Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

sda

roadburner said:

carnaught said:

New punch for us too. Son got his new A4. It's a 2017 Premium-Plus S-Line, metallic brown with darker brown leather, shiny wood interior inserts, B &O audio, iPhone intergration, etc. Very nice ride, handling, noticeably more energetic with reduced weight and engine tweaks as compared to the former 2013.

Nice!!!

Congratulations to your son! Great car and great color. I am glad to see rich hues of brown becoming more popular. I understand that the B&O audio rocks.

corvette

Michaell said:

Would you be so kind as to refresh our memory on the punch guesses for the year?

Punch guesses for 2016:
michaell 25
nyccarguy 25
sandman_6742 27
au1994 27
stever 27.5
28firefighter 28
breld 28
tifighter 29
carnaught 29
roadburner 30
stickguy 30
henryn 33

Also, congrats to carnaught's son!

stickguy

Dang. I way overshot. Better start sending links to Mrs. Breld or something.

Just poking around, but dang, this is gorgeous. Love the color combo. Nicely loaded too. Just need to knock 10K off the price, and I am in! $36K seems like an awful lot for a now 2 YO car that has been replaced by a much improved new model (well, since the A4 was, I assume the A5 will will be too soon).

http://www.eimports4less.com/detail-2015-audi-a5-certified_a5_2_0t_quattro_s~line_awd_premium_plus_coupe_navi-used-14967093.html

breld

@andres3 - congrats on the TT. That's a beautiful car - post some pics!

@carnaught - and congrats to your son on the A4. I have yet to see any new models around town so far.

stickguy

I assume I have seen a new model, but pretty sure I would not realize it unless I saw them side by side.

breld

stickguy said:

Dang. I way overshot. Better start sending links to Mrs. Breld or something.

Well, we may not be contributing too much to the purchase count for a little while.

Wife and I went browsing at show homes over the weekend. We do this much like we go "browsing" at car lots - we like to see what's out there but it's obviously much harder to buy a house than buy a car....you see where this is going.

This time we found a house that we have fallen in love with, so we're in the midst of making an offer to the builder and, frankly, even if they don't accept any of our proposed concessions, I believe we're still moving forward with it.

It's an inventory home and they'll be finishing the basement for us, so that puts the closing out a couple months. So we'll be very pre-occupied for awhile getting ready to sell our house and move. Funds will largely be re-directed toward the whole process.

Having said that, I may accelerate my plan to give up one of my main cars between the X5 I adopted from the wife and my S4. It never made much sense to keep both before, and it definitely doesn't make sense now with the added house cost. Or, I've though about keeping the X5 for its great functionality (and I love the diesel!), and trade out the S4 for something cheaper as a fun car - lots of choices there.

We'll see...

nyccarguy

I like the subtle looks of the A5 coupe.  My son's soccer coach has a black on black one that's sharp.  

breld

By the way, we'll be moving toward a more urban development, where 2 car garages rule. So, I'm sacrificing a car bay. Not too big of a deal, since one of our 3 spots now is occupied by my stepdaughter. We were going to gain that spot back in the fall when she's off to college, but as it is, we'll just continue with our 2 spots. Fortunately, we have lots of garage parking available at our work where we tend to "store" our cars.

carnaught

Thanks nyc, kyfx, rb, stick, sda, corvette and breld.

carnaught

breld said:

By the way, we'll be moving toward a more urban development, where 2 car garages rule. So, I'm sacrificing a car bay.

Of course that won't go into effect until your term at CCBA Grand Poobah has been completed.

Mr_Shiftright

I"m still hammerin' on that Honda S2000. The dealer is a friend of mine but he's an Energizer Bunny and a hard target to hit.

Until I get that conclusive test drive, I've spent my time on learning every possible thing about Honda S2000s--so if you're curious, I might be able to convey some info about them.

I have to say, though, that so many of them are subjected to questionable modifications, which is really a shame. Green wheels? Really? Tooth-chipping track-ready coil-overs on the street? Really? Carbon fiber air dams and hood in a different color than the body?

And yes, the obligatory K&N cold air intake and cat-back exhaust system---as if the engineers who designed a 9000 rpm, dohc, VTEC engine don't know the first thing about designing an airbox and mufflers.

The pre-2006 Boxsters failed the "knee test", as did the Miata and the MR2 Spyder--can't shift 'em without bending the left knee outwards to an extreme. That's not gonna work.

S2000 passed, as did the BMW Z4 (another candidate if I can get past the styling).

stickguy

well, the knee test? That is where my Miata failed me. On both legs. I kind of drove like a praying mantis.

Michaell

breld said:

By the way, we'll be moving toward a more urban development, where 2 car garages rule. So, I'm sacrificing a car bay. Not too big of a deal, since one of our 3 spots now is occupied by my stepdaughter. We were going to gain that spot back in the fall when she's off to college, but as it is, we'll just continue with our 2 spots. Fortunately, we have lots of garage parking available at our work where we tend to "store" our cars.

Wow.

Just. Wow.

Where you thinkin' of moving to? Curious about this.

I'm surprised by the downsizing of the garage spaces. If any family needed a 3-car garage, it is yours.

breld

So the house we're looking at is sort of an urban infill deal - relatively new development (called "Midtown") about 5 miles north of the Highlands, along Pecos at 67th. Sort of like Stapleton or Lowry, it's pretty industrial and a little scary as you get out of the neighborhood, but with the LightRail coming right by the area starting this year, we're betting that the overall area will come along nicely.

We just love the house - something very different than our current house. And living more central will be nice for 1) our commute to the Tech Center and 2) going around town for all the kids' sports.

I'll show you some pictures next time we have lunch.

Michaell

breld said:

So the house we're looking at is sort of an urban infill deal - relatively new development (called "Midtown") about 5 miles north of the Highlands, along Pecos at 67th. Sort of like Stapleton or Lowry, it's pretty industrial and a little scary as you get out of the neighborhood, but with the LightRail coming right by the area starting this year, we're betting that the overall area will come along nicely.

We just love the house - something very different than our current house. And living more central will be nice for 1) our commute to the Tech Center and 2) going around town for all the kids' sports.

I'll show you some pictures next time we have lunch.

You're right .. that is a scary part of town, at least when I lived on that side of town (92nd and Federal) back in the 90's. It's been years since I've been over there; I'm sure it's tremendously different.

I've been noticing a distinct change in architecture of houses built in the last couple of years in Castle Rock. I suspect the same is going on up north, too.

On a positive note, you're a lot closer to @iluvmysephia1's Mountain States Toyota dealer.

breld

You're right - I can confirm inventory of Scion's for him real quick!

stickguy

that is a cool looking development, and houses look neat. I know I could never convince my wife to move to a downtown city place, but something like this, might work.

much more spectacular designs than your typical tract home.

breld

Thanks @stickguy. We tend to look at a lot of houses that may be nicer or larger than our current home, but it's sort of more of the same. This one just really appealed to us for its contemporary design. I'll also be getting rid of my lawn mower and snowblower, but the beauty of this one is it faces the neighborhood park, so you still get the grass and play area, but I won't be responsible for the maintenance!

Being a quick LightRail stop away from downtown will be something very new for us.

stickguy

and even harder to justify 4 cars for 2 people!

Good luck with it. Should be a fun experience. After my many years in a nice but quiet neighborhood of traditional colonials, we could certainly use some excitement in our lives. Being in a walkable community with lots of amenities would be quite the change.

breld

Yeah - I've always been a suburb kind of guy, even right after graduating college, which would've been the time to try out some urban living. So we may be doing it a little backwards, but very excited about it. We're even downsizing just a bit in house size, which I find sort of comforting.

kyfdx

@breld Did I miss a link to where you are moving?

stickguy

I just googled it. Was easy to find.

Michaell

stickguy said:

I just googled it. Was easy to find.

I did, too. But found there were a number of different builders.

Which one are you going with, @breld?

breld

We've always loved the Infinity Homes, but they never built anywhere that made sense for us. So, this works well enough to take the leap.

If anyone is interested, here's the link to the subdivision's website and builder link.

Midtown - Infinity Homes

kyfdx

stickguy said:

I just googled it. Was easy to find.

You are a tech guru!!

Those are nice... I'm sure we would be up around $500K, before we got everything we needed. A little pricy for our retirement home. lol

I do like the contemporary style. All the hip neighborhoods are a little rough, even in Cincinnati.

nyccarguy

breld said:

We've always loved the Infinity Homes, but they never built anywhere that made sense for us. So, this works well enough to take the leap. If anyone is interested, here's the link to the subdivision's website and builder link. Midtown - Infinity Homes

Very sleek and modern.  Looks like you can't beat the price.  If it is close to the light rail & downtown you'll be in good shape.  I'm definitely living in the wrong part of the country.

kyfdx

nyccarguy said:

breld said:

We've always loved the Infinity Homes, but they never built anywhere that made sense for us. So, this works well enough to take the leap.

If anyone is interested, here's the link to the subdivision's website and builder link.

Midtown - Infinity Homes

Very sleek and modern.  Looks like you can't beat the price.  If it is close to the light rail & downtown you'll be in good shape.  I'm definitely living in the wrong part of the country.

You know they had snow last week, right? lol

kyfdx

I didn't look at that builder, because I'm cheap. Really, really nice, but that would be ahhh. ... uhhh.. aspirational for us.

stickguy

Depends on property taxes. Here, that alone is about the same as carrying a 250k mortgage.

stever

Nice, though I'm not fond of stairs. Unfortunately it's hard to find "atomic ranches" in cool, walkable spots.

28firefighter

Homes look awesome @breld - I see some 3 car garages mentioned in there! Same contemporary style I live in up here in Seattle. If I've learned anything about living somewhere the housing market is growing, it is that taking the gamble to live on the edge of an iffy area can pay major dividends later.

Let us know how it goes!

breld

Well funny enough, the other style of house we were looking at was a large ranch style. But then we saw this and it's like, "SQUIRREL!!!."

28firefighter

stickguy said:

Depends on property taxes. Here, that alone is about the same as carrying a 250k mortgage.

Cannot speak for Denver, but here in Seattle my property taxes are < 1% of the property value. Makes paying 500k+ for a postage-stamp-size slice of the American Dream slightly more palatable.

(When I say postage-stamp, I'm really not kidding. Our home is 1600 SQ feet with an additional 250 unfinished, but it sits on a 1500sq ft lot)

stickguy

3 car is a tandem bay. Basically like parking a car in the dining room.

I too plan the next house to be largely 1 level, at least what we would use. A 2nd level that I can close off, for visitor/kid use, is fine.

breld

28firefighter said:

Homes look awesome @breld - I see some 3 car garages mentioned in there! Same contemporary style I live in up here in Seattle. If I've learned anything about living somewhere the housing market is growing, it is that taking the gamble to live on the edge of an iffy area can pay major dividends later.

Let us know how it goes!

That's good to hear about the "gamble." We're very happy with the house and neighborhood itself, so that's good, but we are certainly figuring the rest of the area will follow suit. There are a couple of other notable developments in the Denver area that started out in iffy areas and are thriving now. My brother and his wife was one of the first to buy a house almost 18 years ago in an area here previously occupied by a military base. I thought he was a little crazy for "paying so much" to be in the area, but it's an extremely desirable area to live now. Denver has been experiencing a major movement toward city living for several years now.

breld

stickguy said:

3 car is a tandem bay. Basically like parking a car in the dining room.

I too plan the next house to be largely 1 level, at least what we would use. A 2nd level that I can close off, for visitor/kid use, is fine.

Yeah, the one model offered by our builder with 3 garage spaces is indeed a tandem. If we liked everything else about the house, I'd certainly take the extra spot, tandem or not, but we just don't like the layout of the house itself, so it's a no go.

henryn

Where I live here in Houston is most definitely in the “iffy” part of town, but very convenient to my job downtown. Property taxes tend to run about 2.1% of the TMV. Hmmm… is it legal and kosher to use TMV (True Market Value) when talking about real estate? I don’t know that I’ve seen anyone use it that way before, but I did want to differentiate from the “appraised value”.

And when you talk about “postage-stamp-size”, I recently saw that in action. A builder bought a double lot here in my neighborhood (single being about 4,000 square feet). When they broke ground, and started sitting the forms for the slab, everyone in the neighborhood was running around scratching their head and their ___, trying to guess what they were planning to build.

This was a tiny slab. I mean tiny, small, miniscule. Eventually one of my neighbors found a “pre-construction” sale listing online. Turns out the builder is going for 6 townhouses, each one 3 stories totaling 2,100 square feet. So a 700 square feet slab was what we were looking at. If you’ve never seen a 700 square feet slab, it really looks small. Makes you think outbuilding or …

stever

TMV in the housing world for me is Zillow - it's usually too low though since they often base it on property taxes. But they usually show comps in the neighborhood.

28firefighter

henryn said:

This was a tiny slab. I mean tiny, small, miniscule. Eventually one of my neighbors found a “pre-construction” sale listing online. Turns out the builder is going for 6 townhouses, each one 3 stories totaling 2,100 square feet. So a 700 square feet slab was what we were looking at. If you’ve never seen a 700 square feet slab, it really looks small. Makes you think outbuilding or …

Given the reaction by a lot of the longer-term residents of our neighborhood to the new homes, my sense is that when the homes first started being built, they felt the same way.

The funny thing is, the homes have only gotten smaller. Initially they were subdividing and making standalone single-family homes on postage-stamp size lots. Now, they're doing "rowhomes" that average about 1200 sq feet inside and are attached. By building rowhomes vs. single-family, they can build to the edge of the property line,whereas the single-family homes require a 5' setback on all sides, minimum.

Mr_Shiftright

kyfdx said:

stickguy said:

I just googled it. Was easy to find.

You are a tech guru!!

Those are nice... I'm sure we would be up around $500K, before we got everything we needed. A little pricy for our retirement home. lol

I do like the contemporary style. All the hip neighborhoods are a little rough, even in Cincinnati.

You guys are so lucky. Where I live, $550K would have you moving into a chicken coop while the chickens would be leaving out the back door.

ab348

My knees and back hurt just looking at that floorplan. All those stairs...

Could be worse though. An acquaintance is trying to help rent a studio apartment in the building she lives in on the Upper East Side of NYC. This place is a 5th floor walkup on the top floor of an old brownstone. No elevator of course. She is basing the rent off what she pays and estimates it is $2500-$3000 a month. This for a place where the "kitchen" consists of a sink, counter, hotplate and bar fridge. Jeebus.

suydam

The condo we are moving to is 1000 sq ft. It's a postage stamp and im looking forward to it. 

tifighter

Mr_Shiftright said:

kyfdx said:

stickguy said:

I just googled it. Was easy to find.

You are a tech guru!!

Those are nice... I'm sure we would be up around $500K, before we got everything we needed. A little pricy for our retirement home. lol

I do like the contemporary style. All the hip neighborhoods are a little rough, even in Cincinnati.

You guys are so lucky. Where I live, $550K would have you moving into a chicken coop while the chickens would be leaving out the back door.

Yeah, sometimes I think Seattle is expensive. Then I remember when I lived in Oakland a few years ago that a one bedroom apartment across the hall sold for $550K. Feeling better already.

Mr_Shiftright

Depends where in California the house sits....in some places, that $550K house is worth 1.5 mil. In other places, the bank would probably give it to you for $120K. Of course, you'll have to invest in guard dogs, alarm systems, mercury-arc lighting, iron bars on the windows and razor wire, but think of the money you'd save.

kyfdx

Property taxes. I guess we pay about 1.4% of TMV, here..

Of course, that's in our inner ring suburb. If I slide down to the city where the property values are half as much, their rate is closer to 4%-5% (police and fire cost the same... less property value = higher rates).

I think in that development in Denver, I'd have to stick with the smaller/cheaper models, as I can't see climbing to the 3rd floor for the master BR, or up one floor to the main living level.

I was only 40 when we built our house.. and, never envisioned living here for 18 years, but here we still are, and having garage, laundry, and master BR all on the first floor is pretty nice.

breld

Yeah, as ironic as it sounds, a ranch style also appealed to us. I suppose we were attracted to something different one way or another from what we currently have, which is a very nice and traditional home.

The model we have chosen has the main living area on the first floor, with the bedrooms on the second and a "penthouse" area with outdoor terrace on the third level. We did rule out that one model with the main living area up a floor from the entrance.

Anxiously awaiting a counteroffer from the builder....

fintail

The cheapest detached house for sale in my zipcode - and it's pending.

My grandmother lives south of here, in a neighborhood where all houses sit on a quarter acre or more. They bought it new, a rambler with all the middle class aspirations of the era (2 bathrooms, 2 car garage, central heat, etc) a little over 50 years ago, for 19K. Kind of a different price:income ratio than what exists today. Gotta love a speculative externally influenced market. Yet if one was lucky and able to get in at the right time (esp 20 years or so ago), they could be a chronic house buyer.

tifighter

98004, the zip code I grew up in. I still sorta like parts of Enatai.

That house is in Surrey Downs. This was the neighborhood that BHS drivers ed took you through to learn to drive. Guessing the realtor forgot to include that selling point.

fintail

Enatai is like most of west Bellevue today, plenty of sometimes obscene oversized lot-filling faux chateaus mixed in with postwar bungalows. Probably a good place to park money, as I bet a lot of it isn't local, and empty houses aren't rare. At least older condos haven't exploded in price like detached houses.

No doubt the speed bumps on 108th are because of BHS, too.

breld

One of our company's apartment buildings is in the heart of Bellevue (called Metro 112). Great place!