Orchard Hills 4 - "The Summit" Updates

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
The financial commitment to a 5 m house is going to be a lot and forever. Gardener, housekeeper, property tax, all the insurance, maintenance and upkeep, and the lifestyle that comes with maintaining all of it. And to furnish it, put in a pool and the cost of pool maintenance. Not to mention most people want to retire at some point. How do they keep it all going then?
 
Imnotmoving said:
The financial commitment to a 5 m house is going to be a lot and forever. Gardener, housekeeper, property tax, all the insurance, maintenance and upkeep, and the lifestyle that comes with maintaining all of it. And to furnish it, put in a pool and the cost of pool maintenance. Not to mention most people want to retire at some point. How do they keep it all going then?
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Seriously! Also HOA, utilities.. These are similar issues for a house at half the price in Irvine/OC as well. It is incredibly expensive and hard to sustain unless you can increase your income even faster. There is also a TON of deferred maintenance on most homes.
 
Imnotmoving said:
The financial commitment to a 5 m house is going to be a lot and forever. Gardener, housekeeper, property tax, all the insurance, maintenance and upkeep, and the lifestyle that comes with maintaining all of it. And to furnish it, put in a pool and the cost of pool maintenance. Not to mention most people want to retire at some point. How do they keep it all going then?
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Other than extra property tax, how is this different from a $3M or $4M house? Also, most Irvine lots can't fit a pool in the backyard. And these $5M lots aren't big enough either. Only the $7M-$8M TB homes have big enough lots to fit a pool. Unless you're talking about those tiny little pools that are only big enough for you to sit in.

Anyway, to be able to comfortably buy a $5M home, it means you'll have at least $10M saved up by the time you retired, so it's pretty easy to keep it going.
 
Why in the world would anyone want to keep it going? To impress the Wongs, Kims, and the Patels in Irvine?

Isn't it much better to have $1M primary home paid off owned free and clear with a $10M networth? Think of your primary residence to networth % ratio to your fat % to your body. 15% fat is considered healthy, but 50% body fat is not considered healthy.

This reminds me of the book Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley about being income statement rich vs balance statement rich. This type of home is attractive to the income statement rich / balance sheet poor type of folks. The Big Hats with Small Cattle type of guys.

That $5M home is a very hungry Beast that you will need to continue to feed til your Grave.
CalBears96 said:
Other than extra property tax, how is this different from a $3M or $4M house? Also, most Irvine lots can't fit a pool in the backyard. And these $5M lots aren't big enough either. Only the $7M-$8M TB homes have big enough lots to fit a pool. Unless you're talking about those tiny little pools that are only big enough for you to sit in.

Anyway, to be able to comfortably buy a $5M home, it means you'll have at least $10M saved up by the time you retired, so it's pretty easy to keep it going.
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I just feel that elite people such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Lion Messi, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, et al can easily afford 5m homes in their thirties. Just imagine all these elite people from around the US or even the world come to Irvine to buy homes. They will feel Irvine house price is very affordable.
 
panda said:
Why in the world would anyone want to keep it going? To impress the Wongs, Kims, and the Patels in Irvine?

Isn't it much better to have $1M primary home paid off owned free and clear with a $10M networth? Think of your primary residence to networth % ratio to your fat % to your body. 15% fat is considered healthy, but 50% body fat is not considered healthy.

This reminds me of the book Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley about being income statement rich vs balance statement rich. This type of home is attractive to the income statement rich / balance sheet poor type of folks. The Big Hats with Small Cattle type of guys.

That $5M home is a very hungry Beast that you will need to continue to feed til your Grave.
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This has been our approach. We have a very low mortgage balance/payment. Make good money and live a pretty stress free lifestyle because we have never traded up our lifestyle. I still never buy any clothes that are not on sale, drive a 5 year old car, refuse to use DoorDash, etc.
 
panda said:
That $5M home is a very hungry Beast that you will need to continue to feed til your Grave.
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It's hard for the working class regular folks to understand how people can buy expensive homes like that. These buyers are not looking to save $10 to eat at Chipotle instead of eating at a nice Mexican restaurant. They can afford multiple multi-million dollar homes paying cash. They have Porsches sitting in the garage as toys. And there are more people with a lot of money than you think.
 
qwerty said:
This has been our approach. We have a very low mortgage balance/payment. Make good money and live a pretty stress free lifestyle because we have never traded up our lifestyle. I still never buy any clothes that are not on sale, drive a 5 year old car, refuse to use DoorDash, etc.
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Same for us. I still drive my 2017 Prius Prime. My wife used to buy a lot of clothes, but non-expensive ones. Then she realized that she bought too many, so she hasn't bought any clothes for years now. And she doesn't like to buy expensive brand names either.

However, the only thing that is important to her is the home itself. So we're willing to take a higher mortgage balance and she's willing to spend a bit more on furnishing that makes the home look nice. Other than that, we don't splurge on anything else.
 
It’s all about balance. Lifestyle creep is so real and also very risky. But living like a miser (not saying anyone here) when you have enough money is also foolish. Your time/life is limited and all that hard earned money can be used to make the most of the time you have remaining.
 
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