Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
House B is worth every bit more.
House A is really outdated, needs a complete remodel.
House A is really outdated, needs a complete remodel.
Comparing two houses
- Thread starter The Critic
- Start date
You and I both. I used to rent a home like house A. $2250/month. The owner asked if I'd like to buy it for $990k. I tried not to laugh in his face. Homes that size rent for double that amount now. I moved on and bought a manufactured home as we are empty nesters now. Plan on moving out of CA when I retire.
Nothing a good .22LR can't take care of.
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2024
I like both personally. I would of liked them even more had they shown inside the garage of each one. I’d go with B most likely it appears more modern and probably is a lot newer.
House A has already gone pending. Less than 72 hrs on the market.
Edit: the new conforming loan limit in this county is $822K. So, I can see how something in the low $900K range will move quicker than a home in the upper $900K range.
Edit: the new conforming loan limit in this county is $822K. So, I can see how something in the low $900K range will move quicker than a home in the upper $900K range.
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The problem with Bay Area houses - most things beyond Oakland/Berkeley/Albany and SF(not the new overpriced and sterile “luxury” towers in downtown) besides NIMBYs are just that - cheaply built and overpriced. My parent’s house is one of those and it’s been somewhat renovated to a former shell of itself. Even though SF has a huge problem with the homeless, people were willing to pay a premium for the city life - buy a house or condo in the Mission/Noe Valley/Potrero Hill, be by a tech shuttle bus route to the Peninsula for a FAANG job.
A house in Oakland built in the 1900s-1950s even in the hood will list for $500-600K but will sell for at least $800 to over a million. It’ll be remodeled and renovated to be a “modern” home that doesn’t match the neighborhood but will hold up better than many of these tract homes in the suburbs.
Where the OP lives is far from tech. Many of those workers live in Oakland/Berkeley/SF, San Leandro/Hayward/Fremont/Pleasanton if they don’t want to live in San Jose/Sunnyvale/Milpitas/Mountain View.
Though, I’ve seen Facebook and Apple buses go towards Walnut Creek and Marin. That’s 2-3 hours on a bus daily in traffic.
I am a 2-2.5 hr drive from Silicon Valley. So, not really a place for Silicon Valley folks to commute from.
This area is probably the furthest that someone would live if commuting to Silicon Valley:
My folks bought their home in a new Sunnyvale tract in Dec 1969. Under 1700 square feet, 3/2. Small lot. Purchase price was like $27,500 which was a lot back then. The house was nice, but not a well made house by any means. Sunnyvale is in the heart of Silicon Valley.
After my Dad passed January 2019, I had a slight remodel done. My BIL helped tear everything out and manage things. I probably put $60K into it, mostly in the new kitchen. I switched the stove from electric to gas per real estate's recommentation.
The house was advertised and sold on the 1st day for just shy of $1.9M. We had multiple offers. The house has gone up since then.
The Valley is hot. Welcome to my world.
Sunnyvale
After my Dad passed January 2019, I had a slight remodel done. My BIL helped tear everything out and manage things. I probably put $60K into it, mostly in the new kitchen. I switched the stove from electric to gas per real estate's recommentation.
The house was advertised and sold on the 1st day for just shy of $1.9M. We had multiple offers. The house has gone up since then.
The Valley is hot. Welcome to my world.
Sunnyvale
Terel Beppu is a rockstar and is well worth his price. You picked a good agent and it served you well.
Michael, as you might expect, many agents wanted to list this prime property.
Terel earned my business. He even paid the $5K furniture staging cost.
What I liked about him was, he had a crew of workers ready to do the remodel. Great work, fast and more than fair priced.
My BIL and I used a few of our own and saved a few thousand. Terel was 100% straight with me.
TBT, I was guessing $2.1 or more. But I am not sniveling. It would get that now.
I guess I meant proximity to the Bay Area. I know a few people that worked for Tesla and Google and some of their co-workers commuted further. Jeff’s house in Sunnyvale is very similar to my mom’s house in the western St Louis suburbs and hers has a finished basement as well and a slightly larger lot. It’s a $300k house here. But, we don’t have an abundance of those tech salaries here. Just crime, cold winters and humid summers.
Fair enough. Keep in mind that the stereotypical tech salaries of $200-$500k (or more) are really limited to folks in technical software engineering roles and maybe some strategy and upper management roles (which require a top tier mba). There are many other functions within these companies that are not super well compensated.
I get that. But, there’s enough people getting paid well enough to spend $1200/ sq ft on what would be considered a starter house on a postage stamp size lot in most of the rest of the country.
That's a pretty cool house for the size, though I guess it should be at that price. Blows my mind that is a $2M house. They made a good investment in 1969 given that $27,500 would be a little less than $200,000 today. That would probably be a $200-250K house here in the right area. Anything in the millions should get you a mansion here.
@The Critic point about salaries is spot on. A well seasoned programmer or engineer is more like $150K or less.
That salary does not buy a house like this in Sunnyvale. The prople who bought my folks house are a prosessional husband and wife team.
Stock options buy properties.
That salary does not buy a house like this in Sunnyvale. The prople who bought my folks house are a prosessional husband and wife team.
Stock options buy properties.
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For long term residents like that, it gets even better.
But for the people who bought that house, they'll be paying taxes on a $2M house, and as good a tech salaries can be, they're not that good.
It's a nutso state.
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That depends on whether you are buying or selling.
The opportunity in Silicon Valley is endless.
FYI, Sunnyvale is a great location and prices have risen dramatically. But prices are nothing as compared to say, Palo Alto.
About 15 years ago, my co-programmer split up with her husband. She bought a 2/1 fixer upper in Palo Alto for like $600K.
I thought Tanya was crazy.
Her street neighbors were Steve Jobs and Steve Young.
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