Most of you probably don't know that I have owed a real estate company in Texas since 1990.  I have worked the Highland Park, University Park, Uptown, Lower Greenville area as my main business farm area as they say in real estate.  Real estate in Texas is what I consider average in price, but you get a lot more than what you do in other areas of the country.

In Dallas a 2 bedroom 1 bath house in Lower Greenville will fetch $185,000 to $350,000.  That same house in Plano (if you can find a two bedroom) will go for $95,000-$150,000.  So the twenty mile difference is double the price.

Anyone that knows me really knows that I want to move to California, but my mom really would miss our little girl so that has stopped us so far.  Since we do travel to Laguna on a regular basis I decided to check out some real estate.  I figured it would be high, but high is not the word.  When you are used to one thing and introduced to another it's a shock. 

So here is what I found.  My very first Condo I looked at was a beautiful ocean view property in South Laguna.  Prices in the south are considered to be less because of the location.  I have heard, but don't know if it is true or not that the ground on those hills is a lot less stable as well.  So you build it and it may tumble down with a good rain.  Again, don't know if this is true or not, but a homeowner selling a lot in the North side told me that.

So back to the condo from above that we were talking about.  The breeze was coming in from this ocean view place.  It was not on the beach, but it had a great unobstructed view to the beach and a park was directly in front of the property.  I would say it was 200 to 300 yards from the beach. Two full bedrooms, two full baths with about 1400 sq. ft give or take a few feet.  I came to this house when it was open on a Sunday.  I was in the area by myself and thought I would drop in for a few.  Got the flyer and was not shocked, but I was shocked.  $1,750,000 reduced to $1,500,000.  Needless to say I did not put a contract on the property and keep looking.

My next property was a 2 bedroom 1 bath about 1000 square feet.  Oh, while I am thinking about it the above had HOA dues of over $300 a month as well.  There was not yard!  So back to the 2nd one discussed earlier.  When I say this unit I thought I was in an older condo in laceName w:st="on">OldlaceName> laceType w:st="on">TownlaceType> which is an area of Dallas.  Late 60's most of the units and it looked just like the units I sell and renovate and have been doing for 18 years.  Got the flyer and it was listed for around $700,000!  No beach view, one bath and hardly any light.  Those units in Texas sell for $65,000 to $120,000.  Again, I decided not to buy that property.

My search continued for a couple more visits to Laguna with my wife and by myself.  What I figured is you will pay about $1000 a foot in the area within 3 blocks of the beach.  Now all you Realtors don't email me saying I am wrong you can get them for 600 a foot here and 700 a foot there.  I am telling you based on what I looked at this is the price.  We looked at some bigger places around 2500 sq. ft. and they were 2.5 million and up.  Keep in mind that tax records show our house at like 4200 to 4300 sq. ft. under roof and we are under $400k in price in Texas. 

Now you probably think I live in the ghetto.  Actually the area we live the average size house is probably $3500 sq. ft. and you have a five to eight mile radius.  Well let me just post this article so you know that I am not making this up.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest-income_counties_in_the_United_States  .  Laguna Beach is not on this list but where I live we are ranked like 32 of the highest income counties.  I am not bragging either.  I am just showing you that Texas homes are really cheap and you get a lot with them.  It's almost impossible to find a 3 car garage in Laguna.  I found one house that had one under 2 million.  I have a 3 car garage and it didn't cost 2 million that's for sure.

Now the funny thing about all of this will blow your mind.  So you say to yourself I don't have 2 million dollars to shell out on a house.  Well a typical mortgage will set you back $20,000 a month with taxes and insurance.  Huh! Maybe I need some more motivational courses, but $20k per month is a lot of scratch.  That's hip for money if you don't know.

So what does a guy like me do?  Rent a van and park it in the parks?  Buy a boat?  Funny thing is I was really excited because I came up with the boat idea with my wife.  I said lets get a 2 or 3 bedroom 80 to 120 foot yacht and pay $1.5 million for it.  At least we have a bigger place and we can go up to LA or San Francisco.  So I started looking at these boats for the rich and said we can make this happen if we really try.  Then I started thinking about place to park that bad boy.  Yap, you need a slip.  No not what women wear silly one. A boat slip (you know a place to park your boat in the water.  So I called laceName w:st="on">DanalaceName> laceName w:st="on">PointlaceName> down the street and they said for that size boat there is a TEN YEAR WAITING PERIOD.  Needless to say I am not that patience so that boat thing was out.

So then I said what about a fancy motor home.  We could park it in Long Beach or one of the other near by places.  That was going to cost over 1 million as well and with diesel gas going up it would cost $1000 a month plus another $1500 to part it somewhere.

Then I started looking at hotels and then leasing.  Leasing is by far the best choice.  You can lease a 2 million dollar home for $2500 a month.  Of course the fancier it is the more expensive.  They have one I say for $60,000 a month on the beach, but I left my check book back at the $100 a night hotel so I didn't get to get it.

So if want to move to Laguna, lease something.  For what you pay in mortgage payments for one year (assuming a $20,000 per month mortgage times 12 =$240,000) you could spend $3000 a month and live 6.6 years in Laguna with the exact same money.  I don't know about you, but unless I win the lottery or a bunch of you guys decide to by all my businesses ventures for like $300 million I will not be paying cash for a place in Laguna any time soon.

Hope you had fun reading this and more to come