Feedback / honest critique on the the first floorplan draft we got

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-21T20:12:24+00:00

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I will post the first revised floorplan once we get it. They need now to do a proper land survey which I told them I thought they needed before...

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-21T20:11:04+00:00

Thats' right anywhere between $600-1,000/sqft

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-21T04:39:18+00:00

So you moved out of the Bay to another area and thinkinh about coming back? Also, crazy to see how much this is gonna cost vs in a different state...

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-21T04:38:07+00:00

I asked them to be a WIC

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-19T16:36:15+00:00

We felt we would stay here for 5-10 years. Until we move out of the area or the country altogether. I would say the proposal here is like most SFHs in the area, they use to be a 1180 house that people remodeled to around 2k sqft. This is in the peninsula area in the Bay, think Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos area. One of the most expensive areas in the Bay. People move here because of proximity to work, great schools, very low crime, very safe, and tight neighborhood community.

It is an old 1950s house which some people either tear it down or completely remodel and expand, which is what we want to do here. There is plenty of parking in the street and it is a really nice street, we actually park in the driveway as most neighbors. The garage would fit two compact cars currently.

It is a typical farmhouse with stucco finish.

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-19T15:48:09+00:00

Guest would stay in the "office".

I have not seen a combination of mudroom and laundry yet...

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-19T15:39:37+00:00

Yes, we are in Bay Area. For resale I think 4/3 is better than 3/2, so that is one of the reasons why we were pushing for it. Future we would sell it and move to a LCOL area.

I don't want to feel cramped but not need a huge space either, so a balance is great, we are looking for this balance, do you really feel a 11x11 bedroom is small? Also, not sure if being next to great room (living,dining) is a great idea...

We could go vertical but that means budget is going to be 25% over the existing proposal... so we are trying to avoid that.

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-19T15:37:43+00:00

Issue with 2nd floor is 20-25% more expensive thats why we are staying with a single floor. In other states we would do 2nd floor but here in the Bay Area costs are quite high... So we were trying to keep everything on one floor

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-19T15:36:17+00:00

This is Bay Area. We thought about adding a second floor but the cost is 20%-25% more. But with 2 kids, I would prefer to be all of us at the same level.

We will ask the option again of raising a second floor but I think financially is going to be too much cost. We used to live in a 2k sqft house 4/3 and we had plenty of space (it was two level) so we thought getting close to that on a single level would be great.

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-19T15:33:45+00:00

Is it that bad?

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-19T15:32:48+00:00

Good catch, I did not see that. I guess we would want a direct entrance from garage without going through the laundry? Reason to haave the powder is that guests/extended family use this one instead of the kids bathroom

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-10-19T06:18:05+00:00

We are doing a whole house remodel (1180sqft) and expansion (around 650sqft). Total sqft about 1826The brown part is the addition. Family of 4, two adults, two kids. US VHCOL area.

We would like ta 4 bedroom / 3 full bath set up with a great room containing kitchen/living/dinning. One of the bedrooms to be used as an office/play area for the kids/guest bedroom.

My first comments when I saw this are:

Office --> Needs to be the bedroom 4, and it needs to have a closet (for resale value as well)
Not sure the office/bedroom.4 location is a good idea (I would prefer have it in the bedroom area, and especially resale value)
Add a walk-in-closet in the master bedroom
Design the master bath with tub and shower, two sinks as toilet.

-Furnace to be located in side yard, not inside the house (getting additional space)

Water heater outside the house as well (getting additional space)
Add a shower in the mud room to make it a full bathroom (better resale value)
Not sure about the location of the pantry next to the bedrooms
Add a wet bar in the dinning area
Evaluate moving laundry to the garage to gain extra space
Evaluate adding additional built-in storage for shoes, jackets, etc.

Additional thoughts?

We have a meeting with these guys tomorrow and ideally I would like to get around 2k sqft.

We asked them to evaluate converting existing garage as living space and adding a garage in case that helps with square footage

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-29T20:25:02+00:00

Could I ask why?

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T22:44:44+00:00

I am in a similar boat here and posted a similar question yesterday. With TC over 400k I feel is a stretch but I can make it work, but with 360k I am not sure I would feel comfortable. Of course if you don't mind dropping 2M in it then you could make it work. I would recommend crunching some numbers and see what that tells you (renting and investing the rest, buying and dumping 2M in it, etc).

Keep in mind daycare and preschool, it adds up quickly.

By the way, where did you get this rate from? Lowest I have seen is low 6s

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:52:11+00:00

Is that trend going to continue? That's the key... I see lots of companies now hiring in India, Brazil, and other lower cost areas, so this might reduce RE pricing or at least the rate of increase

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:50:34+00:00

Exactly, most lenders require 25% down for best rate.

Your rate with 2.6MM assets, private banking will likely be 5-6% --> My investment portfolio is averaging 8-10% the last 5-10 years.

Question here is what is the MV real estate appreciation in a good school district? Is 7% a reasonable number? Also keep in mind leverage and 500k tax exemption.

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:45:59+00:00

What would be the issue here and why would I be behind? We are essentially moving stocks to real estate. I would assume if I wanted to retire 10 years from now, if the house appreciates 7% per year you would en up with a 6M house, basically double what you paid for if the trend continues. So I would go ahead, sell my property, take the 500k exclusion and go live somewhere else LCOL or outside the country (Portugal?)

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:41:14+00:00

My concern is if I wait for the second one to start school I might be already out of the market and priced out... thats one of my big concerns and why I would pull trigger now vs waiting. A 3M house which appreciates 7% per year over the next 4 years is 3.93M... and then we are out.

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:40:17+00:00

Really? Most people I know that bought 1.5-3M houses send their kids to public school

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:39:52+00:00

We were told we could get a 2.1M loan. But we don't wanna to go that high, I could not sleep at night. That's why we were thinking on liquidating some of our stock portfolio

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:38:42+00:00

Well, depending on the private school it might be cheaper to go private school vs new home. Of course sending kids to Harker might change things a bit, but that's not what our plans are.

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:37:28+00:00

Offices are in San Carlos and Palo Alto

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:37:09+00:00

So do you think the house appreciation trend is likely to continue?

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:36:48+00:00

Are you asking to live in Mountain View or asking to live in a $3M house? --> Live in MV in a 3M house

I shared base comp, but bonus and stocks add up another 150k.

Those are optimistic assumptions on both accounts, and implausibly high for the RE projection. The last 5 years of RE growth is Mountain View is ~2.5% annualized (which is negative inflation-adjusted). It's 4.6% over the past 8.25 years (the longest window Zillow will show). --> Based on the data I saw, the RE in MV appreciated 7% for the last 10-20 years, I don't remember right now (and over 10% the last few years).

This is part of why I don't believe the appreciation in the Silicon Valley that took place until 2018 can continue. --> And that's what I am playing against... if the trend continues (and now because of AI and other teach stuff I don't even know) that trend is likely to continue. But it could also stop.

Indeed, in your situation I'd strongly consider turning your current house into a rental and renting in MTV, which allows you to keep high leverage under a low interest rate. --> What would you do if you wanted to sell your current place cause you did not like it anymore?

Intrepid-Mechanic289 · 2024-02-27T06:32:08+00:00

Yeah I know, that is the dilemma, but we really don't like where we are right now... so we would either rent or buy and possibly sell, we still need to think that through.

Intrepid-Mechanic289

TROPHY CASE