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Living in Brentwood?

ipunchfish said:
This is something I have to experience first hand. I know Vasco is pretty slow and there are at least two cops that regularly patrol so everyone drives like grandma.

My commute would probably start around 6:30 or 7:30 depend on when I want to start working (factoring in 1h, 30) and I would leave around 4:30 or 5:30. I know 5:30 is at the height of traffic so I would most likely chill with bros or my family until traffic dies down (guessing 7 or 8??)
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If you have a few spare $$s, you could stay in a hotel in Brentwood for a couple of days just to try the commute.

Do your jobs allow telecommuting?

[EDIT] Doh - too late with the post! [/EDIT]
 
ipunchfish said:
This is something I have to experience first hand. I know Vasco is pretty slow and there are at least two cops that regularly patrol so everyone drives like grandma.

My commute would probably start around 6:30 or 7:30 depend on when I want to start working (factoring in 1h, 30) and I would leave around 4:30 or 5:30. I know 5:30 is at the height of traffic so I would most likely chill with bros or my family until traffic dies down (guessing 7 or 8??)
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you are fooling yourself. you're going to hang around and kill an additional ~2 hours every day after work on top of the 90 minutes it's going to take you to get home anyway?
 
auntiebling said:
with a fee that low, i would expect that the HOA provides no services and no responsibility, or has no contingency money and is run poorly. this means, that whatever the first catastrophic failure that occurs is, will drain the HOA bank account (busted water pipes, all the roofs need replacing, paint is peeling off of the buildings...) and you'll get a "special assesment" bill.

if you're going to get a house, because you want your own place, avoid HOAs like a rabid hooker with herpes. you don't want another set of laws, that you opted into, on top of all the regular laws.
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The area is pretty nicely kept. $35 covers lawns and the parks in the area. Thats about it. Everything inside would be covered by insurance or on my own. The builder responsible for the home is a very good builder too.

But I know what you are saying. HOA is always something to pick through but my friend in the same community says everything is pretty legit.
 
ipunchfish said:
The hotel thing is definitely going down next week.
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Next Monday is V-Day and the Friday is before a 3 day weekend for some...might not be representative traffic.

My bet is on 2-2.5 hr commute time (each way).
 
ipunchfish said:
Any holes in my plans?
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Plenty.

- only a portion of your property tax will be offset by deduction. And you'll still need to pay it up front. And homeowner's insurance. And Mello-Roos, if any, which lots of places out there have.

- I didn't see where you mentioned where you are commuting to. Assuming it is near where you are now, 1:30 is way optimistic. I'd start a 2:00, and that is if there aren't any accidents. That is a minimum of 4 hours a day of your life wasted.

Forget working out, time with your family, or even doing little chores during the week. Those will all get pushed to the weekend. Which means your weekends are hosed for enjoyment and are just times to get ready for the next grind the following week.

- It looks like you've considered gas costs. Have you also factored in wear and tear on your car? Tires, oil, etc.? That 100+ miles a day will add up fast. Not to mention that your three year old car will have 75,000 miles on it, and will be damn near impossible to unload, and a huge loss when you do, so factor that cost in too.

And what about when gas spikes again? Could you still afford it if gas went to $5 a gallon as some analysts say it could?

There's more, but I'll stop for now.... :laughing
 
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Aren't there some extra property "fees" out in that area ?
 
^^^
I think your right. Brentwood is trying to build...so your fees and property taxes are much higher in general.
 
lived in brentwood for about ten years, the ex still lives there.
i liked it a lot. small town feel, lots of amenities, and the city is a short drive away. sounds like you're cool on the commute, so i won't dwell on that. suffice to say traffic sucks in the bay area.
 
you will be putting a lot of miles on your car and probably endup spending 3K-4K a year more on maintenance (tires, brakes, 30K/60Kservice,oilchange).

you wont have any energy left at the end of the day and you will hate it after a year or so. your social life is fucked on weekdays.

even if you are able to do that commute for a few years. things change rapidly when you and your old lady decide to have kids. picking up/dropping of kids from/at school and day care is going to be a nightmare. what will you do when you have to take the kids to the after school activities?

I have a friend who lived in San Ramon for a few years. Both of them worked in Santa Clara/Sunnyvale area. Everything was fine when it was just the 2 of them, but once their kid started going to school, it was a nightmare. they rented their house and now moved down here and they say that the quality of life has changed significantly. they have time to spend with their kid and socialize with the friends.

you are looking at a commute that is atleast 2 hours each way based on the times you mentioned.
 
Yep, that's it !

None of Brentwood pays those ?
 
weak_link said:
Antioch has 'mellorouse' or whatever they are but that doesn't apply to Brentwood if that's what you're thinking of.
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You can pull property tax info from the cctax.us website. I pulled a random house's in Brentwood assessed at $339k...$5.1k property tax. Seems high. But yea, no mello roos, just a bunch of bonds and special Brentwood assessments.
 

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Livermore has a ton of stuff under $300k - including a 1B/1B condo just close @$50k.

1010 Baltusrol Road closed/sold at $299,000 4Bd/2Ba/1677sqft last month

If you need contacts - I haz realtor friend/s - male/female young/old, teh hawtness a female MC rider/realtor :teeth
 
weak_link said:
Interesting. The two houses I purchased in Brentwood did not have any special assessments, maybe we got lucky.
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something to consider, when house shopping :thumbup
 
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