Learn me Buying a House & Southern California

Hi Guys,

So I’ve been in Korea for the last 5 years, after getting married and having a kid. I think it’s time to move back, the air pollution here is downright unhealthy and the kid has eczema.

With that said, we’re starting to plan our exit strategy. We’re looking at Southern California, just because I work in advertising and the big hubs for that industry is LA or NYC. I’ve lived in NYC for 7 years, I know that’s not where I want to raise a kid.

With that said, we’re look at buying a house. I’ve never bought a house before… I know the general steps of buying a house. Pick / Inspect / Nego / Loan / Buy, but I feel like there’s something I’m missing…

You guys have any recommendation or tips on a) Buying a House and b) any nice areas in SoCal for a young family + Golden Retriever

I’m hoping I can fulfill my lifelong dream of having a garage.

Thanks Guys!

Just fair warning... jumping into SoCal home buying as your first is like buying a classic Lamborghini as your first car.  It is expensive and it can be full of maintenance.

Pre-approval first.  Get an idea of what a bank will let you buy.  Do not use Wells Fargo - period.  They have multiple class-action lawsuits going on because they like to say "sure we'll give you $500k" and then after you make an actual offer, pay for an inspection and appraisal, they say "oh, gee, not sure what happened but we can only give you $275k."  Happened to me in Los Angeles, happened to my ex here in PA.

Once you get the pre-app, then shop within your means.  I know a couple fantastic L.A. realtors if you need one.  Lee Cuellar and Steve Galindo.  They walked me through the basics of new home ownership.  I didn't end up buying there, but Lee in particular was amazing.

Go on Zillow.  Look at prices for the different areas.   

We rented an Airbnb in Irvine and looked on Zillow to see the owner  paid $695k for the shack we stayed in.   Yikes.   

If I were moving from another country, I think I'd rent in an area for awhile before buying. Get a feel for the region, then find cities/neighborhoods that meet you requirements over time and gain understanding of the local markets and what it would take to buy in them.

Try your best to keep the mortgage payment below 30% of your monthly take home pay and everything will be fine. This may prove to be difficult in a hot SoCal real estate market, but it's a worthy goal and if it's not possible in SoCal, there are tons of other places where it is possible. And as a bonus, most of them don't have frequent earthquakes, wildfires and mudslides.

First things first, you'll need at least one (maybe two or three) of these:

...and then wait until wearymicrobe sees this thread.

Worried about air pollution, considering moving to LA. 

Sorry, that just strikes me as quite comical. 

In reply to z31maniac :

 I thought the same thing

It don't snow, it don't rain
Every day is just the same
If you're looking for a house in California.

Keb Mo - House in California

I find this thread relevant in that my daughter is moving to Korea in August.

It depends what you are looking for. I'm really only familiar with the outlying sections of LA.

If you're looking at LA it's way cheaper to buy a home somewhere in the high desert. Places like Apple Valley or Quartz Hill are are roughly an hour and a half from most of LA. Those types of places will offer larger plots of land and a nicer house for the money

If you're looking for some mountains places like Wrightwood offer a nice quality of life but getting there and back in the winter can be tricky, the homes are older and land limited.

Ontario has exploded in recent years with a lot of pretty modern buildup and rethinking of the city. Same with Rancho, Riverside, and Fontana.

The further towards LA you get the more expensive it gets though Valencia was still semi affordable when I moved a bit over a year ago.

Yard, garage, nice neighborhood, Los Angeles.... welllll...... either bring a LOT of money or look in the outlying areas and hope, I mean really hope, you don’t have to commute too far.

Cheapest is desert, but it’s desert, and most of the jobs aren’t there.

Realistically, unless you can find work in an outlying area, or you have piles of money (I am talking close to a mil) an apartment is likely your best option, and those ain’t cheep in good areas either.  

After 32 years of living and working in Southern California, raising kids that went to public school and staying married I have some questions?

Have you ever herd the saying; Buy the smallest house in the nicest neighborhood with the best schools?  Everything will flow from that point, forward.  We mesuare comuets in time, not miles. The Los Angeles area is instuting what they call a "road diet".  The collective thinks you need to ride a bike and is compressing the cars onto one lane in each direction.  To include the Fire/Saftey responders.  But it's good for you, they are sure.

I have found an island of sanity in the moutains above San Bernardino.  We have seasons and you get over having a clean car, or you leave.  We might wait three winters to really get to know you.  Getting stuck in your house beacuse of snow and ice 90 miles from down town Los Anngeles can work you.  But it beats being a "flat lander". 

That and we keep the chains in the car until after Fathers day, yea it happens. 

I think Korea ranks 178 out of 180 countries for air quality. It's no joke. They say most of the pollution is blown in from East China which seems logical and seeing that China has situated the majority of their factories on the the east coast, it's a bit effed up. 

The pollution has gotten worst every year. 

We have a pretty comfortable life in Korea, but it's not fair for the rugrat. I grew up in Hawaii and the wife grew up in Germany, we never had to deal with this, it's unfair that she has to. 

Good advice guys keep them coming.

I wish I could plop down in San Antonio of something, but finding work is the main issue. Bleh.....

I would start with looking into the requirements of getting a mortgage. I think things have changed a bit now, but when we started looking for a place in early 2012 after renting for about a year and a half, at least the lenders with competitive rates insisted of two years' worth of US income history before they would even talk to us.

I'd echo Curtis' recommendation to stay away from Wells Fargo specifically - and actually the other three TBTF banks too, but with the other three it's mostly a case of their rates not being that competitive unless you get a really good deal, which happens occasionally.

Nis14 said:

 

I think Korea ranks 178 out of 180 countries for air quality. It's no joke. They say most of the pollution is blown in from East China which seems logical and seeing that China has situated the majority of their factories on the the east coast, it's a bit effed up. 

The pollution has gotten worst every year. 

We have a pretty comfortable life in Korea, but it's not fair for the rugrat. I grew up in Hawaii and the wife grew up in Germany, we never had to deal with this, it's unfair that she has to. 

Good advice guys keep them coming.

I wish I could plop down in San Antonio of something, but finding work is the main issue. Bleh.....

One thing to consider is finding an ad job in a smaller city isn't going to require nearly the income you'd need in LA or San Diego. 

I would also suggest that the job situation may be the first step here.   If you find something spectacular in LA, then maybe figure that out.  If it's really great, they might even help you out.

If you can find anything central coast (north or LA), that could be very nice.  It's of course stupid expensive up there also, but I suspect you could find something a bit more rural / lower priced if you are not too picky.

2nd the rent 1st, priority to the job/commute.  I've been given that advice and it makes sense.

I live in LA with 3 kids in a 2+1 and often sleep on the couch.  And we are all quite happy with the place.  I do want more room eventually but space is not everything.  The west side of town has good air and some good schooling.  If it was me with a school age kid, I'd be looking in Garden Grove, Cypress, Alamitos, Pasadena, Torrance, Culver City, Redondo beach, but I don't know where you would be working, I assume reasonable downtown access is required. What budget?  Basically there is nothing under 650k with top schooling. Unless maybe you go condo/townhouse. That or private ed would open up more location options.  The neighborhoods I listed are 650 to 1.4 ish.

Nis14 said:

 

I think Korea ranks 178 out of 180 countries for air quality. It's no joke. They say most of the pollution is blown in from East China which seems logical and seeing that China has situated the majority of their factories on the the east coast, it's a bit effed up. 

The pollution has gotten worst every year. 

We have a pretty comfortable life in Korea, but it's not fair for the rugrat. I grew up in Hawaii and the wife grew up in Germany, we never had to deal with this, it's unfair that she has to. 

Good advice guys keep them coming.

I wish I could plop down in San Antonio of something, but finding work is the main issue. Bleh.....

That's what I was told too in 2014 when I spent 3 months there. I've got a few years off and on in Korea. Military. First there in the late 70's - early 80's. Spent 2.5 years there that time. Air wasn't too bad except the smell of the rice paddies when around them. Rivers were dirty though and any place was a junk yard. Cleaned up when I was there in the late 80's. Was there during the Olympics. Next time back was 2012 for a week then 2 trips in 2014, one was for 3 months & the other was a week. Saw the smog during the 3 month trip. Hard to breathe that and even more difficult to fly our helicopter in.

Another thing to remember moving back from overseas, your credit score will be non existent probably. A friend had an issue with this when he moved back. You'll want to check into that early just to make sure it's not an issue. You'll have no history for over 5 years on it. 

 There is plenty of agencies outside of NYC and LA. Austin had a thriving Ad industry and so does Chicago. There is more than just NYC and LA.  

I had a friend in that industry with kids/dogs who moved to Austin from my neighborhood.  Sure got a lot more house for his dollar there.  Was a few years back, but I'm sure its still much more affordable. No idea how the air quality is down there, assuming very nice.  I'd look at that possibility if were doable. 

If  you don't mind winter, there are a surprising number of ad agencies in Minneapolis, and at least a few do a lot of work in the automotive industry (one that's just around the corner from my house had the national account for Kawasaki for many years, another one had the national BMW account and was responsible for all those BMW short films with Clive Owen from a decade ago or so.)

Bring money and lots of it.

Also do not get discouraged if you find a place that is nice and its ells to a nice out of country family in cash. This is where they are storing there cash.

To put things in perspective I payed about 1.0 million for a home about 3 years ago. They built mass transit in front of it and changed the zoning to multifamily for our lot and we have unsolicited offers in CASH at 2.2 million right now. I cannot move as the property taxes on anything that high would be nuts and now thanks to the tax changes I cannot write it off. So yeah its a little nuts near the coast.

Yep property tax would be murder even if you could find something 25% cheaper to move to.  And no 1031 exchange so you get hit with a huge gains tax.  Meaning owners have to rent rather than sell, but that also means the price to rent ratio can be pretty good for renters.. 

 Look into the Inland Empire area. Riverside, Corona, Temecula, Murrieta. You won't have the hustle and bustle of LA nor the prices. You can get a house in a nice neighborhood in a good school zone with a 3 car garage for under 400. And smaller homes for less. I lived there for 3.5 years until I just moved last summer. I was in the city riverside in riverside county. I was an hour from LA, SD, OC, mountains, desert, and beaches. Its pricy out there though. Edison will rape you per kw and fuel is high, DMV finds anything to charge you for, and traffic can be bad. And the state income tax is high, luckily I nor my wife had to pay state income tax (military). I lived very comfortably with my slightly under 70k yearlyincome (didn't pay state income tax though) although my wife was making good money out there. Had plenty of toys and cars you tinker with and the car culture is OMG. Food options super diverse, lots of Korean otions as well. Culturally diverse which we like because we're a multi-racial family.  And you can find and do anything within a hour or two drive.

We've recently moved to Texas and like it minus the good ole boys and their stares. But, we miss Cali even with the money we had to spill for blinking, breathing, and existing. Would I live in southern California again? Hell yeah especially while still military lol!

My advice; do it. Everyone should experience it for at least a few years. 

In reply to yupididit :

That's another thing about that I'm a bit concerned about ... the good ole boys. I spend a quick stint in upstate NY. I got some really uncomfortable stares.

Good advice! Thanks guys. The AirBnb and renting idea seems like a pretty logical step.