Grambles Crossroads (House Building Thread)

[Desert MVIGTI]

the moral of the story brah is ill never be happy. k, no more thread jacking

Agreed, McQueen.

I want to hear from Mattley Crue on our callout about San Diego v. Columbus though.

Personally, I think most of San Diego County Rules. So Hard.

I grew up in Wichita, KS...a town which has evolved considerably since 1978, as has Columbus I'm sure. But there's something about that temperature range between like 50-80 pretty much yearround.....

 

[Desert MVIGTI]

Also, Grambles, if possible, could we have some pics of the possible options?

 

[mattley crue1]

San Diego is beautiful... People are a bit flakey... Not a lot of culture.
I am an artist and the lack of an art scene in San Diego is shocking for how big of a city it is.
It's also very facadish.

Columbus had amazingly friendly and genuine people....
And the art scene is amazing (at least in the late 90s and early 2000s)
Cheaper to live. Great food, music scene, and like I said... Amazing art scene.

Both have their benefits. But I think I am more of an east coast person. Hence why I am moving back to New Jersey.

 

[Desert MVIGTI]

San Diego is beautiful... People are a bit flakey... Not a lot of culture.
I am an artist and the lack of an art scene in San Diego is shocking for how big of a city it is.
It's also very facadish.

Columbus had amazingly friendly and genuine people....
And the art scene is amazing (at least in the late 90s and early 2000s)
Cheaper to live. Great food, music scene, and like I said... Amazing art scene.

Both have their benefits. But I think I am more of an east coast person. Hence why I am moving back to New Jersey.

Good answer man. It's just my solution for getting out of the heat in the summer. I'm not an artist. I'm an India Pale Ale Drinker....which San Diego county is currently the cradle of. You have have devirginized me on the use of the word "facadish"

 

[mattley crue1]

Good answer man. It's just my solution for getting out of the heat in the summer. I'm not an artist. I'm an India Pale Ale Drinker....which San Diego county is currently the cradle of. You have have devirginized me on the use of the word "facadish"

I think I made it up. Haha.

 

[McQueen77]

San Diego is beautiful... People are a bit flakey... Not a lot of culture.
I am an artist and the lack of an art scene in San Diego is shocking for how big of a city it is.
It's also very facadish.

Columbus had amazingly friendly and genuine people....
And the art scene is amazing (at least in the late 90s and early 2000s)
Cheaper to live. Great food, music scene, and like I said... Amazing art scene.

Both have their benefits. But I think I am more of an east coast person. Hence why I am moving back to New Jersey.

Dude so come up to l.a. Huge art scene up here. San diego is very white bread with very little edge. It is beautiful though

 

[mattley crue1]

Dude so come up to l.a. Huge art scene up here. San diego is very white bread with very little edge. It is beautiful though

Yeah I have been thinking about it. But the north east is kinda calling me back... Still have a little time to decide!

 

[blue2turbo]

I'm in a somewhat similar situation, while I already own my house (purchased it when I was 23), it is in need of some major renovations. I just did most of the kitchen (doing the minor final touches now), but I still need to do bathroom, the 2 spare rooms, landscaping, etc. I don't always have the time to do everything myself, so I have to hire friends and contractors. After doing the roof, windows, siding, floors, kitchen, I am pretty tapped out.

For the last 5 years of my life, my focus has been in cars, modding, enjoying, etc and I am trying to change that and invest in things that will better my overall quality of life (the house).

I just traded my R53 Mini Cooper S in on a 2010 GTI as my MINI was about to be plauged with problems and already have a few quirks that were driving me nuts. I like the GTI in stock form for now and will continue to drive it that way, but my payment did go up some which doesn't help me get the money I need for the house. So how is this similar you ask?

Well I have a 93 MR2 Turbo in the garage that has been my 7 year project. I've invested tons of time and tons of money into the car but I love it to death. Recently I've been trying to find ways to get the money I need to finish my renovations without getting an equity loan, personal loan, running up credit cards, etc, but saving money is a semi slow process since things always seem to "come up."

My options have narrowed down to

- Outright selling my MR2, in which case I will lose a lot of long term invested money, but probably make close to 15-17k off the car (either whole or parted all the way down)

- Demodding it slightly (scaling it back from a full stand alone EMS w/420whp, back to a stock ECU, ~300ish whp) which would net me 3-6k depending on how far I go, or

- Just trying to keep plucking away at savings and just renovate as I can. Problem is, I want to move within the next year or two and that won't be possible until all the renovations are done.

If you enjoy your GTI, I think option 2 is the best bet. While it means you may not enjoy the speed of the car while it's demodded, at least if you hang onto the car until after you close on the house and get settled in, get your bills squared away and such, you can always repurchase the mods that you know you want and build the car back to its current state or greater. Right now I am leaning toward that as my same option, de mod now, rebuild later if I feel so inclined, knowing exactly what parts I will need to get back down the road.

While VW's can have problems or may need extra attention, you could also walk into someone elses headache buying a used car and may end up having to replace worn parts, fix things, or anything along those lines. If you already know your car in and out, I'd stick with it.

 

[Cheesecake]

Finance 101.

Without knowing actual numbers, you can only speculate as to what the best objective solution is.

I would suggest speaking to your lender. It is in their interest to draft up the best solution for you, as this also improves their risk of default by you.

I'm sure they would be more than willing to help you with your due diligence and provide you with what the logical financial decision is.

 

[tman1]

Ok tl;dr but... IN4K04!!!!

 

[Baldeagle]

Finance 101.

Without knowing actual numbers, you can only speculate as to what the best objective solution is.

I would suggest speaking to your lender. It is in their interest to draft up the best solution for you, as this also improves their risk of default by you.

I'm sure they would be more than willing to help you with your due diligence and provide you with what the logical financial decision is.

As a general rule, a mortgage broker has a fiduciary duty to the borrower. A lender does not. If you seek financial advice on this subject, talk to a mortgage broker. A lender can screw you.

http://lawreview.wustl.edu/inprint/75-4/754-9.html

 

[TheCastle]

I'm 24 (25 Next month). Been working as an Automotive Engineer for 3 years in August. I dont have much of a ceiling here at Honda. I also make OT beyond 40hours a week. I normally pull anywhere from 46-52 hours a week so my income is often a fluctuation but my budgeted expenses are all based upon my base pay +/- 1%-2%.

Substantial increase?....probably not. I'm sure I'll hit 6 figures eventually ....maybe a little further into it, but that's up to my determination and drive. Benefits, job stability, passion, and dream all outweigh any sort of amount I make here. Honda is a wonderful and amazing place to work for and a way of life. I could NOT say the same about Mercedes when I worked there for a few months.

Even during college I was overly motivated and focused. I finished my full Mechanical Engineering degree with a Cooperative Education Minor (1 year Mercedes Exp) in the matter of 4 years and 3 months and a job shortly after.

I fully believe in hard work paying off and this is just another example. I'm willing to give up my GTI for a house. But in the grand scheme of things...this step is only to make my cash flow convenient for us. Money will eventually come.

I dont know.........I'm sure this decision will come to me taking a poop tonight or something

The reason I asked is that I believe you are still early on the income curve. You'll change jobs (I did 3 times) and You will be making a lot more money in a few more years. So things that are hard to afford now will become easier.

lol, as is the case in most things in life, there is no right answer there is only the right answer for you. I'm 37 BTW and I'm Senior Project Engineer at Lockheed Martin. I've maxed my income potential in my current career line so I can't take on large amounts of debt and expect my income to bail me out in the future. I'm looking for my next job jump now though I'm enjoying my current project.

If being debt free is of importance to you, then borrowing money to buy a house isn't really a step in that right direction.

Do what a couple of my friends have done. Buy an RV live in it for really cheap, save up the cash to buy a house and pay cash. I can't tell you how many folks I've seen do this to great affect. In fact most of the folks I work with have their houses paid off or paid cash for them... But engineers are conservative aren't we?

But seriously consider buying an RV living in it until you have the cash saved to pay cash for a house. Houses are a money pit! I would have been way better off financially never buying a house. It isn't just they payments, its the maintenance, upkeep, lawn care, repairs, taxes, insurance, that all make it a terrible investment. But as a lifestyle choice its a great one. My fiance and I are quiet happy at "our" house.

 

[mdhollis]

This is probably the most reasonable and responsible post I have ever seen by a car enthusiast lol.

You will have plenty more time in your life to mod cars. IMO whatever it takes to get in a house, do it.

 

[grambles423]

Also, Grambles, if possible, could we have some pics of the possible options?

Yes! Ill grab some of the stock pics and put them up later on.

 

[grambles423]

The reason I asked is that I believe you are still early on the income curve. You'll change jobs (I did 3 times) and You will be making a lot more money in a few more years. So things that are hard to afford now will become easier.

lol, as is the case in most things in life, there is no right answer there is only the right answer for you. I'm 37 BTW and I'm Senior Project Engineer at Lockheed Martin. I've maxed my income potential in my current career line so I can't take on large amounts of debt and expect my income to bail me out in the future. I'm looking for my next job jump now though I'm enjoying my current project.

If being debt free is of importance to you, then borrowing money to buy a house isn't really a step in that right direction.

Do what a couple of my friends have done. Buy an RV live in it for really cheap, save up the cash to buy a house and pay cash. I can't tell you how many folks I've seen do this to great affect. In fact most of the folks I work with have their houses paid off or paid cash for them... But engineers are conservative aren't we?

But seriously consider buying an RV living in it until you have the cash saved to pay cash for a house. Houses are a money pit! I would have been way better off financially never buying a house. It isn't just they payments, its the maintenance, upkeep, lawn care, repairs, taxes, insurance, that all make it a terrible investment. But as a lifestyle choice its a great one. My fiance and I are quiet happy at "our" house.

I can see myself working here for the rest of my life. I really don't plan on moving for a while. Why? Because its totally different than corporate America. It's a Japanese culture driven company. There's no politics. If there is, it production based nonsense. Being in the position I'm in nets me huge opportunities in the near future. My salary cap is probably 20years away from me because there is just so many different routes to move. But to me, having a balls load of money is not everything I look for in a job.

It's extremely hard to base my experience with Honda in mere words, but I can now see why it's such a big deal to people who work there.mercedes was fun just because of the products we built. But the pretentious attitudes mixed with power lust managers just made working there a nightmare on every level.

In my case right now, my decision will obviously not be the most bottom line sensible financial option. It's going to be a compromise in which to gain the best house for the money we can spend without having to change our lifestyle and/or our cash flow. We want a house. We want our OWN house.

Having crunched the numbers last night we can afford upwards to 280K give or take the amount we put down but she would have to slow down on her student loans in order to manage out cash flow better. Makes sense. However, thats Too much house in my eyes. So we've found some better low cost options around 180-220 that would really suffice what we are looking for that would actually free up MORE cash flow than what we're paying now.

What does this mean about the car? It's looking like ill have a mix of keeping the car and taking some, not all, the parts off. I'm thinking sways, downgrade wheels, Bilsteins, and Brembos to start. From there, i might go as far as Stage 1. I dont know. That'll at least free up some cash and STOP the modding of this car. That'll net me some more savings per week AND allow me to have a nice car.

In response to the Alabama comment, it does not bother me to live here. I've lived in rural Montgomery, Auburn, and now Birmingham for my entire life. Like i said before, Birmingham is probably the second best place to live in Alabama with Huntsville or Fairhope being number one. Its a wonderful place to live and if you live on the outskirts like Bowers and I do, you really can take advantage. It's cheap to live here, unless you're in the city. Major corrupt government issues. I pay $1250 to live in a 3bed2bath home right now with $350 in utilities.