Real estate General topic

[Muhammad]

I saw a video of a guy with a pump and a fire hose fed from his pool. Probably figured he could just jump in the pool if things got too hot.

He was non renewed and applied to Fair Plan which said ok but the oak trees have to go.

Yeah if it's a native oak, it's protected over 8" diameter I believe. So the irony there is "we won't issue your policy unless you make your property less like California" ... next thing will be telling those Malibu lots to get rid of the water if they want a renewal.

 

[Muhammad]

But back on topic, in my neighborhood prices are at an all time high but time on the market is much longer than it was when interest rates were low. I was expecting a drop in prices but nobody wants to sell when they have low interest mortgages and low tax basis.

Many of the properties I see coming on the market were long term rentals or were owned by people who passed (every house my family members have bought has met this criteria). Most families who own around here are stuck in a good way.

 

[2manyrocks]

Haven't followed all of Nashville's sub real estate markets, but the one I still continue to follow has the same house listings still sitting for at least 60 days. But it's not comparable to the LA situation.


edit: just watched yet another interview involving Makas Dasigenius who saved his house pumping water from a pool using what looked to be this 1" clear water gas pump from Harbor Freight. https://www.harborfreight.com/1-in-79cc-gasoline-engine-clear-water-pump-35-gpm-63404.html

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. Muhammad, are you anyway in jeopardy with the fires?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I saw a video of a guy who had hoses and cheap lawn sprinklers set aside just for this reason. He hooked them up, placed them on his roof, and evacuated. House is fine.

Some people just know how to survive... Others wait for someone to save them.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

But back on topic, in my neighborhood prices are at an all time high but time on the market is much longer than it was when interest rates were low. I was expecting a drop in prices but nobody wants to sell when they have low interest mortgages and low tax basis.

Many of the properties I see coming on the market were long term rentals or were owned by people who passed (every house my family members have bought has met this criteria). Most families who own around here are stuck in a good way.

Inventory is low, new home builds have lagged for a decade, and yep, all those folks who bought with 2-3% rates a decade ago, aren't going to budge to take on 7%. Also, a large portion of sales, are to investors... Who are willing to rent you a home.

We are in a different situation. Our place is paid for, and we are paying cash for our next property... But there isn't much out there, and some people are asking much too much for what they have. We don't have to move, so we will wait.

 

[WinterDeere]

I saw a video of a guy who had hoses and cheap lawn sprinklers set aside just for this reason. He hooked them up, placed them on his roof, and evacuated. House is fine.

Some people just know how to survive... Others wait for someone to save them.

Agreed in principle, but I'm not sure how applicable that statement is to this case.

I'd be surprised if water and electric service remained functional long enough for this to be a viable solution, in this disaster. If on a private well, I'd guess your best bet is a portable generator back fed to the well pump circuit, but that only lasts as long as the generator fuel, and is also susceptible to heat and smoke interfering with operation.

If you're on borough water, you'd at the mercy of that system, which appeared to be severely over-taxed and nearly non-functional during the disaster.

 

[2manyrocks]

I suspect the ones that were able to pump water to save their homes had pools as a water source independent of the city.

Now wondering which ones will get prosecuted for sticking around to save their homes in spite of the mandatory evacuation orders issued because the people who were supposed to protect the community from a mass fire event failed to do so.

Or they get fined for using gas powered equipment to pump water.

Or California finds some other novel way of punishing the innocent.

 

[paulsharvey]

Was just looking at some traffic studies, and the county east of me, has an average annual traffic growth of 3.9%. Now, is traffic strictly 1 to 1 linked to population, no, but they are pretty dang closely linked. That's pretty high growth.

 

[WinterDeere]

I suspect the ones that were able to pump water to save their homes had pools as a water source independent of the city.

That could work if you're sticking around to manage water usage and keep the thing fueled.

I had envisioned the case of someone setting up the rig and then evacuating, in which case they'd empty a 15,000 gallon pool in just 25 hours with five 2 GPM sprinklers. Of course, a gasoline or diesel powered generator is still going to be fuel capacity-limited.

The devil is in the details.