Hello Everyone, Lets chat about real estate!

**Ted** · 12-05-2007, 09:41 AM

Hi,

I am Ted from Firestone CO, recently relocated from Southern Oregon due to a job change. I am not a real estate agent, etc - just a home owner caught up in this declining market with two mortgages eating away at my beer money. I am a IT/Database engineer by Trade with a Masters in Computer Science from Boston University and a former career as a mental health therapist. (yes I have enough student loans to buy a new Italian sports car).

Married, 1 amazing 13 mo old, and one on the way.

It also amazes me the differences in housing markets. In Firestone CO, 4800 sqft home on 1/2 acre was ~400k in Oregon, 1800 sqft on 6000 sqft lot is 300k. Both heavily upgraded. Wow.

Cheers!

Ted

**jcboy460** · 12-05-2007, 12:16 PM

Hey Ted,

Welcome to the forum.

**RJacobsen** · 12-06-2007, 02:29 PM

LOL! Hi Ted, it's great to have you on board!

My sister is a RE agent in Colorado, but not for long. She and her family are moving back here to Phoenix after the new year.

**CalGreg** · 12-09-2007, 12:32 PM

Hi Ted,

We moved from northern Illinois to California a couple of months ago. We just moved into our new house here in Paso Robles, about 1/2 way between LA and SF.

Houses in our small town in Illinois were going for (in a normal market) $250K to $400K.

We paid $560K for our new house in Paso. It's a heck of a house with an inground designer pool and about 3,000 square feet. Upscale suburban area. I will always wonder what may have happened if I waited six months to a year to buy but then I would have to rent. Ich.

I was prepared for CA prices since my kids live near LA. My son rented a home in Encino for a couple of years. It is about the size of our old garage in Illinois (slight exaggeration, but not much). That house was valued at over $500,000 a year ago (2 br, 1 bath, crappy interior and exterior). To me, you'd have to be a bit insane to pay that price.

greg cryns

**Codythebest** · 12-09-2007, 02:00 PM

Hi Ted,

Welcome to the forum. IT is what I want to do. Instead, I'm an agent

Hope you like it in here...

**CalGreg** · 12-09-2007, 02:18 PM

Is the IT job marketing getting warmer? For a while it was the dregs.

greg

**Ted** · 12-11-2007, 02:39 PM

I think its great. Granted I had to get a masters to find a decent job, but I think that and what you are referring to is the end of the Tech Boom. Corp HR is way more savvy these day - Most jobs now require legit degrees, verifiable experience, and concrete evidence of your skills and abilities. You really cant just go to a degree or cert mill anymore, brandish your awesome MCSE, A+ or whatever and BAM 100k a year job.

I got mine the hard way =/

-Ted

**Ted** · 12-12-2007, 09:13 AM

ty ty ty.

Its really just a contingency plan from not getting into medical school. Now that application process is a racket. 2 years in a row cost me nearly $10k after applying to 48 schools, getting 28 secondary applications, then tertiary (3rd round) status with 1 school, Penn State. Both years processes were almost identical ending in a pile of rejection letters. I look good on paper too... 3.9 GPA in my majors, 3.7 over all, and an above average MCAT score. Ironically, 44 of the schools required a picture of the applicant - I'd hate to think their is a racial/ethnic/gender component and quota's to fill or whatever, but I still find myself discounting all other reasons for wanting a photo submitted with the applications. I am as white-bread as it gets =/

-Ted

**Ted** · 12-12-2007, 09:18 AM

Originally Posted by Codythebest

Hi Ted,

Welcome to the forum. IT is what I want to do. Instead, I'm an agent

Hope you like it in here...

I'll love it here if I can find a buyer for my OR property. I have a 4800 sqft house to furnish in CO and a 60" Plasma to buy when it does sell.

*chuckle*

-Ted

**Ted** · 12-12-2007, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by CalGreg

Hi Ted,

We moved from northern Illinois to California a couple of months ago. We just moved into our new house here in Paso Robles, about 1/2 way between LA and SF.

Houses in our small town in Illinois were going for (in a normal market) $250K to $400K.

We paid $560K for our new house in Paso. It's a heck of a house with an inground designer pool and about 3,000 square feet. Upscale suburban area. I will always wonder what may have happened if I waited six months to a year to buy but then I would have to rent. Ich.

I was prepared for CA prices since my kids live near LA. My son rented a home in Encino for a couple of years. It is about the size of our old garage in Illinois (slight exaggeration, but not much). That house was valued at over $500,000 a year ago (2 br, 1 bath, crappy interior and exterior). To me, you'd have to be a bit insane to pay that price.

greg cryns

Yea. My wife, kid, and I fled the west coast for this very reason as well as the rude, busy, materialist culture that seems the permeate that area of the country. This is really just my observation and experience, but the mid-west seems to be a more open, friendly, and well "down-home" type of culture. People will literally strike up a conversation anywhere and anytime. At first I was caught of guard thinking "WTF do you want. WTF are you trying to sell me. Do you have a gun or something, etc. etc"

I am being very generalistic here and discounting the individual, but the difference is absolutely noticeable, therefore giving it relevance.

Its just the way peeps are around here. Of course there is that nasty element, but its much less out here in Colorado. Its like my kid has a 100 grandparents when we go out into public.

-Ted