We bought a welcome mat. And a house where we can place it.
Please join me on a tour.
Our new home
Let’s start with the important stuff – awhile back we setup some criteria for our forever home. Turns out the Sacramento area hits all of our buttons. If you google “best places to raise a family in California” our area is amongst the best.
The neighborhood we are in is well established with an abundance of large trees. The roads and sidewalks are wide and well maintained. There are marked bike lanes on most streets and 2 large bike trails conveniently cross town, one of which starts in a massive park 500 feet from our front door.
We are within walking distance of Jr’s elementary school and a short bike ride to a huge skate park, BMX track, and popular disc golf course. 10 minutes by bike get us to the library and essential shopping (e.g. Target, grocery store, home improvement store.) 10 minutes by car gets us to anywhere in town. Within 65 minutes we can be on the ski lift.
The house itself is about 2,000+ sq.ft. with 4 bedrooms (plus a bonus room) and 3 full baths, which allows for Winnie and me to each have our own office. In theory the boys share the bedroom with attached bonus room, but mostly they continue to sleep with us in the master suite. There are separate living and family rooms, or as we refer to them the living room and play room.
The garage will fit 3 cars and there is additional parking for an RV and a boat. (When we do eventually purchase said boat, I can tow it to the ramp at the lake in a few minutes.) 1 of the garage stalls is reserved for a home gym (squat rack, bench, etc…), a work bench, and bicycle parking. There is no shortage of storage.
The lot is comfortably sized and is fully fenced and well landscaped with an irrigation system. There is a nice oak tree and several fruit trees (orange, lime, lemon, and TBD (plum maybe.)) The backyard has a large covered deck, 2 sheds, and a gazebo adjacent to the pool, hot tub, and sauna.
It’s nice.
The Tour
The front door opens into a small entry area with coat/shoe closet. Extra wide steps lead upstairs to master suite with bath, 2 bedrooms, bonus room, and bath.
Entry
The family room and dining room are immediately off the entry.
Family Room
Dining Room
A few more steps lead to the living room and kitchen with small dining area.
Living Room
Kitchen
The kitchen and living room all have large windows or sliding doors leading to the covered deck.
Deck – Elevated
Back inside, just off the living room is a small hall that leads to the garage, laundry room, bathroom, and 4th bedroom.
Guest room and future office – has its own small terrace
Guest Bath
Next we head upstairs to the Master Suite
Master Suite
Next door are 2 bedrooms and a bath
Bedroom / Future Office
Bedroom
Attached to the 2nd bedroom is the bonus room, a fun converted attic space with secret tunnels and loads of room for the kids to play
Bonus Room
Back outside we have plenty of parking
Garage
Around back we find some more fun stuff
Back yard and Mighty Oak
Gazebo
Pool
7 Person Spa
Sauna – good for after ski days
$$$ and the Home Purchase Experience
We talk about money on this blog so here goes…
Purchase price, fees, expenses, furnishings, basic upfront repairs/maintenance, etc…. comes in over 7 figures. Reasonable value all things considered. I’m sure we overpaid but there were multiple offers so the demand was there. Zillow says the house has increased in value by $50k since we bought it. I don’t know what property taxes will be yet, but around $10k/year.
I paid cash. We were outbid and outmaneuvered on multiple properties prior to this so I changed to an all-cash offer and quick close to be more competitive. From offer to move in was less than a month.
To get cash I sold a bunch of stock – this means a non-zero tax bill for 2021. Fortunately we had funds in a taxable brokerage account so they were accessible (as opposed to an IRA) and are just paying long-term capital gains taxes. Also, fortunately, we have 8 years of capital gains harvesting behind us so basis was reasonably high.
Everything from first viewing to close was done remotely – we never stepped foot in the house prior to moving in. Our realtor was a friend of a friend. We did a remote tour with her via FaceTime. After our offer was accepted, my mother and sister were present for the inspection with me on video chat. Closing was all done virtually – I wired the funds and signed everything via DocuSign.
First impressions were mostly positive – the place seemed a little smaller than it appeared on pictures and video. We had a little problem with the refrigerator compressor going out (on a 5 month old appliance.) The one garage door remote was broken. Getting a blackout shade for an arch window has been an adventure… all pretty minor stuff.
We have had a few days of smoke from wildfires. That is a bit annoying but some air filters take care of that and indoor activities are fun too.
On the other side, having a full sized dishwasher again is amazing. The temperature and humidity are almost perfect. The kids love the pool and we swim almost daily. Everything is nearby and convenient.
Overall, it’s good to be home.
Summary
We bought a house. We like it.
The basic idea is we will be here for the next 17 years or so until both kids have graduated from high school.
Have you found your forever home?
Congrats! The new home is beautiful!
We like our current home a lot (walking distance to Costco, plenty of bike trials, etc), but we’re 7 hours from the nearest mountain. Which is a bit of a bummer given my hobbies of hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, backpacking, and skiing.
That said, we vacation a bunch given my flexible academic schedule. Ideally, we’ll stay put until the youngest is out of high school (11 years). Then…who knows?!?!?
Thanks Prof. How is it walking to Costco? We usually end up with big things so need some transport – maybe a bike trailer.
We debated being further from the mountains… but I’m really excited to get a season pass again. Jr will probably have to call in sick on good snow days.
When Costco is your closest grocery store, you use it differently. We would get lots of amused looks walking the Chariot double bike trailer/stroller through the Costco aisles. Not a fan of the bag checks at the door though. We would still drive most of the time.
Love love the house – very nice. I pour over houses for sale online so I always have the weird questions! They are: what’s that in the middle of the kitchen floor? Electrical outlet for an island? Is the master bath totally open to the bedroom? Can’t tell by the picture. Thanks. You will make many happy memories in this house!
Yeah electrical outlet for an island. Yes, there is no door between the master bath and the bedroom. There is a door on the toilet closet though :)
Jr wouldn’t need to call in sick. If you look at the school calendar there are so many “early release”, “staff development”, “data” days lol. It’s always a problem for working parents but an advantage for you guys!
Congratulations on that beautiful home! It sounds like a great spot to be in with all the things you value nearby. Enjoy!
Thank you
As long as nobody else goes to the mountains on those days we will be golden!
Love the house – the backyard and pool are really nice.
Given your family room and dining room are immediately off the entry – do you take off your shoes becoming entering (and ask your guests to do so as well)?
We have a shoe rack outside the door – Taipei style
Woot! Well done! Did your family scope the neighborhood for a day to make sure you don’t have wacky neighbors, or are you just taking your changes on that….?
I more looked at area demographics – 1 in 4 is non-white, 1 in 5 is an immigrant, voting results are heavily in the direction I prefer, etc…
Congrats! And welcome to the Darkside. :)
After so many years of being against homeownership, what were the main reasons why you decided to finally take the plunge?
I’m going to assign a 55% probability that you guys will stay in your home for the next 17 years.
A forever home is usually not forever nowadays!
Sam
55% seems reasonable. We won’t move to advance our careers so that puts us a bit above average.
Homeownership is often a poor investment for people vs renting and investing the savings in the stock market. That holds. It’s just that having more money is no longer a motivation. And flexibility wise, we are less interested in being mobile.
Cool. Although, Sacramento home prices are supposedly up over 20% year-over-year in 2021. Not too shabby, especially if you compare the cash on cash return.
I’m assuming home prices will continue to go up. So enjoy the ride!
SP500 is up 30% year over year. 20% year to date. Plus dividends. With ~zero expenses.
For planning purposes I assume things stay flat. If there is upside down the road that is a bonus.
Congrats! I’ve joked that people post ‘Congratulations!’ on social media for all sorts of ill advised purchases; it’s nice to say it about a well researched, intentional expenditure. Interesting contrast from meeting you guys in Malaysia when Jr was a baby and you were living out of a backpack!
It’s been an interesting journey for sure!
The reasons you outlined resonate with me.
Congrats on taking the plunge!
Love it and everything about your new home! It will be a great place to live, work and play for the family. Congrats!
Thank you! We are pretty excited about it
House looks awesome! Curious, what made you decide to settle in the US vs somewhere in Europe? Do you ever think you might get the itch to live somewhere else and travel with the kids for a year?
We wanted the kids to have some immersion in both of their cultures. That means the US.
I think we’ll be able to scratch any travel itches just in the summer. With summer vacation and all school holidays in theory we could travel up to 4 months per year.
Beautiful house! We thought we had the “forever home” less than a mile from parks, shopping, grandparents, etc – but life changes and we sold the house after a complete renovation over 8 years. We’re now building a new “forever home” in a solar-powered town in SW Florida after our own extensive search and soul-searching. Like you, we’ll probably stay here until the kids are out of school in 12-14 years.
we are currently searching in SW FL. Can you please share the name of the solar-powered town? this is very interesting to us. thanks.
Wow, that outdoor space is fabulous! You went from joining a country club to living at one :)
Congrats and best wishes to you and the family.
That’s how I think of it too – the downside is I can’t swim laps in this pool. There is a gym/club near here that has a lap pool and free onsite childcare for something like $150/month for the whole family so we may end up joining that.
Wow! What a nice house. I like the covered deck. The pool and sauna are awesome too. I won’t share this post with my wife. She’d be super envious.
The property tax sounds really cheap for that place. We pay $8k/year on a small dinky house.
California has pretty low property taxes as a percentage.
Our Property taxes in Los Angeles County average out to @ 1.4% of assessed value. The 1% base rate and then all the “voted” indebtedness” and direct assessments.
We should be in the 1.1% – 1.2% range
Oh, it’s gorgeous! It has everything we would dream for in a house except for one level. And the surroundings you describe sound perfect. It even looks like there’s EV charging – is that what’s on the left wall in the garage pic?
There is only 110V in the garage at the moment. I’ll be getting 220 installed at some point
Congrats! Lots of folks moving to Sac these days for the more affordable housing vs the bay. It sure is hot in the summer, but looks like you’re set with the pool!
My take on Sacramento heat… it’s really only for 4 hours in the afternoon during peak summer that it gets hot. That’s when you use the pool. The direct sun feels hot at 100F but step into the shade and it is still pretty nice since there is no humidity.
Mornings and evenings are cool. I run the whole house fan when we get up in the morning and then the AC doesn’t kick in until 1-2 in the afternoon. By contrast in Taipei the AC was running 24/7 during the summer.
Looks amazing! And sounds like a very convenient livable spot in town.
I’m kind of in the same spot here in Raleigh. 10 min walk to kid’s elementary. 10-15 min bike ride to pretty much any store we need including warehouse store (Sams, not Costco).
We’re at 18 years in this house so I guess it is our “forever” home. Oldest kid is 16 and half time in college but youngest is 9 right now. So we probably have at least 9 more years living here. Or maybe forever. Great value proposition for us versus renting over that time span.
I’d say you have done pretty well investment wise. And lifestyle wise.
Congratulations on your beautiful new home!! Love the oak tree in the yard and the landscaping..I follow your blog though we will not be retiring early.I did pass your name on to our son who was interested!..We live on Cape Cod which was never planned to be closer to some of our grandchildren!..Real Estate values have gone crazy in New England and our home has gone up over 100 K since we purchased a year and half ago! Glad you bought a house, we have moved several times renting one because owners have sold the home or had a relative move in.The stability of home ownership is nice.Enjoyed your last blog too.You have a nice family! Be Well.Hope the fires are put out soon in CA!!
Thank you! We had some bad smoke a few days from the Caldor fire but once it descended into the Tahoe area the smoke mostly disappeared.
Real Estate prices have gone a bit crazy everywhere I think – seems like you bought just in time!
It’s wild that you bought a 7 figure house without ever setting foot in it.
Not surprising as you’re not a conventional person, and I’m sure you did ALL of the possible money thoughts and considerations.
I understand tech helps a lot these days. Still, I’ve bought shirts online that I’ve had to return. 😁
Looks beautiful. Enjoy!
“you’re not a conventional person”
I got a really good laugh out of that, thank you.
I probably wouldn’t have pulled the trigger if I wasn’t able to have some trusted people go through in person first.
What?! No “twin cities”?!?! 😀. Beautiful home and cheers to you and family!
Snow is a big no.
Congrats. I live in the greater Sacramento area as well. Welcome to the neighborhood!
Thank you!
And a slightly reduced chance of a Chinese PLA invasion.
50/50 probably
Congrats you found a house! I’ve been following since 2012- I can’t help but smile at the irony of older blog posts now that stuck out to me that scoffed at home ownership and soccer moms driving their kids two and from practices…we started a family earlier so I was always a little discouraged by some of the harshness but have learned ER isn’t a one size fits all approach to getting there and really changes depending on what phase of life we’re in. It was surprising to see you guys have moved back to the states but happy you guys are still sharing your adventures post fire with us…hoping to hear more from you about the mental side of ER and how things have evolved with life and kids. Best wishes to your sweet family! -Hope
I smile at the irony too :)
I think this is the most beautiful home I’ve ever seen in my life!
Enjoy it with your wonderful family, and welcome to California :)
There were a few I looked at in Malibu that I think look a bit nicer, but they also cost 10x so….
You should check out the movie “Lady Bird” – which was made a few years back. Really quirky comedy set in Sacramento – I highly recommend it!
I put it on the list
Wow!! Perfect example of doing what you want to, when you want to as a result of being FIRE!! I remind my wife of that daily now that we are FIRE. Thank you sir for setting the bar :)
Yeah if I wanted some restrictions on what we can or can’t do in life, I would just get a job :)
Welcome to Sacramento!
I have being following your blog since 2014 and surprisingly you decided to settled in Sacramento. Can’t believe you bought house here remotely. Enjoy the afternoon heat, and it will be end soon.
I do enjoy the afternoon heat – I was puttering around in the yard a couple weeks ago when it was 100F and it felt nice, had no idea it was “hot”
Nicely done! Good to be closer to family. I am sure your kids will love having cousins around.
Numbers question: Do you consider your beautiful new home and it’s appreciation as part of your net worth for your “4% rule” calculation?
No – with the 4% rule, in theory there is a chance funds go dry in 30 years. Unless you are willing to be in a situation where you are forced to tap home equity for living expenses you need to keep house money separate.
You sold your stocks to finance the house purchase with all cash. I supposed that you do not need to pay the first 7 months of California state income tax on your capital gain? We are trying to avoid paying California state income tax when we decide to sell some stocks to purchase a property with cash.
CA only taxes gains of residents. Any gains before we become residents are untaxed.
Welcome to the Sacramento Area. I am a long-time follower of your blog and adventures. Hope you are happy here in California. We live in Lodi, about 50 minutes south. Lodi has a couple of nice city parks with a children’s zoo in one and kayak access to the Mokolomne River in the other. Both are great for young kids. Thanks for many happy hours of reading your blogs.
Sounds really nice! I only know Lodi from the song
There are a couple of zoos near here that we plan to visit soon. We have been on the river a couple of days already.
A home that should be a great source of personal and financial comfort for many years.
“property taxes will be … around $10k/year”:
USA property tax rates seem like a perpetual second mortgage to me. What benefit does the owner receive?
I feel hard done by paying $A2,764 on unimproved value (equivalent to bare block) of $A360,000 due to recent method changes. Utilities additional. Pays for normal local government services; particularly education & health. Property tax about 10% of government revenue.
Sacramento (38.5816° N) & Canberra (35.2809° S) have much in common. What $USA 1 M buys: https://tinyurl.com/a5kjck3b
$1 million certainly doesn’t buy what it used to :)
The Sacramento County tax site says the money goes here:
Schools; 49.73%
County General: 16.47%
Fire Protection: 10:11%
Cities: 10.74%
Redevelopment: 5.67%
Special Districts: 3.08%
Community Service Districts: 2.48%
Recreation and Parks Districts: 1.72%
https://finance.saccounty.net/AuditorController/Pages/TaxGeneral.aspx
Sacramento revenue:
https://finance.saccounty.net/AuditorController/Pages/AcctGeneral.aspx
Property tax: 535,799k = 17% of:
Total revenues 3,115,815k
Largest:
Operating grants and contributions 1,531,492k.
I agree with others that the house is indeed beautiful!
Did all the containers arrive on-time to furnish the whole house or did the house come furnished? Whoever did the job is naturally talented or hired a designer.
You should share some real-life pics after kiddos decide to ransack it room by room, lol.
OTOH, over $1M to wire for the house?! Holy stuff indeed, but it’s CA, all right!
What’s the risk of the climate-change events and fires for your area?
I’m concerned that more people will be gradually moving and of course we have more than enough of CA, MA, or NY here.
Will this mean you’ll be working on more projects and your blogging business to generate more income now?
Like somebody else commented above, your older articles and your stories about your past seem to contradict the present. However, I think you and your family are going through some kind of ‘evolution’ (couldn’t find a better word). Once you saved a ton of money and thanks to successful blogging (of selling the dream to others :-)), bull market has been rewarding you and instead of saving more and more money, it’s good to see that you are not stuck in that frugal mode. We’ve been definitely fortunate with this market and hopefully will not end like Japan (pundits say, we’re all right).
Enjoy!
The house was professionally staged for the sale – our (partial) container is still in transit. But no furniture in that, our rentals were furnished, so we have been slowly accumulating the necessities… had a king size mattress delivered the day we arrived, etc…
Evolution is a good word.
That’s awesome ！ Congrats on the move and welcome to Sac！ I’ve been following your blog for about a year now since joining the FIRE journey myself, I’m in Sac as well, which makes it even more awesome you guys moved here. See you guys around 🙂 ！ don’t forget to bring the kiddos to Gunthers ice cream .
*googles gunthers ice cream*
Just put it on the list! Thanks!
Gunthers… no, Leatherbys is best for a Sacramento ice cream experience.
I’ll be sure to try both!
Wow, beautiful! Seems like an idyllic setup- jealous of the outdoor set up : ) And don’t take in any of the comments about the 180- you are totally allowed to have different life phases and change your mind, that’s what life is all about. Some folks seem to get pigeonholed into one idea and then are afraid to change from thinking about what other people think. But what’s important is what you and Winnie want.
It’s all good – they are fair questions.
It’s been a good first month. Now I’m ready for ski season!
Looks like a nice location – we are in a similar phase now and will relocate first to southern Lake Huron (3-8 hundred thousand CAD for a house) area and have been online window shopping in the GTA, GVA, Kelowna or maybe just stay by the lake … 4 seasons here but with global warming not much snow these days … if you go back to school you could probably get your teacher’s ICT teaching credentials and later teach around the world with free accommodations and kids tuition free in locations across Europe, Asia, SA, Africa etc … basically the whole world … which is what I have done – retired for now in China :)
at international schools that is …. – with your background maybe you could teach math and economics too … etc … then you could keep your eye on your kids too … and be their high school teacher in several years …. :)
Teaching kids in a classroom is best left to the experts I think (sounds terrifying actually)
Beautiful house GCC! Your family is going to have a lot of great memories there!
Congrats!
Thank you, sir
When’s the housewarming party? I’ll bring the kegs!!
You are welcome anytime :)
Are you sure this isn’t an April Fool’s post? Great looking place, congrats on finding it in this market!
Did you consider an Asset Depletion Loan versus paying cash? Congrats, regardless.
Very interesting. It looks like your story has just turned a complete cycle to where it started …minus the Porsche:). Please don’t get me wrong. I am not judging. I have gone through similar motions at different stages of my life. What you have done makes sense on many levels and the execution was brilliant (I would expect nothing less from you!).
What I find the most intriguing is that as soon as you accomplished everything you set out for, you then decided to turn your life around and back again. What I mean is that you don’t move to the most consumerist country in the world and buy an expensive house (with the implied lifestyle and maintenance) if you truly expect to live a simple relaxed life on fixed budget. I struggle with this issue myself. I wonder if this is our upbringing, culture and lifetime conditioning that makes it so difficult to break the societal norms and expectations that we grew up with.
The next logical step will be the employment situation. I wonder if you will start your own business or eventually return to the corporate America in some capacity.
Nobody knows what happens next but I’ll write about life changes as they happen.
I already have started a business (Go Curry Cracker) but a job is unlikely as I’m unsure how I could fit one into an already full schedule.
Congrats! I love seeing the market gains work in your favor.
What was your process for deciding to sell shares compared to taking brokerage loan in the (2% range- say from interactive brokers or M1 something like that)?
Congrats on the new home, looks fabulous. Absolutely the covered deck. So when is the next FinCon going to Sacramento so we can have a party at yours? :)
Beautiful home and even more beautifully decorated! I am infinitely jelous of your deck – wow.
Congrats! Love the backyard!!! Great set up for the kids.
All of your saving, budgeting, tax optimization, etc…
Put you in the position to quit work, travel, invest, and super tax optimize….
Which then positioned you to do what ever you wanted for the next phase.
This is what FIRE is all about.
Everything you wrote before still is true (and very useful for others on the journey)….and doing whatever you want to do now is entirely consistent with FIRE.
Rock On!
Congrats on the new house! You mentioned CA and Sacramento previously when you were thinking of relocating, so I was kind of hoping that you’d end up here. It really is a great area with fantastic weather for 8 or 9 months of the year. I’m in Roseville where real estate is on steroids as well. Many bay area families are discovering our area now.
One caution – if you don’t have allergies now, you probably will eventually. With the abundance of trees and sitting it a valley, the pollen counts are high. I take Claritin daily year round. It really helps!
The best part is the good weather aligns with the school calendar – easy to travel during peak heat / fire season that way.
We haven’t noticed any allergies really, but I did see the super sized box of Claritin at the Costco pharmacy was popular
Congrats! There’s also another top one incentive about Sacramento, access to a cheap world class education at UC Davis ! It’s always ranked in the top 50 universities in the US (top 20 of world Unis in the latest Forbes article). Strong Ag, bio, engineering, and health care programs. I did my undergrad and my residency there.
Alot of us residents bought a house in 2010-2013 when we started at Davis. I bought mine in Curtis park (others in oak park, land park, and elmhurst). Bought mine for 200k and sold it 4 years later for 400k. Sac prices tend to bottom out during a crash (as mostly just service jobs but changing) and tend to skyrocket during good times as Bay Area people get pushed out locally. People were buying houses for a mere all cash 100k in Natomas (built along a levee system like New Orelans…) It’s a great area!
I’ve been reading your site for a while. Welcome to Sacramento! I’m not planning on moving but hope to do a mini-retirement and travel a year with the kids. But Sacramento will be our home.
It’s great that you were in a position to make that move — congratulations! We’re on the opposite coast just outside DC and have lived in our 1100 sq ft ‘forever home’ for almost eleven years. I’m envious of your backyard; we’d put that kind of effort into ours if it weren’t for fast insidious weeds and mosquitos, both problems I imagine aren’t as bad out your way.
I haven’t seen a single mosquito since we arrived – just some ants. No mosquitos was one of our forever home criteria.
Congrats on the new house. It looks wonderful!!
I am curious whether you would now get a mortgage to take out the equity?
To me, it seems a lot of opportunity to cost to have seven figure dollar stored in a house. I would rather take that equity out and put it in the market.
However, I predict that you like to take the advantage of having low monthly payments to take advantage of ACA subsidy.
The cash out refi check should arrive before 10:30 today actually
What are cash out refinance rates nowadays? What type of loan did you get?
I wonder how competitive they are versus regular primary home mortgages.
Same as regular mortgage
How much cash did you take out?
$250k only. Works out to ~$1k/month.
Beautiful! And congrats! The Sacramento area is awesome and definitely underrated. We think we have our forever house in SoCal, but I also know that life changes, and I can see the perks of other states (lower taxes), regions (more/different outdoor adventures), home sizes (lower costs and upkeep), countries (easier travel), etc. I care more about having the option to change things up if priorities change–kind of like you did. Well done.
Beautiful home. Congratulations!
Thanks!
Mortgage would need job and prove of income.
There are asset backed or asset based mortgages
Please write about this if you can. We are long-term renters by choice at the moment and plan to do this type of mortgage once FI’ed. I heard that only a few banks offer it.
It’s on the list
Darn! I’m planning some say to move to Taiwain to study Mandarin. Was hoping to run into you. It sounds like the move was mostly for the “raising the family” chapter of your life and less about not liking Taiwan. Or at least, as a future resident, I hope!
Yeah Taiwan is great. Go. Enjoy it.
Oh my gosh… hey Jeremy, welcome back to USA. Just realized you moved. Beautiful home, love-love your pool. If by chance your new mattress doesn’t cut it (but i hope it’s perfect), I wasn’t kidding about the organic latex mattress by Savvy Rest. I’m extremely particular – after 10 years this unique customizable mattress (you choose the firmness of the three layers of latex) has exceeded my expectations. Enjoy CA, i miss the redwoods. 🙂
The redwoods are great, we just paid a visit a few weeks ago.
The bed we got is great! It’s soft around the edges is the only downside but it is a King so pretty easy to stay more center. I hope it lasts 10 years
Welcome to Sacramento!! It is a great place to raise your kids.