Comments on: Internet Savvy Buyers

By: jessica

jessica — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:19:34 +0000

to George:

I agree with Miriam. I live in Arcadia, which is 91007 area. It is a nice area with lots of trees. You can walk on the street at night. Of course, it’s not crime free area, but compare to nearby cities with price/safety/school district, Arcadia is the best buy.

You can refer to Arcadia’s school website:
http://district.ausd.net/home/index.asp

Zip code 91007 has more than half of white people, while 91006 has more than half of Asians (mainly Chinese). In my opinion, 91007 is the best, but 91006 is also good as long as you don’t mind seeing Asians all over the place. However, east of 2nd Street and east of 5th Street is not a good choice. East side of Arcadia is adjacent to Monrovia, and South-East side of Arcadia is adjacent to El Monte, it’s not worth with the price of what it is.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:44:40 +0000

I signed up for a free account, but it’s not even required for mortgage info, though other info does require you to signup. You’re limited to 6 searches per day, but that’s all a casual “snooper” really needs.

By: SparklingWater

SparklingWater — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:36:24 +0000

In this hypthetical situation, is the potential buyer planning on staying in the hypothetical house for let’s say a decade? Does the buyer currently have perfect credit? And does the buyer have hypothetical children in need of schooling?

By: TheArcadian

TheArcadian — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:33:07 +0000

Mark, PropertyShark.com is also an excellent site. I can’t I forgot to mention it!

I didn’t know PS provided mortgage data. Do I need to sign up for an account (free version) to access it? We’ll give it a run in the coming weeks.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:26:10 +0000

PropertyShark.com will give you free access to mortgage data, but not HELOC as far as I can tell.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:00:02 +0000

Oops – I mean to say “south and west” of the 210 FWY.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:57:20 +0000

I live in 91101 (downtown Pasadena), 3 blocks south of Paseo Colorado. I’ve loved living here the past 10 years, walking distance to dozens of Zagat top-rated restaurants, bars, the metro Gold line, and entertainment. I wouldn’t jog through Northwest Pasadena even in the daytime–except for maybe the Linda Vista (nice area by the Rose Bowl). I personally limit my Redfin searches to 91101, 91106, and 91105. I love the San Rafael area of 91105 the most, and will try to find something there in the 1-2 million range in 3-4 years once the market bottoms during this cycle. I simple rule of thumb for those of you that aren’t familiar with Pasadena to know the pockets of exceptions is to stick to the areas south and east of the 210 FWY. As in other cities such as Palo Alto, CA, it’s a freeway that divides the city into desirable vs. non-desirable areas.

By: george8

george8 — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:14:07 +0000

Miriam, SavedbyGrace, & sgv:

Thanks for your info and advice. Since this is a long process, I’m sure I’ll get more help from you and others in the future.

Thanks,

George

By: Hold out in LA

Hold out in LA — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:16:19 +0000

It is amazing how obtuse some realtors(r) are about data mining.

I had a real good time with one who sent me a new listing. In 5 minutes on the net, I found that the house to the right was underwater and foreclosed at $225K below list and the one on the left was a fresh knife catcher at $315k above list.

Sent the Realtor the info and low and behold the listing disappeared.

missedthebubble: stick the 100k in a swiss franc CD, save save save save. The game only just started. As the sage of omaha said. The impatient give their money to the patient.

By: missedthebubble

missedthebubble — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:11:49 +0000

so hypothetical situ…

so lets say that you had to buy a house, within the next year per se, and it had to be in Arcadia. You had 100k for the down payment, and income of 100k a year.

Where would you buy, and how would you buy.

Meaning would you just wait, or would you go shopping and just make offers on houses you liked at say 30 to 40% off the asking price, would you only look at REO… would you….