Hot Rods Making Big Decisions Around an Old Car?

One of the reasons that inventory is low, is more and more people are taking a second look at the capital gains taxes they may face when selling a home they've lived in for 15 years or longer in San Diego.

 

I have a friend who says I don't mind paying a lot of tax as that means that I am making a lot of money. I did a couple years as a contractor after retiring where the income tax more than I used to gross. The net income was worth paying the taxes so my friend was right. Seek good advice on the investment from an accountant and relax.

If you make some real money & may have to pay taxes on it. Oh well. Keep good accounting of all the house expenses & improvements to use as an offset to the gains. End of the day money was made. Better than many of us who live in a small town watching the economy retracting and values sinking.
Check the area out and see if the neighborhood is healthy or headed backwards as the health of the area will affect your investment. Worse thing is buying in an area primarily rented out and the owners letting the properties slide. So check & compare what else is for sale in the area to see if the price is fair market value.
Sometimes the worst decision is indecision. Have the financing preapproved so when the right place is found then you know the spending limits, payments etc & if there is enough left after the mortgage to have any quality of life. With the financing pre-approval then it gives the freedom & advantage to browse & make an offer. Sounds like you are in an extremely competitive market which makes buying challenging but also great when ready to move or upgrade.
Glenn

 

Thanks for the perspective Glenn!

I do have the downpayment, preapproval, etc to buy a house in this hot market in San Diego. I'm struggling to find something that suits the current me and the future me and that seems very impossible. I don't want a roommate (unless I buy a much bigger house), so that limits me to a small house, but then I'm limited when/if I find a significant other and need to be in a better area and bigger house to raise kids, etc. If I bought that little house for $515k my monthly payments would be $2341/mo and it would rent for around $2200/mo. If I rented it out later it might yield 3.2% return on investment (after tax deduction and depreciation offset) plus 2% appreciation = 5.2% and that is a low yield for high risk according to one finance guru I asked.

The garage thing is what makes it all complicated. I want the option to keep a 50's car in a garage otherwise I could just buy a condo. I wish there were more 1 bedroom houses with a garage but they are so rare and the last one I saw sold in November. I'm not willing to give up on the car thing, I'll just keep renting for a while to see what happens.

 

Compared to the cost of the garage, the cost of the car is a throw-away...just leave it outside and don't worry about it decaying. Heck, that's what everyone used to do with almost every car.

 

Here is a thought. You are in Calfornia where you do not have to sink a lot of money into foundations. Expansion could be possible at a reasonable cost. Likely less than if you sold and went shopping for a larger house. Perhaps a small house on a decent lot with potential to expand. If the house has a decent floor plan and may be expanded then that may give you what you need and give more value as a 3 bedroom will sell higher than a single or double bedroom. The construction cost could be less than the difference between a small house and a larger house. A good contractor would be able to give you an approximate cost for an expansion. New sideline. Flipping houses.

 

Very true. There's just something about bright white lights, tool chests, work benches and a car in a garage that is something I always loved seeing when I've driven by houses where I see a car guy with his garage open... I could see myself wanting to get into cars a bit more in the next few years if I have the right setup. I'll keep trying a bit more but something will have to change on my criteria to make it happen.

 

That is very true! I've thought about that one too. If I got that small house I was mentioning earlier, I'd have to build a second story, which is perhaps an option but maybe not.

 

I always seemed to find a way to work on cars long before I had a nice place to do it. I guess it's something you're born with.

 

LOL
I moved into an apt complex once that I was paying extra for a garage. After I moved in I was informed that you could not own a motorcycle and live there, I was also informed that the private garage that I was paying for was also the community area where they kept the washers and dryers. I took two things into consideration when I rented the apt, one was it was within my price range and the other was that my motorcycle was my primary form of transportation and they were often stolen.

I was told loose the bike or my apt ( and my deposit and first and last month's rent). I made friends with the building manager who said, "Well your bike doesn't take up much space you can share my garage and just push it down the road to start it." Ahhhhh civilization. When my contract was up I moved.

My next place was motorcycle friendly, had covered carports and they even had eyes in the floor to chain your bike to. After I moved in I noticed one day that a guy was working on his car out in the street and not in his carport so I asked him about it and he said that they had a no vehicle repair clause. They did not have a no motor cycle in the living room clause and I did have a friend that died in the street while working on his bike, so when I needed to work on my bike we wrestled it into the living room.

I have had lots of places to live in my life that did not have perfect working conditions and I have always managed to build what I wanted to drive or ride. You make do.

There is one thing that I should add that no doubt has already been said, but if not should be. When you are buying a place to live you are making a long commitment, it should not be made according to what kind of car that you own, but your lifestyle should be given considerable thought. if for instance you tend to be loud buying an apt is probably not a good idea. If your lifestyle involves doing wood work or mechanic work as an outlet then that should be taken into consideration, and so on. Cars are temporary, they change from time to time, lifestyle seldom does.

 

Wow it's great to hear stories like that and your perspective. I agree that the lifestyle is something that needs to be considered heavily.

 

Good luck on getting that home! Go for it. For most folks, condos are not a good investment.

 

I'm living in an apartment (used to be one of the old mill buildings) while building my new house. Needed something to do over the winter, and decided to build an amoire for the house. So far nobody has complained about the noise of a table saw or router...makes an awful mess, though, and my upright vacuum cleaner is no substitute for a shop vac. Took to dropping an extension cord two stories out the window to the sidewalk and wheeling my woodworking equipment outside. My Bug and all of my car tools are in a storage unit, so I've had to get creative with working out of that as well. I can hardly wait to have a garage again!

 

Oh thanks for your perspective. I've survived since last July in an Apt that has a garage and no huge issues but I've been tippy-toeing and trying not to run the engine for long before backing the car out of the garage, makes tinkering tough but I've managed to survive for now while I figure out what I'm going to do.

A fellow Hamb'er had seen my house last spring before I sold it and mentioned I should consider staying put there.. he made a good point because I had a 2 car garage and small house in a nice area but I needed to get out of that neighborhood for sanity purposes because of the HOA and am still glad I am gone from that area (ex gf from that region, etc etc)

 

550000 not bad, this is 750000 same size property (not mine). No where close to water or public transportation. Wrong coast but I feel your pain, supply is bad everywhere.

 

I hope you find a place that suits your needs. I certainly consider my car hobby when looking at houses. Back in the 80s my grandfather and father purchased my current garage. Before then we had stored cars in a few rented garages around the city. A lot of the car club people shared rent in these places. I am extremely lucky they set the family up with such a nice shop . Many years later my folks decided to build a house on the lot in front of the shop. When looking at plans for houses we modified the plans to put more garage space on the house. it went from a tiny 2 car to enough space for 5 cars on the house. we also modified the entrance to the house from the garage to include a utility sink and a bathroom right inside the door. (Makes mom happy we don't have to go through her house to wash hands and so on.) This added additional cost to the build but my parents ended up with an ideal set up. So the car hobby has definitely had a lot of influence on making decisions in our lives. However being in Wyoming made it a little easier to find affordable housing and garage. Good Luck!!

 

Oh man... I can't count the number of repairs I've made outside with the mercury under 30... Work a bit, go in and warm up.. go out again and so on. Dirt driveways, those too... with ruts in them.

One winter I had a starter crap out on my '64 Ford. We were between blizzard #2 and #3 in 1978. Picked up the starter at the parts store, got a push start and headed for home. Ran the car up on a snow pile. Dug out under it, laid down a piece of cardboard, went under and swapped the starter. Funny it was warm under the car, blocked from the wind.

 

It's been a while but I thought it would be nice to update some of you since I can only share stories and not so much car experience right now.

I had gotten into escrow with the condo and then later found mold in the garage so I bailed. The landlord was so mad and he gave me 60 days notice right after. It was stressful finding a new place with a garage but I came across a female in her early 30s looking for a roommate (she was married but her ex left). I ended up befriending her before I even moved in and the place has such an awesome view of Mission Bay.

I took her for a ride in the hotrod along the 101 well ahead of me moving in as I could tell she liked me.... She had a boyfriend at the time but he left for a new job in San Francisco a few days before I moved in.



We've hung out so much and became good friends yet knew things could be tricky as roommates, however when she saw me in coveralls she said explicitly she was so turned on! I texted the photo to her because I was waiting for her to get home so I could change her oil and look at her brakes (her car of course).



In any case the 53' Chevy is in a 2 car garage and I have tons of space to work on it. My roommate is so psyched on the car and wants to help me with any projects that come up.

Hope to be back on here soon to bug everyone and ask for help but I thought some people would find it amusing how my situations always have some craziness. I never thought I'd be dating my roommate and getting hot and heavy (and extremely kinky when she sees me doing car stuff when it turns her on) but it happened and she's really awesome yet we both had a serious honest talk about it being a tricky situation and promised to make sure we tell each other everything that's on our minds.

Here's a cool view from the corner window (Mission Bay in the background though it's hard to see because of the sun).



In exchange for her helping me already with a few things on the car, I bought her a sweet acoustic guitar!





In the mean time I'm going to enjoy life and look for a house to buy in time when I see a dip in the market values or I decide it can't wait any longer (maybe I'll try to buy the one we're in right now). I think nothing beats having a decent sized garage, except for a pretty lady living in the same house who appreciates old cars and now I don't need a one man bleeder next time I do brakes

 

Wow, things look like they are falling into place for you. Knock on wood and hope it turns out well! Black mold indicates serious h2O problems, cute girl who likes you and your old car hobby indicates no problems.

 

You have stepped in poop in a very good way. Nice house, nice lady and a big garage... life is great sometimes.

 

Interesting read threads a couple months old now, but good for you man way to stick to your guns and keep the chebby!