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Yeah a 4 bedroom townhouse is probably an absolute money making machine for a professional outfit. With three roommates you're almost guaranteed to make rent every month in perpetuity
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Mar 8, 2023 22:11
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illcendiary posted:One of the problems with buying in CA (it’s an issue everywhere, but seems supercharged here) is that even if you’re knowingly buying a deathtrap that you know needs work and that you yourself want to live in, you’re inevitably up against 10 people with deeper pockets who magically know a handful of subcontractors who will get the house to a [livable but not great] state for cheaper than you can repair it, and then just rent it out. It sucks Repairs are a lot cheaper if you don't have to live with the results.
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Mar 9, 2023 00:06
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Hadlock posted:Anyone want to give me their unfiltered opinion on buying an attached townhome in Marin (CA) A buddy of mine bought one with views to open space and he loves it. What’s the neighborhood like? E: lol just read everything after your initial post Anza Borrego fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Mar 9, 2023 |
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Mar 9, 2023 00:58
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There are 3-story condo units on the lot next to the apartment complex I live in. There has been a vacant lot adjacent to the condos for many years but it is now being developed into some kind of concrete parking garage plus 5-story 55+ senior living complex. I feel a bit bad for the condo folks because what was once a nice Easterly view to the mountains has now become a 5 foot view into a retiree's window. Basically none of those East-facing condo windows will ever see natural light again. I suppose prospective condo buyers should check the zoning of nearby lots if they care, but I imagine a bunch of folks are unaware that a tall building could be built in front of them. This is america though, Caveat Emptor!
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Mar 10, 2023 09:30
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We looked at a unit that had a private balcony due to a small setback on the top two floors of a 9 story building. The big problem with it was that the lot next door (empty pay parking overflow lot for baseball games, and in one corner the worst Starbucks in the city) was zoned for a 200' tall building with an approved building permit. Three years later due to covid it's still not built but whoever bought that unit it is going to be very disappointed as the street separating them is really an alleyway, one way single lane barely 35' wide including sidewalks Our condo building faces a 200' building as well but only the tower on the corner is that tall, leaves plenty of light all day except from like 7-10am and it's 180' away due to the street being abnormally wide On the other side of the building they're tearing down two single story buildings to put up an approved 400' tall building, but the street separating the buildings is only about 50' wide including sidewalks. The units on that side of the building are selling at a 20-30% discount from the beginning of the pandemic before the super tall building was approved
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Mar 10, 2023 12:35
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It is frankly astonishing how many scam letters you get after a home purchase. Goddamn.
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Mar 10, 2023 14:09
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Shifty Pony posted:It is frankly astonishing how many scam letters you get after a home purchase. Goddamn. A year in I'm still getting weekly offers for home warranties, citing the lender who sold my loan 2 weeks after the close date in an attempt to look official
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Mar 10, 2023 14:12
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Unsuprisingly everyone else looking for a deal on a functional home for a family of 3/4 found this diamond in the rough and I guess there were 8 offers in total. Unsurprisingly our 4%-over-ask offer was rejected in favor of something else despite another unit in the same complex that had been fully remodeled 2 years ago with smaller floorplan selling for the same as our offer 2 months earlier. Venting but decided to go through and pick out the crap you're looking at when buying at the bottom of the market in norcal and still getting outbid. Fully expect to see a reply likeSlugworth posted:In that area, at your price range, is every other house you look at gonna be similar vintage? If so, you'll likely have the same issue again anyways. So yes I am aware. Also thought it would be enlightening for others looking to buy their first home, what you might be sorting through Pretty standard stuff that hasn't been maintained  Recent roof leak  Unfinished sunroom modified, but permitted (will come back to this later) later finished without permits  Painting over lead paint not uncommon but not ideal if you have a toddler  Roof leak in the 80s, more recent leak in the 2020s, cat piss floors   Recent unpermitted work disclosed again  Permit for the work that allowed for the unpermitted work  Cat lady with cat piss floors left behind 40+ enormous puzzle sets and a bunch of wine glasses. I normally wouldn't judge but I'm venting today.  More, obvious, water stains indicating decades of leaks  Fire Hazard, looking pretty rough to boot. California isn't hugely humid but this is ~200 feet from the natural shoreline before 1960s infill was added for more housing and corrosion is the main culprit in fire hazards with this panel. I think this thread decided this was a several thousand dollar repair, more if aluminum wiring was found  Furnace technically works but won't stay on (short cycling)  Asbestos. Not enough to make us walk away from it, but enough to make the panel replacement cost a small fortune   Inspection report notes aluminum wiring, smoking gun  Inspection report notes permitted/unpermitted sunroom NOT APPROVED FOR BEDROOM USE  Formally advertised as 4 bedroom  Probably went for 10% over ask  This was a good first pass, helped us recalibrate for the california market. edit: the furnace ducting wasn't sealed correctly which was noted as a carbon monoxide poisoning hazard. Not a potential one but a likely one double edit: the Asbestos disclaimer is on page 422 out of about 550 pages, immediately after an eye watering six years of HOA reserve fund stuff spreadsheets ALSO - they had just upped the HOA by 19% which would only bring the reserve funds to 33% of what is suggested (60% seems to be the norm in this area) but even with 3% annual increases in ten years reserve funds would drop to 25% of suggested And yet we still put in an offer. There's going to be a real moment of reckoning when the current housing stock ages out (happeining now) and slides into what ought to be condemned but nobody can afford to maintain or improve properties. Right now CA is barely building new housing, and of the stock that exists, nobody is maintaining it and just painting over the problems hoping it won't fall down before they can cash out when they leave. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Mar 10, 2023 |
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Mar 10, 2023 14:47
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Also is that... Papyrus on the inspection report?
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Mar 10, 2023 15:48
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Looks like Lawyer Comic Sans. Papyrus is the font from Avatar a little more uh, tribal looking but yeah similar
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Mar 10, 2023 15:57
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Not a Children posted:A year in I'm still getting weekly offers for home warranties, citing the lender who sold my loan 2 weeks after the close date in an attempt to look official Yeah, same thing with the lender change for us too. <Putting on old man get up> It reminds me of back in the day, before caller id, our last name had a typo in the phone book, replacing the last letter g with an n. Anytime someone called and asked to speak to "last name n" we would just hang up immediately. Best inadvertent telemarketer trick ever.
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Mar 10, 2023 16:39
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Not a Children posted:A year in I'm still getting weekly offers for home warranties, citing the lender who sold my loan 2 weeks after the close date in an attempt to look official Only one month in, but same here, referencing the bank who no longer services our mortgage.
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Mar 10, 2023 17:05
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palindrome posted:There are 3-story condo units on the lot next to the apartment complex I live in. There has been a vacant lot adjacent to the condos for many years but it is now being developed into some kind of concrete parking garage plus 5-story 55+ senior living complex. I feel a bit bad for the condo folks because what was once a nice Easterly view to the mountains has now become a 5 foot view into a retiree's window. Basically none of those East-facing condo windows will ever see natural light again. I suppose prospective condo buyers should check the zoning of nearby lots if they care, but I imagine a bunch of folks are unaware that a tall building could be built in front of them. This is america though, Caveat Emptor! This happened to a friend of mine as well and is happening to him again currently. He's in a 3 story condo with rooftop balcony that originally had a great view on all sides. The lot next to him got bought and turned into apartment and the condo owners fought the apartment builders to try and get some reasonable limitations on height, and the apartment builders agreed but then during construction they basically said "lol psych" and stuck another floor ontop which doesn't even match the rest of the apartments exterior. Now he has two dozen apartment windows that loom over his balcony. The apartment also cut out their green space so all the renters walk their pets over to his condos green space and leave poo poo everywhere. The lesson I guess is that if you care about your view, buy all the land around you, because eventually that nice view will get the area developed into high density housing.
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Mar 10, 2023 17:06
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Hadlock posted:Looks like Lawyer Comic Sans. Papyrus is the font from Avatar a little more uh, tribal looking but yeah similar I know what Papyrus is and that's definitely Papyrus! 
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Mar 10, 2023 17:10
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The amount of junk mail you get the first year you move in is nuts and it's also pseudo official looking to try and trick you into buying a copy of your title or some other scam you don't need.
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Mar 10, 2023 17:30
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BonoMan posted:that's definitely Papyrus! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ
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Mar 10, 2023 17:37
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Hadlock posted:Fully expect to see a reply like
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Mar 10, 2023 17:48
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Hadlock posted:And yet we still put in an offer. There's going to be a real moment of reckoning when the current housing stock ages out (happeining now) and slides into what ought to be condemned but nobody can afford to maintain or improve properties. Right now CA is barely building new housing, and of the stock that exists, nobody is maintaining it and just painting over the problems hoping it won't fall down before they can cash out when they leave. Everyone has their limits, but that one would be waaaaay over mine. Dammmmn.
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Mar 10, 2023 18:07
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Popete posted:The amount of junk mail you get the first year you move in is nuts and it's also pseudo official looking to try and trick you into buying a copy of your title or some other scam you don't need. Wish I could say that ends. June will be five years in my current home, and I just got two different things in the last week. The initial purchase did give the most, for sure.
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Mar 10, 2023 20:04
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At least here in Illinois they must have passed some legislation because a lot of them had a disclaimer printed on them saying "this is not an official mail notification from the state this is an advertisement" or something to that effect.
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Mar 10, 2023 20:09
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Slugworth posted:Hope I'm just misunderstanding you, but fwiw, if my original reply came off snarky, it definitely wasn't meant to! It's fine I'm just snarky in generally because I have to navigate this market again + I've been in bed the last three days with Toddler Daycare Disease #2564 that's not-covid-but-definitely-feels-like-it and quoting your post was an easy way to short circuit several "I loving told you so" posts
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Mar 10, 2023 23:23
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Popete posted:The amount of junk mail you get the first year you move in is nuts and it's also pseudo official looking to try and trick you into buying a copy of your title or some other scam you don't need. I had fun with it because technically the owner for our house was the "Rabidbunnylover Living Trust" but apparently the data feed all the spammers use truncated it to "Rabidbunnylover Li" so like 75% of the spam was Chinese-focused.
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Mar 13, 2023 20:45
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Rabidbunnylover posted:I had fun with it because technically the owner for our house was the "Rabidbunnylover Living Trust" but apparently the data feed all the spammers use truncated it to "Rabidbunnylover Li" so like 75% of the spam was Chinese-focused. one of the advantages of having a 415 area code on my landline (look, it came with the Internet service) is that 100% of spam calls I've received have been in Chinese. Now the downside of that 415 area code is that I live in the Bay Area and housing is still loving nuts. We very briefly had a break from the "offers reviewed in two weeks" stage but it's back with a vengeance due to low inventory. I watched an auction for a 1200 sq ft beat-to-poo poo fixer from the 50s go for $1.17m the other day. We're rapidly approaching "closing date might coincide with baby's due date" so I think house hunting is about to get shelved for the immediate future.
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Mar 13, 2023 21:01
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For the past 10 years, my wife has been saying she wants to leave NYC in under 5 years. Her opinions have changed over time and now she's saying she wants to stay for at least 5 more years, probably longer given her track record. Our rent is utterly insane, so we want to explore whether buying a condo might make sense. Maybe real estate prices will even fall a little bit before then? Anyway, we're going to meet with an agent soon, but they already asked for a preapproval, which I see is common based on the OP. Is there anything to consider when choosing where to get the preapproval, or does that not matter at this point? And should I drop my credit card utilization as low as possible beforehand to slightly raise my credit score, or is this only a thing when getting approved for real?
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Mar 13, 2023 22:12
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Pre-approval doesn't matter who you get it from, it's simple to get and you're under no obligation with the lender that gives you one.
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Mar 13, 2023 22:14
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yeah the preapproval can come from anyone. it's in no way binding. we got a preapproval to buy our place and he gave us some outrageous interest rate and a $16,000 origination fee so we dumped him and went to another lender who we're still actively a customer of. highly abridged email I saw today quote:Subject: Last chance to purchase [...] condo at $[...]K - Charming, high floor 1BR residence [...]! Emphasis on "Unit will get leased in a week or so and wait for the market to come back". Yes we've discussed this in depth as a theoretical concept but this is the first, independent real world confirmation I've seen edit: current 2023 sale price is a couple % below the original 2014 sale price 
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Mar 13, 2023 22:44
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We ran into something similar. We had stumbled upon an open house that we liked before we had truly decided to purchase. By the time we were ready two weeks later they had pulled the house and were putting it up for lease. Turns out if they didn't get asking after 30 days they were just gonna become landlords and try again later
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Mar 13, 2023 22:49
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Pham Nuwen posted:Now the downside of that 415 area code is that I live in the Bay Area and housing is still loving nuts. We very briefly had a break from the "offers reviewed in two weeks" stage but it's back with a vengeance due to low inventory. I watched an auction for a 1200 sq ft beat-to-poo poo fixer from the 50s go for $1.17m the other day. The trick is to move to Hayward, where the pandemic so utterly annihilated the entire local economy that properties are averaging 38+ days on market. Come for the street poo poo, stay for the closed-down businesses with commercial landlords wanting $16,500 per month in rent + greater-than-triple-net. 
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Mar 13, 2023 22:50
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One of the nice things about moving cross-country is blacklisting your old area code to almost completely eliminate robocalls.
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Mar 13, 2023 23:21
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George H.W. oval office posted:We ran into something similar. We had stumbled upon an open house that we liked before we had truly decided to purchase. By the time we were ready two weeks later they had pulled the house and were putting it up for lease. Turns out if they didn't get asking after 30 days they were just gonna become landlords and try again later For anyone who refied in the last few years there is little incentive to sell unless you get exactly the price you want, which has a "losing my 3% mortgage" baked into it. Otherwise why not rent it out?
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Mar 13, 2023 23:29
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runawayturtles posted:For the past 10 years, my wife has been saying she wants to leave NYC in under 5 years. Her opinions have changed over time and now she's saying she wants to stay for at least 5 more years, probably longer given her track record. Our rent is utterly insane, so we want to explore whether buying a condo might make sense. Maybe real estate prices will even fall a little bit before then?
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Mar 14, 2023 00:51
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Dik Hz posted:Only when getting approved for real. Call your bank and ask for a preapproval letter and they’ll give you one. Make sure it says what you want it to say in terms of budget. If you show an agent a preapproval for $750k and have a $500k budget, they’ll try to steer you towards $800k houses. Huh, interesting, thanks for the tip.
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Mar 14, 2023 02:52
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Hadlock posted:Yeah at this price range everything was built before ~1975. The seller has a fairly unique last name and apparently is an unmarried pulitzer prize winning english major(?!) last time I checked english majors do not have "studs out remodeling in the bay area" money even at their level. my understanding is aluminum wiring isn’t a problem if you get it mitigated at the outlets/switches, where failure and arcing can occur. It’s not particularly expensive or time consuming to get this done either, like 50$ per outlet or something
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Mar 14, 2023 04:59
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hobbez posted:my understanding is aluminum wiring isn’t a problem if you get it mitigated at the outlets/switches, where failure and arcing can occur. It’s not particularly expensive or time consuming to get this done either, like 50$ per outlet or something Yeah from what I've read aluminum wearing itself is not the problem, the problem is wherever copper wire meets aluminum. But in addition to the outlets we may also be talking about junctions behind your walls, you never know where such junctions might exist. My parents' had a house fire many years ago caused by an aluminum to copper junction in their ceiling - it's not like there was an outlet nearby or some other obvious reason for there to be a copper connection there, houses just have stupid wiring diagrams sometimes (or all the time). OP if you're not sure whether an insurer would cover a house with aluminum wiring, or how much a premium might cost, then you should start calling some local agents so you can find out. They should be able to give you an answer over the phone. This probably varies by region, you really need to talk to a real person to get this answer.
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Mar 14, 2023 07:22
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What you're dealing with with wiring compositions is that when two different metals meet and rub against each other, eventually one will win the battle of erosion, or the different rates of heat expansion/contraction will just cause them to separate. A huge problem at a lot of facilities I've worked with is aluminum bonds/grounds attached to steel structures; eventually the abrasion just causes the aluminum hardware to loosen and detach completely. Anyway you don't want that happening in your walls
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Mar 14, 2023 12:43
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Bay area goons, What is the thread opinion on far east concord, I guess near the Clayton border? I'd never heard of Clayton before. I guess it's a bit of a hike to the BART station. I see two Safeways on that end of Concord and a whole foods close by and a bit south, and at least one comic book shop on Clayton avenue. Kind of getting close to Mt Diablo how is the fire and seismic situation out here. House is on a 10% grade, split level, lower den floor is not fully flat (1/4" over 10 ft) but two different structural engineers signed off on the foundation. House is 45+ years old but no asbestos and electrical remediation already done, roof in good shape Owner wants two week rent back, please flay me alive. Was going to stipulate market rate for 2 weeks but rent back goes to $10,000/mo after 8 weeks. We're moving cross country so in no rush to move in right away and we're month to month at our current place
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Mar 14, 2023 23:13
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 Well offer submitted, $20k in escrow to be released when they vacate Signing up for a pool built on a 10% grade 
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Mar 15, 2023 01:46
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Hadlock posted:
Enjoy! quote:Now for 2019, in addition to a regular 3-sided pool fence, all new pools and permitted renovations (those that require a permit) must have at least two of these safety features:
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Mar 15, 2023 05:09
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Hadlock posted:Bay area goons, What is the thread opinion on far east concord, I guess near the Clayton border? I'd never heard of Clayton before. I guess it's a bit of a hike to the BART station. I see two Safeways on that end of Concord and a whole foods close by and a bit south, and at least one comic book shop on Clayton avenue. This is just a couple miles from where I live. Clayton is sleepy and nice, kind of has a rural town feel to it because of the surrounding hills. You can drive straight down Clayton blvd or bike it or take a bus, to get to Concord BART if you are commuting to the city, and Ygnacio Valley Rd. runs at around 45 to 50 MPH until you get into Walnut Creek where you are heading to 680 and 24. You are adjacent to Lime Ridge, which is a large open space on the foothills of Mt. Diablo, full of hiking and biking trails and excellent for hiking most of the year. Clayton is actually not a way into Mt. Diablo by car except if you feel like hiking up a lot - the "back way" is via Oak Grove though which isn't too far to go if you want to do that. There's a very good comic book shop on Treat at Oak Grove, I don't know the one on Clayton. You are close to a Sloat Garden Center which is very good and a big upgrade over getting your gardening poo poo from home depot. We are all quite near the Concord tributary of the Hayward fault line, and we have a high risk of earthquakes. You should get insurance. The hills may burn, but you have more than one escape route and they are pretty good at doing controlled burns and stuff. If you're right at the Concord border you're not really that exposed, compared to the houses out on the fringe. It is unusual for a house around here to be only 45 years old, a huge amount of construction was in the 1950s, a late 70s split level is less typical, but maybe there were a bunch in Clayton I don't really know.
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Mar 15, 2023 05:21
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Leperflesh posted:This is just a couple miles from where I live. About this time last year I was in an Airbnb near downtown, I was hoping you would chime in since you seem to be the goon expert on the stairs around here Seems like wildfire isn't a huge problem in the immediate area because it's relatively flat and urban I was looking at some "shake severity" map on arc.gis.gov or something and for whatever reason I guess downtown concord sits on top of a major "very high shake severity" colored polygon. Our house would sit at least half a mile from the edge of there, but I only experienced a few quakes in seven years, two "knocks" sitting on the Hayward fault in Oakland near 13 and feeling our giant steel condo building sway like dense jello during the 2021 Tahoe 7.0 quake. How bad do you feel things there? I guess there was a swarm of 4.X and 5.X quakes early spring of 2019 too I guess it's not a comic book shop, just board games and MTG: Games of Concord https://maps.app.goo.gl/1eacpfk49YN9SuWeA Sounds like not a terrible location. Just heard from our agent that there are no competing offers so I might be at a BART station near you sooner rather than later Need some strong vietnamese recommendations? Bonus points if their banh mi doesn't suck. Further east the better Edit: it was this game store, permanently closed  Equilibrium Game Store https://maps.app.goo.gl/q7L8PZz35q576HgTA Hadlock fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Mar 15, 2023 |
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Mar 15, 2023 06:46
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