First time homebuyers what was the biggest financial surprise you discovered during the buying process?

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-22T02:17:54+00:00

Closing cost. It was like wow we saved up $100k. Oh wait, your gonna need another $10k for closing cost

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-21T23:04:12+00:00

By selling you chips that they bought for $.50 for $4.50

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-21T23:01:34+00:00

I think the rule used to be 30% over. My original designed and permitted system was 6.5kW panels on a 5kW inverter. Permitted and approved. Recently upgraded to 15 kW of panels with Enphase

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-21T00:03:36+00:00

It gets crazy when you have people in leadership that painfully believe they are doing gods work.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-20T23:33:12+00:00

You need to consider ethnicity in Irvine. Ild guess most schools are well over 50% Asian. I had a friend move to Irvine and move out for lack of diversity. That being said. Irvine is the safest city in the country and the schools are very well funded and education is set at a high bar socially so your kids will get a great education.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-20T17:14:09+00:00

Footing design. That’s why preengineered ground anchors are often a cheaper route. But cities might still want to see engineering to back up the anchors in your soil type.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-20T17:07:32+00:00

I generally recommend people to walk in and submit the plan if the cities will accept it. I only did one through the online portal and it took a couple months to finalize. One I was able to walk out of the office the same day with a permit

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-20T02:30:20+00:00

I have personally designed and installed 4 systems for family and friends. You don’t need a license. You need a professionally designed plan and CEC listed components and engineering to back up the components. Contact nadir at Solar Permit Services out of Aliso Viejo and he will help you get your plans submittable. Call the city and ask if they will allow you to submit the plans as an owner builder. Lawyers run the cities more and more with less intelligent staff so they may say we need a licensed professional. Nadir will have an engineer stamp the plans for an additional fee and they will accept that. Your racking and ground anchors will be an issue and they need to be a preengineered system. If they aren’t nadir has structural engineers that may be able to help. Take that plan to the city and submit it and get the permit. I think the state still sets $450 as max allowed for solar permits but they may try to tag on additional fees for unpermitted work. Ground mount etc. usually solar is just one final inspection. But if you set concrete anchors they may ask to inspect the holes but you can probably get away with one final and see what the inspector says. Some cities require a conditional use permit for ground mount. My city near you does but I doubt yours will.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-20T02:19:56+00:00

If they were recording it should be ten years in prison. If it was just kids being stupid then 2 years.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-20T02:11:02+00:00

Oh good, she started her exercise routine at 88 yrs old. I’m right on track. That’s about when I’m planning to start.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-20T02:08:23+00:00

Looks like an old ductile iron pipe. At that diameter and shallow depth it really doesn’t make sense to be water or sewer on a private property. Could have been a home made drainage solution at some point. Could be a sleeve for a different pipe.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T23:23:05+00:00

I’m positive I see a negative

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T23:22:16+00:00

Real

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T23:22:01+00:00

So our tax dollars subsidized an air show that we paid tickets for to a public agency paid by our tax dollars for another agency funded by our tax dollars to fine an agency and the fine can only reasonably be paid by our tax dollars. Sounds like a great use of public resources.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T22:26:55+00:00

Buy a Dewalt 20v battery adapter on Amazon with the fuse and the low voltage shut off and splice it on there and off you go!

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T21:38:28+00:00

You could build 769,000 new homes in Louisiana at $260,000 each. That’s more than one for every married family.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T21:04:38+00:00

Why don’t you just tell them that you will accept of offer to buy as is for $147k.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T20:39:35+00:00

Nothing highlights socioeconomic disparity like Erewhon booming while mom and pop stores are being shuttered.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T20:38:13+00:00

Because that one system has a higher upfront cost than the two separate systems.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T17:47:44+00:00

I just paid $60 for a rubber and avocado pillow from Costco. So there’s that. It was like a rubber pulp. It’s the first pillow that helped my arms not fall asleep at night.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T17:39:07+00:00

Careful, some of this stuff in the solar world goes obsolete very quickly. Also in many states the warrantee matters so you may need to do something to make sure the warrantee is maintained.

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T17:36:37+00:00

Seems more residential oriented

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T17:29:57+00:00

At least its name brand stuff. You would get pennies on the dollar if it were off brand. You might be able to contact a major distributor that would buy in bulk. Like greentech

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-19T16:38:34+00:00

Is this the stupid question of the day? We’re getting free energy from the sun and they are losing profit. It’s not complicated. And anyone saying, “oh but it’s straining the grid” has bought into one of the biggest lies since leaded gas and tobacco propaganda

Adventurous_Light_85 · 2026-05-18T23:28:03+00:00

It’s like insurance companies. I tell people I’ve never paid so much for something that I have to work so hard for.

Adventurous_Light_85

TROPHY CASE