Hi Manch,
Maybe you can sticky this thread? Please introduce yourself so we know who you were in your earlier life. We can resume our choicest insults that way! 
Iāll start off - I was MyCousinVinny on the old Redfin Forum. I bought my house in 2012 in San Jose. So far I think Iāve only met buyinghouse.
OK. I have it pinned until 6/15, the day the original Redfin forum is scheduled to die. 
Hi, canāt seem to see what Iam pinting with a tablet
How about use the Chrome browser instead of the built-in one? I am not familiar with Galaxy tabletsā¦ and there is no controls from my side to help.
In our last season of āThe Redfin Forumsā, Terri played TerriM, the newbie house-owner-wannabe whose husband wanted to leave the Bay Area instead of settling and whose inlaws secretly interfered with housebuying plans by offering help with a down payment, while then nixing every house that she proposed in order to convince their son to move back home with them. At the end of the season, we saw her husband take a new job in SF instead of moving back to Bahhston. Has he decided to settle in the Bay Area, or is he simply afraid to commit to his marriage to TerriM by buying a house with her?
In season two of āThe Redfin Forumsā, TerriM will throw off her shackles by starting the next billion dollar startup, and buy the house of her dreams in Atherton only to have it set on fire in the riots caused by Ronald Grump trying to deport 30% of Redwood City. Will she, her family, and their 4 laying hens escape the fire or will there be fried chicken for lunch? Will her friendship with bought-a-house remain after he says āI told you so!ā Stay tuned for season two of ā¦āThe Redfin Forums.ā
Well done Terri.
Last season in the Nano household it was apparent that a death would occur if Nano moved into a tiny house with hubby. All spawn and their odd belongings were removed from the household. This provoked many screams of āYou canāt kick me outā matched with āIām not but you canāt live here any more and if you stay the death eaters will come.ā The girl room was filthy but oddly smelled like lavendar. The boy room was clean but stunk. This smell lingered and a month later after scattering an extra large size of baking soda in that room, grinding it in, vacuuming, two carpet cleanings using Oxyclean additive and spraying a quart of Febreeze (HD) the smell was gone. The surprise that Febreeze comes in quart size and larger was a game changer. Getting rid of all the stuff required several secret agents, a van, and bribes in the middle of the night. Front porches and driveways were full of stuff causing neighbor riots.
Season ended with a cliffhanger of what happened to hubby. Where was he when everything went down and what exactly caused the events. Nano doesnāt comment.
Current season opens without hubby leaving that cliffhanger in play. A cottage industry was started renting rooms, couches and on occasion floor space to summer interns. They follow house rules unlike others who shall not be named. Mid season hubby appears watching the sunset at Bonny Doon Beach. Later at the summer intern flop house where all the interns are watching A Game of Thrones marathon the door opens. Interns panic as the stranger, formerly known as hubby walks in with a cane. Does it shoot bullets or is it a sword in disguise? Itās a cane which stumps the interns who are the brightest of the brightest who canāt figure out which button turns the dishwasher on. This distracts interns from the question of who is this man, why he has a key and what is he doing here. It is strongly suggested that they watch āThe Redfin Forumsā to find out. It is at this point that the interns realize they are in a reality tv show, have signed away rights to be paid, have to pay rent and really arenāt that smart after all.
At the various residences of the spawn they are discovering that leaving lights on costs money. They share their discovery with Nano who smiles and said it sucks to pay bills. Spending a dollar here and there adds up and leaves the spawn unable to pay rent. Will they end up as panhandlers on the street? Can they ask for an increase in allowance? They text each other and remember that credit card the parents gave them for emergencies. Clearly paying rent is an emergency. The elation of finding a solution ends quickly when they discover emergencies have a limit of $100. They drag out their musical instruments and discover that money can be made on the street corner playing jazz. Then they discover if they are filthy and wear bikinis or speedos the money increases. Rent is paid, eviction is avoided. Freedom might not be free after all. Viewers anxiously await the next episode to see what kind of jam they get into. They have not realized that they are in the reality show despite the camera crew following them around.
After many weeks of physical therapy it was determined that Nano has a fat pad failure on her heel that renders her unable to walk or stand unless it involves wine or a movie theater. Driving is fine but getting to the car is another thing altogether. The interns discover how to turn on the dishwasher and have meltdowns when the vacuum bag is full.
Nano continues to avoid commenting on what went down.
The drama never ends. 
MM_HH discovered the redfin forums weeks before its demise. Purchased home in Mt View with my husband (then boyfriend) in May 2007, immediately before the market crashed. So, take my real estate advice at your own risk! 
Have since sold said home and rentā¦waiting for the next market correction to buy again.
Did you guys make a profit? Inquiring minds want to knowā¦ (Iām assuming yes given the trulia stats indicate a double in price.)
We did make a profit. In hindsight, we would have made a lot more if we had waited a year or two to buy. Sort of like the current market, we heard a lot of āThe market is stabilizing. There is too much demand for prices to dropā¦ā
Also, we remodeled the kitchens and baths which made the home much more comfortable while we lived there but we didnāt see much return on that.
GreatBuy was named in 2010 when there were many great buys. There are not a lot of great buys today, so I change the id to BAGB, Bay Area Great Buy. Hope BA will always be a great buy!
Javanc from old place. Bought early 2012. Had 2 little boys that are greying both our heads. Decided to get off this nutty merry go round called housing. Leaving the country with a tidy profit that will allow me to become the next star of breaking bad recut.
Listing house 6/15. Want to gloat about how much I made off a little elbow grease and pure dumb luck
The posts Iāve read on the forums over the last 4 years were very helpful and actually shaped part of this decision.
It also moved me to start blogging.
Niigatajourney at WordPress dot com.
Enjoy the summer smog here
Poorbuyer from redfin forums. Good to see the regulars here. Hope that our lively, animated, infomative and always entertaining conversations continue here.
I bought my first San Jose home in 1976 and my second Mountain View home in 1980. My husband bought his first Sunnyvale home in 1983 and his 2nd Milpitas investment home in 1985. He believes in not borrowing any money except on real estate and he turned me around to that thinking too when we married.
How do we upload our avatar here?
Go to your preference by clicking your existing avatar on the top right:
Thatās the gear icon just under your avatar.
Look for āProfile Pictureā in the middle.
Hi, this is sheriff from redfin forums. I wish I had a great story to tell like Terri or Nanomug but my life is boring. Oh well.
You can always tell us about the big winners/losers at your job!
Ah sheriff you can make stuff up. 
There are bits of truth in my post. The last 6 months or so were not what I expected them to be and there have been some extremely brutal periods of times. Life is messy. Tomorrow comes, the sun rises and the sun sets. That is my certainly these days.
Manch,
Thank you
Jil