@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:That is great! I want to be at the house warming party if it involves running through the hood!
Man it's right along the old course map for the legendary PV Marathon (before it got changed and all screwed up). I really am not sure I could do better on that count, nice rolling terrain, the Pacific Ocean tempature resevoir keeping it cool, and of course the view... bunch of runners on the weekend mornings along there for minor socialization (though runner socialness is better in Texas I found historically, while it's flat you have a great running community in a lot of places), it's simply fantastic. I can go left and get the hill going up, or I can go right and hit the non-trivial hill that was at mile 1 and mile 12/25 of the PV half/full respectively (out and back course).
Probably I will be getting into the scotch though right around that time, while it's almost completely runnable off street there's some tricky terrain to navigate there... not good to involve alcohol on that one with the number of cars there
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That sounds amazing! Yes, you are right, our running community here is great. I do travel to do races. I am actually signed up to do the Napa to Sonoma half, but have not decided if I will go. It was supposed to be a girl's trip, but my friends have backed out now due to good reasons. So I may go and have fun myself. We do lack hills here that is for sure, unless you go to Austin, then you have hilly areas for most part. It is crazy how the running and real estate is day and night (Cal and Texas).
@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:That is great! I want to be at the house warming party if it involves running through the hood!
Man it's right along the old course map for the legendary PV Marathon (before it got changed and all screwed up). I really am not sure I could do better on that count, nice rolling terrain, the Pacific Ocean tempature resevoir keeping it cool, and of course the view... bunch of runners on the weekend mornings along there for minor socialization (though runner socialness is better in Texas I found historically, while it's flat you have a great running community in a lot of places), it's simply fantastic. I can go left and get the hill going up, or I can go right and hit the non-trivial hill that was at mile 1 and mile 12/25 of the PV half/full respectively (out and back course).
Probably I will be getting into the scotch though right around that time, while it's almost completely runnable off street there's some tricky terrain to navigate there... not good to involve alcohol on that one with the number of cars there
That sounds amazing! Yes, you are right, our running community here is great. I do travel to do races. I am actually signed up to do the Napa to Sonoma half, but have not decided if I will go. It was supposed to be a girl's trip, but my friends have backed out now due to good reasons. So I may go and have fun myself. We do lack hills here that is for sure, unless you go to Austin, then you have hilly areas for most part. It is crazy how the running and real estate is day and night (Cal and Texas).
Beautiful area - I'm about 15 minutes away from Napa. I'll leave the running to you though 
!
@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:That is great! I want to be at the house warming party if it involves running through the hood!
Man it's right along the old course map for the legendary PV Marathon (before it got changed and all screwed up). I really am not sure I could do better on that count, nice rolling terrain, the Pacific Ocean tempature resevoir keeping it cool, and of course the view... bunch of runners on the weekend mornings along there for minor socialization (though runner socialness is better in Texas I found historically, while it's flat you have a great running community in a lot of places), it's simply fantastic. I can go left and get the hill going up, or I can go right and hit the non-trivial hill that was at mile 1 and mile 12/25 of the PV half/full respectively (out and back course).
Probably I will be getting into the scotch though right around that time, while it's almost completely runnable off street there's some tricky terrain to navigate there... not good to involve alcohol on that one with the number of cars there
That sounds amazing! Yes, you are right, our running community here is great. I do travel to do races. I am actually signed up to do the Napa to Sonoma half, but have not decided if I will go. It was supposed to be a girl's trip, but my friends have backed out now due to good reasons. So I may go and have fun myself. We do lack hills here that is for sure, unless you go to Austin, then you have hilly areas for most part. It is crazy how the running and real estate is day and night (Cal and Texas).
Yeah, the hills to the west of Austin (my dad still lives right inside the 360 loop) can be sort of insane though; there was one race I recall which was up at some absurd angle for a road race - Jester 5K IIRC? Austin running community especially was a lot of fun down by the river though was saddened to see Runtex no longer does the water stop when I last went back (Texas/UCLA game since I attended both during my wayward scholastic adventures, in and out of Austin for my and my buddy's old time sake, not many memories of Dallas other than work for me haha), though Dallas and Houston both had their share too. Here it's more individuals since there's just so many places you can go out to and so there doesn't tend to be a congregation point like there is elsewhere. More and smaller running clubs too though that may be a cultural shift too with the rise of the Internet and meetups.
...wow ...simply terrific thread rev ...so much good info and ideas here ...can't wait for the rest of the story 
Good info, jamie123! That is insane. I almost went the townhome/condo route, but it just did not make sense for me.
Revelate- small world! Family is in the Westlake area and Jester is on the top ten hills to train on in the area. Courtyard is the other one I go to train. I do miss RunTex. You must cringe when you see what 845k can get you here versus what you are buying now. I was at the UCLA/Texas game last year, right in front of the 50yard line, good times . I had my UCLA gear on....to support my friends in town. My Texas friends were not happy.
Jamie and S10: Thanks! Yeah I had planned to go over the documents, I know they owe them to me in short order and my RE's coordinator (apparently they split hunter / gatherer duties at Redfin) mentioned they would get those. Did see where the listing updated 2 days ago (i.e. after I'd already made my offer) with a different HOA value, which I'm not happy about but guess I will see in the disclosed documentation what the HOA fees precisely are and I would assume it's $/sq ft. Thought I saw earthquake insurance was included, which need to know as that increases my homeowners insurance by a factor of 4x.
I did do a check around there, some of the decking needed some paint, fortunately most natural issues (or unfortunately, been cloudy/overcast for 2 days and still no appreciable rain falling) are sort of moot, but will definitely be going through the full monty re: special assessments.
@Bananas: heh yeah, we were in Texas orange... UCLA kinda hosed me, though in retrospect if they hadn't, I wouldn't be going through this home purchase currently - teaching high school just doesn't pay enough; tradeoffs in life. As for cringing, not really as even the 1500 sq ft. is enough for me and the conceivable futures for the next 7-10 years if not more. I'm somewhat worried about the appraisal though as everyone in the process has described this property as kind of unique: one set of condoniniums in this price strata, the homes are 2M+ and there's some truly expensive condo/townhomes (not quite sure what they are actually) about a mile to the west... and if you walk 2 minutes east you go across the school district boundary, and everything drops 200K or more immediately. Plus the ocean view and sea breeze weather... well, in some respects you get what you pay for though if I had to do it all over again might've stayed in Texas but my life is here now. California income tax certainly does suck compared to Texas.
There are some things I wish I'd done before going down this process:
1) If employment verification is going to be done, should've had that information ahead of time. Two were easy, address and phone number on my paystubs... my current one, same payroll provider as one of the others, doesn't have the phone number on the stubs. Lost some time on that one, besides fumbling for the data with the LO on the phone, had to go dance with HR to get the contact information they wanted. Apparently wanted the phone rather than just the fax number for the form =/.
2) I should've at least attempted to do a wire transfer out of the source account before tangoing; have some awkward hold on my Fidelity account that prevents online created transfers... didn't check that till 2:30 PST, and of course the group that can fix it closes shop at 5 pm EST. Oh well, couple more days left before the deadline shouldn't be an issue and worst case I can shuffle money around in Chase and make it from there but that'd be awkward since I only barely would have enough stashed there to cover the EMD.
3) Know some of the things to look for, like what the exterior of the building is officially made of - needed for homeowners insurance when faced with 40ish different material options in the USAA interface.
4) Look at the post offer acceptance dance ahead of time... it's a couple of comparitively simple checklists and really there's all sorts of time built into the transaction by standard design apparently, but it can feel non-trivially pressured when confronted with a bunch of moving pieces and parts in addition to whatever else is going on in one's life and if I knew the gates to hit beforehand today probably wouldn't have been so hectic. Granted I still think I'm on top of it (or at least all the professionals in the transaction seem to think so... "you got a homeowners insurance quote already???" to quote my LO.
5) Figure out a little better ahead of time what the RE will perform, learning what lender requests I can dump on them before I'd even really had the conversation with coordinator would've been helpful.
I'm sure more will come to me as I keep going through this, some of it I can't help but ruefully smile at: Escrow company has to take signed original document that they emailed to me in PDF format to begin with, guess it's some random regulation somewhere, 21st century people let's go!
My LO is constantly surprised that I actually pick up the phone when he calls, I guess this is not normal in his experience. 20+ years on the phone and email for work and being on call for much of that... combined with this really is by far the most important thing I have going in my life right now, of course I'm going to answer the phone and try to get done what you need.
Also if you do anything outside the box (Redfin apparently qualifies as such) everyone gets a little worried: backstory the Redfin coordinator asked me if I wanted a check or using it at closing costs... check please, I'll fund this myself let's just get it done, then they send me a disclosure saying the lender gets a vote / gets to decide... in which case why ask me? What was even more baffling was the LO asked if I was going to use those funds for EMD, and then started in with they'll need this and that and this other thing (and I barely understood any of what he was requesting, off the rails indeed) before I could get in "no no no no no... Money for everything is straight from my accounts, Redfin rebate they can send me a check after the deal closes." I know, kid gloves. they're doing me favors . (well from my perspective anyway)
@Anonymous wrote:Congrats on your progress Rev, looks like it's moving along well!
Thanks! Got the full lender documentation dump, also went through the escrow forms tonight. Long day, longer paperwork, oi vey. Up early to straighten out Fidelity one way or the other. I remember a buddy and his wife who went through mortgage paperwork with their RE while I played with their small children to distract them... Redfin does everything via email or phone call but they're awfully responsive: think it's nearly a race on timestamps between our request / response with the coordinator and me haha.
Got the letter from Chase that I'd actually wanted the first time; in reviewing the list other than the executed purchase agreement (which I haven't seen yet, LO is proceeding on the signed counter offer that I forwarded to him) I think I'm done with the listed conditions outlined other than finishing selling a bunch of equities for the downpayment, getting the proof of source of funds from Fidelity after the transfers, and getting the EMD and paperwork to the escrow company which'll happen tomorrow after I check with USAA too to see if I can tag earthquake insurance on later after the initial purchase if the HOA doesn't have it... still several days for the sellers to furnish the HOA information which I need to figure out any gaps in Chase's insurance request. Think it's just Homeowners Insurance which I need and appears to cover the Fire insurance the escrow company is worried about: possible Flood / Earthquake too.
Was one interesting UW tidbit in there, desire for explanations of any credit inquiries within the last 120 days specifically. Wasn't any at the time of the Chase pull so think I'm off the hook there heh. Was also amusing to see the Conditional Approval letter had precise dollar amounts taken from statements I'd given them at the start of this dance... whenever I do this again, definitely getting a better letter to go shopping with; however, still entertained at the little prequal that could!
Ahahaha, just saw all the lender and other documentation all reads July 4th for closing / taking possession / etc. Yeah I don't think so on a national holiday . Given the place is unoccupied, if the sellers can resolve the title issue and I can get the loan funded before then, maybe can shorten this all up a bit.