Finally Sold our House in CA

[Artisan]

Here is an example of what the California Entitlements and lax immigration
laws get you. This morning I got a call from a distraught business owner,
over night someone came in a RIPPED OUT 3 RPBD
(Reverse pressure backflow Devices). They didn't cut them They RIPPED
them out of the ground. This business is a brand spanking new AirStream
dealer due to open it's doors w/ a grand opening this Friday. Oh man I
really feel bad for these folks. I am doing my best to be more than fair on
repairs. The initial estimate for just the first one was 1500-2500 dollars.
I hit them w/ a 1200 dollar bill at the end of #1 repair and were moving
on to #2 that has a 36" Diameter palm ON TOP of the work area, we have
to remove it before we can fix it.

Anyways, for less than 25 dollars in scrap these P'sOS are going to cost
a fledging upstart about 7K before it is over, I will add expanded
metal LOCKED cages w/ cement slabs over six units as well. Here is #1
minutes before backfill. OH, San gabriel Fire Department was there at 4AM,
yanked out of there bunks to kill the water as well. How much did it
cost to dispatch a full fire crew as well? The Captain stopped in and I
showed them what was underground. They just bent the stuff back and forth
till it broke. I am POSATIVE the thieves got SOAKED. All for maybe 25 bucks in scrap.

The good news is this job is paying for a new Chipper Shreader for my BX25. :thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

Here is an example of what the California Entitlements and lax immigration
laws get you. This morning I got a call from a distraught business owner,
over night someone came in a RIPPED OUT 3 RPBD
(Reverse pressure backflow Devices). They didn't cut them They RIPPED
them out of the ground. This business is a brand spanking new AirStream
dealer due to open it's doors w/ a grand opening this Friday. Oh man I
really feel bad for these folks. I am doing my best to be more than fair on
repairs. The initial estimate for just the first one was 1500-2500 dollars.
I hit them w/ a 1200 dollar bill at the end of #1 repair and were moving
on to #2 that has a 36" Diameter palm ON TOP of the work area, we have
to remove it before we can fix it.

Anyways, for less than 25 dollars in scrap these P'sOS are going to cost
a fledging upstart about 7K before it is over, I will add expanded
metal LOCKED cages w/ cement slabs over six units as well. Here is #1
minutes before backfill. OH, San gabriel Fire Department was there at 4AM,
yanked out of there bunks to kill the water as well. How much did it
cost to dispatch a full fire crew as well? The Captain stopped in and I
showed them what was underground. They just bent the stuff back and forth
till it broke. I am POSATIVE the thieves got SOAKED. All for maybe 25 bucks in scrap.

The good news is this job is paying for a new Chipper Shreader for my BX25. :thumbsup:

I'm an Engineer at the local Hospital... I get a call at 2 am that a toilet isn't working... I think why call when we have lots of toilets and it is not flooding... then the nurse says none of the toilets on the floor work...

Anyway, I hurry on down and as I approach, I see a geyser higher then the room... thieves ripped out the two back flows and left the hospital with zero water... Bay Area, CA

I started digging and was at the supply house at 7am... about $600 later in materials, we were back in business.

 

[mjncad]

When I first came to CA 40+ years ago it was a great state and a great place to live.

Over time, it became infested with liberals who like to spend my money attracting illegals into the state so they can live on welfare. Between that and income redistribution, they have destroyed all incentive to work.

Sometime in the next few years they will completely eradicate all new small business startups and then tax and regulate the survivors into oblivion.

CA is a great place to be from.

Dave:

What you describe is similar to what friends of mine I used to work with told me about their experiences in San Diego County (Escondido). They voted with their feet and moved to South Carolina.

I like Central (north of Santa Barbara) to the Napa Valley area; but even if I could afford to live in CA, I wouldn't because it's too crowded, too expensive, infested with illegal aliens, over regulated, over taxed, broke state & local Gummints, and that's before I even get to earthquakes.

Colorado is starting to head down the Cali slippery slope. If I were single, I'd be seriously looking into Wyoming or Montana.

 

[dmccarty]

Seems like yesterday you were talking about he house fire. Course it likely seem like forever to you.

The Wall Street Journal had a report about changing demographics in CA.

Not sure if other's can read the report but here is the link, The Weekend Interview with Joel Kotkin: The Great California Exodus - WSJ.com

Interesting statements from the Professor doing the research.

Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This is a sharp reversal from the 1980s, when 100,000 more Americans were settling in California each year than were leaving. According to Mr. Kotkin, most of those leaving are between the ages of 5 and 14 or 34 to 45. In other words, young families.

Not in the article but I had read years ago that CA would be loosing population if it was not for immigration from other countries.

The scruffy-looking urban studies professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., has been studying and writing on demographic and geographic trends for 30 years. Part of California's dysfunction, he says, stems from state and local government restrictions on development. These policies have artificially limited housing supply and put a premium on real estate in coastal regions.



"Basically, if you don't own a piece of Facebook or Google and you haven't robbed a bank and don't have rich parents, then your chances of being able to buy a house or raise a family in the Bay Area or in most of coastal California is pretty weak," says Mr. Kotkin.

According to Mr. Kotkin, these upwardly mobile families are fleeing in droves. As a result, California is turning into a two-and-a-half-class society. On top are the "entrenched incumbents" who inherited their wealth or came to California early and made their money. Then there's a shrunken middle class of public employees and, miles below, a permanent welfare class. As it stands today, about 40% of Californians don't pay any income tax and a quarter are on Medicaid.

It's "a very scary political dynamic," he says. "One day somebody's going to put on the ballot, let's take every penny over $100,000 a year, and you'll get it through because there's no real restraint. What you've done by exempting people from paying taxes is that they feel no responsibility. That's certainly a big part of it.

Later,
Dan

 

[rsewill]

When I first came to CA 40+ years ago it was a great state and a great place to live.

Over time, it became infested with liberals who like to spend my money attracting illegals into the state so they can live on welfare. Between that and income redistribution, they have destroyed all incentive to work.

Sometime in the next few years they will completely eradicate all new small business startups and then tax and regulate the survivors into oblivion.

CA is a great place to be from.

Congratulations on finally getting out of CA. California has been liberal for more than forty years, but I suppose it took you many of those years to get so rich you lost your incentive to work.

 

[aczlan]

California has been liberal for more than forty years, but I suppose it took you many of those years to get so rich you lost your incentive to work.

Really? I hope that that was intended in jest.
If not, you dont think that maybe he might have worked till the kids were gone, he retired and didn't have to find another job a few years before retirement?
Happens in Upstate NY all the time. People get tired of paying $4k/year in property taxes on a $100k house and move elsewhere once they retire and aren't tied to kids or a job.

Aaron Z

 

[CurlyDave]

Congratulations on finally getting out of CA. California has been liberal for more than forty years, but I suppose it took you many of those years to get so rich you lost your incentive to work.

DW and I don't consider ourselves "rich" but we know that we are comfortable. This didn't happen by accident, and it didn't happen by laziness.

I went to college and graduate school, my parents paid for undergraduate work, but I financed graduate school on my own, ending with a Ph.D. in engineering. DW wasn't as lucky in the parent department, and she financed her undergraduate and graduate work totally on her own. She has a Ph.D. in psychology.

The first 20 years of my career, I worked for companies, and lived through being fired once, and almost fired again due to not being politically connected inside the company. I came to realize that working for someone else was precarious, and I deliberately decided to develop a sideline which could bring in some income if times became bad. So I started buying and fixing a rental houses working evenings and weekends.

When we married in the late 90s, DW was a college professor, and had started an educational consulting company. I encouraged her to continue in this field.

We bought more rental houses, and she was right there working beside me doing repairs and improvements. Plus she increased her consulting.

In 2003 we were fixing up a rental and she noticed that all of the people who came to look at it drove better cars than either one of us had. And, a lot of them were section 8 tenants (government subsidizes their rent).

In 2007 I realized that I was selling my days to the company for less than they were worth to me, and retired. DW retired last year. When the house burned down I went back to CA and rebuilt it, acting as owner-builder.

Now that it has sold, we are back in our house in OR. DW still has her educational consulting business, I manage our real estate, and just yesterday went down to get the course materials to become a licensed contractor in Oregon. This will both help with the real estate business, and will let me keep some of the guys who worked on the CA house employed in Oregon.

Now just where the he11 along the line do you thing I lost the incentive to work?

* * * * *

And, we contribute more to charities than either Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

DW supports 6 children in various countries. I work with troubled youth and young adults. A lot of times a few hundred $, or rarely a couple thousand $ will make a lot of difference. I reach into my pocket and take care of things when necessary -- more than a few times a year. There is no tax deduction for this.

* * * * *

I know that we are neither the hardest workers, nor the biggest charitable contributors on TBN -- there are many others like us.

But I also know that guys who think like you aren't qualified to carry my jockstrap across the locker room, much less hurl insults.

 

[brin]

DW and I don't consider ourselves "rich" but we know that we are comfortable. This didn't happen by accident, and it didn't happen by laziness.

I went to college and graduate school, my parents paid for undergraduate work, but I financed graduate school on my own, ending with a Ph.D. in engineering. DW wasn't as lucky in the parent department, and she financed her undergraduate and graduate work totally on her own. She has a Ph.D. in psychology.

The first 20 years of my career, I worked for companies, and lived through being fired once, and almost fired again due to not being politically connected inside the company. I came to realize that working for someone else was precarious, and I deliberately decided to develop a sideline which could bring in some income if times became bad. So I started buying and fixing a rental houses working evenings and weekends.

When we married in the late 90s, DW was a college professor, and had started an educational consulting company. I encouraged her to continue in this field.

We bought more rental houses, and she was right there working beside me doing repairs and improvements. Plus she increased her consulting.

In 2003 we were fixing up a rental and she noticed that all of the people who came to look at it drove better cars than either one of us had. And, a lot of them were section 8 tenants (government subsidizes their rent).

In 2007 I realized that I was selling my days to the company for less than they were worth to me, and retired. DW retired last year. When the house burned down I went back to CA and rebuilt it, acting as owner-builder.

Now that it has sold, we are back in our house in OR. DW still has her educational consulting business, I manage our real estate, and just yesterday went down to get the course materials to become a licensed contractor in Oregon. This will both help with the real estate business, and will let me keep some of the guys who worked on the CA house employed in Oregon.

Now just where the he11 along the line do you thing I lost the incentive to work?

* * * * *

And, we contribute more to charities than either Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

DW supports 6 children in various countries. I work with troubled youth and young adults. A lot of times a few hundred $, or rarely a couple thousand $ will make a lot of difference. I reach into my pocket and take care of things when necessary -- more than a few times a year. There is no tax deduction for this.

* * * * *

I know that we are neither the hardest workers, nor the biggest charitable contributors on TBN -- there are many others like us.

But I also know that guys who think like you aren't qualified to carry my jockstrap across the locker room, much less hurl insults.

Dave....All so very well said....:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[powerpace]

Here is an example of what the California Entitlements and lax immigration
laws get you. This morning I got a call from a distraught business owner,
over night someone came in a RIPPED OUT 3 RPBD
(Reverse pressure backflow Devices). They didn't cut them They RIPPED
them out of the ground. This business is a brand spanking new AirStream
dealer due to open it's doors w/ a grand opening this Friday. Oh man I
really feel bad for these folks. I am doing my best to be more than fair on
repairs. The initial estimate for just the first one was 1500-2500 dollars.
I hit them w/ a 1200 dollar bill at the end of #1 repair and were moving
on to #2 that has a 36" Diameter palm ON TOP of the work area, we have
to remove it before we can fix it.

Anyways, for less than 25 dollars in scrap these P'sOS are going to cost
a fledging upstart about 7K before it is over, I will add expanded
metal LOCKED cages w/ cement slabs over six units as well. Here is #1
minutes before backfill. OH, San gabriel Fire Department was there at 4AM,
yanked out of there bunks to kill the water as well. How much did it
cost to dispatch a full fire crew as well? The Captain stopped in and I
showed them what was underground. They just bent the stuff back and forth
till it broke. I am POSATIVE the thieves got SOAKED. All for maybe 25 bucks in scrap.

The good news is this job is paying for a new Chipper Shreader for my BX25. :thumbsup:

In Douglas county and others in Oregon the salvage yards will only take scrap with a picture ID and License plate Number on the delivering vehicle. Copper and aluminum are paid by mail three days after delivery. Steel and Iron paid at delivery. There have been several instances of arrests made before the perps leave the salvage yard.

 

[ultrarunner]

Congratulations on finally getting out of CA. California has been liberal for more than forty years, but I suppose it took you many of those years to get so rich you lost your incentive to work.

If you have read any of Dave's posts throughout the years you would know he is a talented hands on guy...

California has been good to many people... that said, things change over time and that has certainly happened in California...

Most I know that are financially secure didn't have things handed to them... we can go into detail of people that have lost their incentive to work if you really want to go there...

It is more apt to be those that have eliminated the risk needed to support their lifestyle and many of those would be defined as those on the receiving end of programs like Subsidized Housing, Medical, Food, Utilities, Tuition... etc...

I have never lived in a home with cable or Internet TV... yet, I have never managed a Section 8 Household that didn't have these amenities... food for thought?

There is a huge disconnect between those that contribute and those that don't... I would have never guessed families could live in nice middle class homes never having to ever file a tax return while on the street is another family paying not only their way, but also that of their neighbor on assistance...