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Am I Crazy for Considering Moving to Los Angeles


Ceptorman

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On 8/5/2020 at 11:01 AM, grasshopper said:

 

remember

housing is a transient thing in CA... Fire/flood/earthquake keeps the construction industry going.

 

If you are driving and feel like slumming, stop by.  Not too far outa the way, if you take I-10

I might do that....day trip....

On 8/5/2020 at 11:11 AM, dtel said:

And probably a bunch of other colors mixed in.

 

 

To the original question, IMO YES you would have to be crazy, completely..................   but that's just me, when your life is going to good move to a big odd city, that should fix it.

I actually can't believe I'm even considering this .

On 8/5/2020 at 11:38 AM, CECAA850 said:

Good luck.  This is a pivotal point in your life.  Remember the words of the great Yogi Berra.  If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Haha....I do see it as a challenge. I really like what I'm doing now, but it's pretty physical, and I'm approaching 60.

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6 hours ago, babadono said:

Where exactly are you going to be? Or don't you know yet?

The company is located in in West Hollywood, most of their work is there, Beverly Hills, Burbank, northwest LA. I was there and stayed in Pasadena, it was nice, clean, quiet.

6 hours ago, rebuy said:

You might be OK if you don't make Newsome Mad.

He'll cut off yur Water & Electric.

Good Luck 

Thanks

7 hours ago, RandyH000 said:

in the East , we work half a season or less , in Construction ,  in the West , you can pretty much do it all year round -   -

 he' s going into a business as a Director of Operations /interiors of restaurants, office buildings /hi-end residential clients, /masonry and decorative concrete.which is a Specialty trade  and the future looks brighter in LA  ----

Actually he wants me in a sales position, dealing with the people.

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6 minutes ago, BigStewMan said:

Better plan on spending the night unless you REALLY like to drive.  Probably a nine hour drive each way. Anytime I pointed my car in that direction, I ended up in Vegas.

How far is Vegas, never been there.

5 minutes ago, RandyH000 said:

Congratulations - Clients are very important -

Thank you. My goal is to spend a month there, then decide. He's paying me well for a month, he claims I can do well in sales.

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1 minute ago, Ceptorman said:

How far is Vegas, never been there.

 

four to four and a half hours --- two week drive if you leave at 4:00 on a Friday.  A bit of veteran advice, leave Vegas either Saturday or Monday -- strangely, they get traffic in Barstow (all the people leaving Vegas enroute LA).

Vegas is a great place. You can probably get cheap flights too if you don't want to drive.  The drive isn't bad, but you're covering a lot of desert so not a ton of stuff to look at while you're traveling ... but you can go fast on that road. 70mph is the slow lane. 

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1 hour ago, Ceptorman said:

 

 

Haha....I do see it as a challenge. I really like what I'm doing now, but it's pretty physical, and I'm approaching 60.


Similar, sorta, to what the wife and I are doing although a far cry from moving across the country. Moving about 40 miles from our current suburban, cul-de-sac home of 14 years to a home much larger than two people need sitting on 3.5 acres. And I’m currently 7 years your senior. Really looking  forward to the change from our “normal” life yet in the back of my mind a bit apprehensive. Taking advantage of the lava hot real estate market for homes selling in our price range. Wish us both the best — 

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Have a rewarding life in LA!

 

Because of earthquakes, your house needs to be bolted down, and if you have a crawl space, shear walled with 3/4" plywood.  See the internet for discussion and diagrams.  Realtors are either not required to disclose whether the house is properly done, or don't know.  Get an inspection, and perhaps a persnickety contractor first, and you might be able to get the price of bringing it up to current code taken off the sales price.   Most people advise earthquake insurance.  To get it, you may have to have proof of bolting, depending on local  law.

 

Just for fun, see a spate of LA movies and TV shows.  Some are fairly accurate, some mythic, some trashy.  But you will get impressions of LA by people who live there -- film people.  When I was about 14 through 22, I wanted to be a filmmaker (did participate in making indies), and, in those days, LA was the place.  I made several trips down, and was very entertained when I would see something familiar, "Oh, that was in ________."  People will be only too happy to tell you, "This is the chandelier D.W. Griffith died under" (Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel).

 

Try the TV series Bosch, which eventually features Angles Flight, "the worlds shortest incorporated railroad," and the films: To Live and Die in LA, Short CutsL.A. Story, Chinatown, The Long Goodby, Mulholland Drive (no easier to comprehend than Last Year at Marienbad or the last 30 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but, like them, not one to be soon forgotten, Sunset Boulevard, Kiss Me Deadly, Blade Runner, Greenberg, The Day of the Locust, The ExilesTraining Day, Straight Outta Compton, Crash, Clueless, The Bling Ring, Swingers, Less than Zero, Rebel Without a Cause, Speed, Boyz n the Hood, Killer of Sheep, Barton Fink, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, L.A. ConfidentialInherent ViceTangerine,  SafeLos Angeles Plays ItselfNightcrawler, Heat, Magnolia, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

 

Joan Didion's various accounts of Hollywood (where, for a while, she was a screenwriter) make good reading.  In her essay, In Hollywood, she quotes The Last Tycoon, "You can take Hollywood for granted like I did ... or you can dismiss it it with the contempt we reserve for what we don't understand.  It can be understood, too, but dimly and in flashes."  

 

There is a zeitgeist there, where the most bizarre and the most expected co-exist, literally "in the wind."

 

Of the Tate/La Bianca murders by the Charles Manson Family,  Didion wrote, "I remember all the day's misinformation very clearly, and I also remember this, and wish I did not: I remember no one was surprised."  -- The White Album, by Joan Didion. 

 

Last, but not least, the book: Michael Light: LA Day / LA Night — Radius Books

Referencing writers from Phillip K. Dick to Raymond Chandler

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

image.png

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58 minutes ago, garyrc said:

I made several trips down, and was very entertained when I would see something familiar,

I get that way now more since I left the area. I've been all over LA many times and I'll be watching a show and I know where they are and suddenly they turn a corner and there 20 miles away.  I laugh.  Especially watching that show EMERGENCY.  Those paramedics covered the most ground ... one call they're in San Pedro, the next Lake Castaic (over 60 miles away and over an hour drive) I laugh thinking "aren't there other fire stations between LA and Lake Castaic?  

I was having lunch at Langer's Deli one day and the producer Kevin Smith is sitting at one of the other tables. That was a strange day ... was with my brother and roommate -- none of us had eaten at Langer's and it's a pretty popular joint having been there many years. So, we get there and there is a line going down the sidewalk. I walk in and there is a guy in front of me and the worker tells him to just get in line outside. So, he walks away and I said, I guess I should go outside and get in line? And she says, "Oh no, I have a table right here."  Made me feel special.

A lot of places are historic ... not all that great ... but I'd go just because of the history of the place. The Apple Pan was one.  Right down the street from Fox Studios ... food is alright, but the unchanging 40s diner atmosphere and the fact that it is historic, and that in the old days movie stars would leave the studio and go there for lunch is what makes it a nice stop.  where you sit at the counter to eat, who knows what famous people have sat in that same spot.  Same with Pinks Hot Dogs over on La Brea -- have had better hot dogs, but the place is iconic so you gotta go. 

Had a friend from the midwest come to visit. he and his wife had a list of places that they wanted to eat at, places they'd seen on television. So I took them to all those places. 

I loved living there; but I wish I would have realized how much I loved it before I left. I wanted an adventure so I moved ... now I realize that the adventure living there was much more enjoyable. 

 

 

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6 hours ago, BigStewMan said:
 

four to four and a half hours --- two week drive if you leave at 4:00 on a Friday.  A bit of veteran advice, leave Vegas either Saturday or Monday -- strangely, they get traffic in Barstow (all the people leaving Vegas enroute LA).

Vegas is a great place. You can probably get cheap flights too if you don't want to drive.  The drive isn't bad, but you're covering a lot of desert so not a ton of stuff to look at while you're traveling ... but you can go fast on that road. 70mph is the slow lane. 

I'll have to check that out...

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5 hours ago, richieb said:


Similar, sorta, to what the wife and I are doing although a far cry from moving across the country. Moving about 40 miles from our current suburban, cul-de-sac home of 14 years to a home much larger than two people need sitting on 3.5 acres. And I’m currently 7 years your senior. Really looking  forward to the change from our “normal” life yet in the back of my mind a bit apprehensive. Taking advantage of the lava hot real estate market for homes selling in our price range. Wish us both the best — 

Sounds exciting. Hot real estate here also, my house really appreciated the last couple years, but so has it's replacement. 

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3 hours ago, garyrc said:

Have a rewarding life in LA!

 

Because of earthquakes, your house needs to be bolted down, and if you have a crawl space, shear walled with 3/4" plywood.  See the internet for discussion and diagrams.  Realtors are either not required to disclose whether the house is properly done, or don't know.  Get an inspection, and perhaps a persnickety contractor first, and you might be able to get the price of bringing it up to current code taken off the sales price.   Most people advise earthquake insurance.  To get it, you may have to have proof of bolting, depending on local  law.

 

Just for fun, see a spate of LA movies and TV shows.  Some are fairly accurate, some mythic, some trashy.  But you will get impressions of LA by people who live there -- film people.  When I was about 14 through 22, I wanted to be a filmmaker (did participate in making indies), and, in those days, LA was the place.  I made several trips down, and was very entertained when I would see something familiar, "Oh, that was in ________."  People will be only too happy to tell you, "This is the chandelier D.W. Griffith died under" (Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel).

 

Try the TV series Bosch, which eventually features Angles Flight, "the worlds shortest incorporated railroad," and the films: To Live and Die in LA, Short CutsL.A. Story, Chinatown, The Long Goodby, Mulholland Drive (no easier to comprehend than Last Year at Marienbad or the last 30 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but, like them, not one to be soon forgotten, Sunset Boulevard, Kiss Me Deadly, Blade Runner, Greenberg, The Day of the Locust, The ExilesTraining Day, Straight Outta Compton, Crash, Clueless, The Bling Ring, Swingers, Less than Zero, Rebel Without a Cause, Speed, Boyz n the Hood, Killer of Sheep, Barton Fink, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, L.A. ConfidentialInherent ViceTangerine,  SafeLos Angeles Plays ItselfNightcrawler, Heat, Magnolia, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

 

Joan Didion's various accounts of Hollywood (where, for a while, she was a screenwriter) make good reading.  In her essay, In Hollywood, she quotes The Last Tycoon, "You can take Hollywood for granted like I did ... or you can dismiss it it with the contempt we reserve for what we don't understand.  It can be understood, too, but dimly and in flashes."  

 

There is a zeitgeist there, where the most bizarre and the most expected co-exist, literally "in the wind."

 

Of the Tate/La Bianca murders by the Charles Manson Family,  Didion wrote, "I remember all the day's misinformation very clearly, and I also remember this, and wish I did not: I remember no one was surprised."  -- The White Album, by Joan Didion. 

 

Last, but not least, the book: Michael Light: LA Day / LA Night — Radius Books

Referencing writers from Phillip K. Dick to Raymond Chandler

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

image.png

You sure have lots of great advice. Some great movies on your list.

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I've lived in the same suburb of Indy my whole life, we just sold my parent's home that my Dad built in 1954. I have 6 siblings, and everyone is still living within 20 miles of each other. I have strong ties here. It's a great area, and I have a wonderful life here. I have a 26 year business that works almost completely on referrals. I am extremely busy. I build hi end outdoor kitchens and recreation ares (masonry/concrete) Back in January I started taking to this construction company owner about a job, as somewhat of a lark. In February I went out to LA for a 4 day mini vacation/working job interview. I wasn't prepared to like the place as much as I did. I am shocked that I'm even considering this move.

 

He made me an average offer for 1 month employment...4k a week, and I handle my expenses. He claims to expect about twice that income if I choose to stay and once I get rolling. 

He currently has 2-3 sales people, but they struggle. A couple are good salesmen, but they don't know the product and implementation. He has tries tradesmen, they know the product but lack some of the polish needed to deal with their clientele. 

 

With an open mind I will go out there and see if I could like it.

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8 hours ago, Ceptorman said:

Sounds exciting. Hot real estate here also, my house really appreciated the last couple years, but so has it's replacement. 


“ but so has its replacement”. We are on the receiving end of others misfortune. A bitter divorce and poor real estate/home showing cooperation saved us tens of thousands and needless to say well under market for nothing more than a family situation. Not that we are in the city per se but our realtor said people are buying “in the country” as fast as they are  listed. Covid, civil unrest the root causes. No home is the perfect match but taking all into account our realtor and bank think this is a tremendous investment— 

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8 hours ago, Ceptorman said:

I've lived in the same suburb of Indy my whole life, we just sold my parent's home that my Dad built in 1954. I have 6 siblings, and everyone is still living within 20 miles of each other. I have strong ties here. It's a great area, and I have a wonderful life here. I have a 26 year business that works almost completely on referrals. I am extremely busy. I build hi end outdoor kitchens and recreation ares (masonry/concrete) Back in January I started taking to this construction company owner about a job, as somewhat of a lark. In February I went out to LA for a 4 day mini vacation/working job interview. I wasn't prepared to like the place as much as I did. I am shocked that I'm even considering this move.

 

He made me an average offer for 1 month employment...4k a week, and I handle my expenses. He claims to expect about twice that income if I choose to stay and once I get rolling. 

He currently has 2-3 sales people, but they struggle. A couple are good salesmen, but they don't know the product and implementation. He has tries tradesmen, they know the product but lack some of the polish needed to deal with their clientele. 

 

With an open mind I will go out there and see if I could like it.


And I’m sure you’ve asked this - does he have verifiable accounting numbers to back up his “expect twice that” comment? You have your own business - numbers don’t lie, pie in the sky is just that —

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19 minutes ago, richieb said:

people are buying “in the country” as fast as they are  listed. Covid, civil unrest the root causes.

 

great?!?  I live in the "sticks"

 

if the exodus from the city continues, it will become "rural" and cycles around to what caused folks to live at the site of the city originally.

water,   good farm land, etc

 

 

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