Comments on: How to get your kids into Cupertino Unified School District (CUSD)

By: Los Altan

Los Altan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:59:55 +0000

So Palo Altan’s are unhappy we didn’t want to help pay for a park in the hills adjacent to their city. Hmmm, we have lot of parks in our city that are completely free and all the tennis courts are open to all. Private clubs are by definition private, but cities are public entities by definition. Perhaps we should put up a sign baring access to any non-residents from cities with park resident usage restrictions. All in favor, say bad PA, bad PA.

By: DreamT

DreamT — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:20:09 +0000

I second WillowGlenner about RE, as annoyingly amoral as he sounds, and even though he regularly sidesteps specific questions, he has his facts right more often than not, posts to recognize when his facts are wrong, and makes for delightful contrarian views. Now if he could reign in that coffee diet..

As for that PA park, I guess some people are rattled that a whole city can own access to nature rather than a group or an individual – but it’s really no different. As much as I dislike paying entrance fees to natural reserves, I dislike even more the rationale that it’s OK to have Palo Alto residents pay for the complete upkeep of a park that would be trashed by the same people who are not able to keep San Jose’s Kelly park clean, despite its entrance fee. The ideal solution would probably be a yearly membership plan for non-residents.
Herve – the access from Arastradero from the top of the PG&E line was not open last I checked – 2 years ago.

By: WillowGlenner

WillowGlenner — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:50:49 +0000

Burbed, I doubt many here really think you are RE. I actually never really thought it either.
As to investing, well to be honest most investment is speculation when you really get down to it. But I try to find houses to buy whose comps are significantly lower than the surrounding area, and buy those. These can either be bank REOs or sometimes, a house is mispriced coming on the market and sits on the market for months, when really there is nothing wrong with the house it was just mispositioned by the sellers. Or sometimes houses in good areas don’t sell because the neighbors are bad- meaning there is a vacant house next door or a rental. I like to buy those, to cut down on risk but of course, there is always risk in anything.

By: burbed

burbed — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:41:01 +0000

Just to be clear, I’m not Real Estater.

Question to WillowGlenner: As an investor, how do you know when to enter and when to exit? How do you know that what you are doing is more investing, and less speculating?

By: WillowGlenner

WillowGlenner — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:29:32 +0000

I actually thought RE was burbed for a while, because RE generates so much debate, without him this blog would be a lot less interesting. But as far as RE being a troll…. really people, come on. I am an investor in real estate and as an investor I need to look at the cold hard return on some of the houses posted here, and really RE is actually closer to the FACTS than many of you. Case in point, the recent burbed post today of a PA shack on alma st for 895K- this sold in June 06 for 788K. If they get the asking price for the Alma st house (and it may go over) this represents a 107K gain – not bad- over a period 6/06-6/08 when most think real estate crashed. if the prior owners of Alma put 10% down (78K, then lets add 15K for closing costs etc)- that 93K investment yielded a 100% return over 2 years. Certainly not the best RE investment ever but not bad. Had the Alma st buyers waited until Dec 06 to buy, it was a bit of a trough in RE, they could have made even more money (depending on whether anything was available in PA, then).
I know RE is predictable with his constant RE hype, but the rest of you have the same problem in the opposite direction, and there are MORE of you.

By: bob

bob — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:55:00 +0000

ha ha! That’s be funny if RE was actually Burbed! I recall this radio show on the AM dial. There was a guy named Phil Hendrie who could imitate hundreds of voices. The show was basically him pretending that someone was calling the show and talking about some crazy thing. One was about a preacher who was scared of vampires and planned on keeping a gun full of silver bullets on his nightstand. Of course it was him doing the voive of the caller, but people called in all the time to argue with him ( and his “caller”) The funny part was that he would then argue with whoever he was imitating! I just about peed my pants a few times listening. Too bad the show went off the air.

By: madhaus

madhaus — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:49:43 +0000

Lionel, this is exactly why I’ve asked you several times to stop feeding it.

By: Lionel

Lionel — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:15:20 +0000

RE, imagine what a wonderful country this would be if everyone were as exclusionary as PA residents. What astounds me is that you can’t see anything wrong with it. I’m getting to thing you’re not real; you’re merely an annoying, elitist, uptight creation of burbed, designed specifically to create heated threads.

By: RealEstater

RealEstater — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:43:52 +0000

Lionel,

For the record, I’m more of a city type person, and I hardly make use of national parks, so I don’t have a personal interest one way or the other.

On this issue, the point here is that this is not “public” land. The land is is private to Palo Alto residents only, just like the Los Altos Country Club or YMCA is available only to its members.

By: bob

bob — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:38:25 +0000

Yes, you do have a point Burbed.In fact, you just gave me a fantastic new idea: Park 2.0, where only people that work for tech startups can visit. Take that, PA snobs! oh… wait- everyone in Palo Alto works in tech, so scrap that idea.