect to get long term will outweigh the cost of interest. In my firm we call it a house A house B calculation. Calculate how much the payments would be and the total interest over 30 years. Then take into consideration the interest deduction you will get on your taxes which saves you a little money, and net it out. Then assume a reasonable rate of return for your investments over the same time period. assuming a 20-25% deduction (so 10% gets you 7.5-8% net) for taxes, trading costs etc. The funny part about real estate is that it appreciates (hopefully anyway) at the same rate reguardless of your equity position. The less equity the better return on your investment. if you put 50k into a 250k house for example. the house appreciates by 50k over time then you have 100% return on your initial investment. If you put all 250k in and paid cash then you only return 20% on your money. The best part is you will probably find that you could purchase a vacation house with the extra money you will make over the next 30 years. So, sorry that this took so long but it usually makes sense for someone in your position as long as they can afford the payments. I would love to hear what you decide to do. Trying to help gdc members buy as many toys as possible ya know!:cheers