#004 Monterey: Living in Seaside when you PCS to NPS Monterey, CA

Navigating Real Estate and PCS Moves in Monterey with Sean Sullivan

The USNA Property Network Podcast

Host: Grant Vermeer

In this episode of the USNA Property Network podcast, powered by The Vermeer Group, we explore the intricacies of PCS moves to the Monterey Peninsula for military personnel. The podcast features guest Sean Sullivan, a Marine Corps officer and electrical engineering master's student at MPS, who shares his personal experience and insights on finding a home in Seaside, California. 

Topics discussed include the real estate investment thought process, selecting a neighborhood based on proximity to the Naval Postgraduate School and lifestyle preferences, and the benefits and challenges of buying vs. renting. 

Sean highlights the importance of considering long-term real estate opportunities, the potential for short-term rentals in Seaside, and offers practical moving tips. 

The conversation also delves into enjoying the natural beauty and attractions of the Monterey area, while also acknowledging the realities and downsides of living in such a sought-after location.

00:00 Welcome to the USNA Property Network Podcast!

00:56 Introducing Sean Sullivan: A Marine Corps Officer's Real Estate Journey in Monterey

01:52 Sean's Military Background and Journey to Monterey

02:55 The Academic Life at Naval Postgraduate School

05:23 Choosing Seaside, CA: A Deep Dive into Real Estate Decisions

14:16 The Benefits of House Hacking and Having a Roommate

19:22 Unlocking the Potential of Short-Term Rentals

19:34 Navigating Licenses for Rental Properties

20:24 The Financial Upside of Short-Term Rentals in Seaside

21:01 Seaside's Development and Real Estate Appeal

22:28 The Unique Market Opportunity for Short-Term Rentals

24:03 Exploring the Beauty of Seaside and Beyond

28:29 Practical Considerations and Downsides of Living in Seaside

33:43 Final Thoughts and Advice for Newcomers to Monterey

The Vermeer Group matches military families with real estate teams that we personally trust across the nation.

As a military spouse, I've learned something crucial about building a sustainable business: geography can't be my limitation. Instead of trying to be the realtor in every new market, I became the guide who connects military families with the best local experts wherever they're headed.

Please reach out if you have any questions at all or I can help connect you to trusted real estate professionals nationwide. I get calls, texts and emails everyday from families just like yours, looking for help on making their move and buying/selling their home - and I absolutely love it!

Connect with Grant on Linkedin or contact him:
📲 Call/Text Direct at (650) 282-1964
📲 Email: grant@thevermeergroup.com
eXp Realty, LLC | TREC License #769356

Transcript

Navigating Real Estate and PCS Moves in Monterey with Sean Sullivan

The USNA Property Network Podcast - Living in Seaside, CA

Host: Grant Vermeer

Welcome to the USNA Property Network podcast. Powered by The Vermeer Group, the USNA Property Network podcast educates military officers on the neighborhoods surrounding the military bases in which they could PCS. Our mission is to provide genuine, authentic, informal conversation that's going to help Navy and Marine Corps officers start their research into their new home. This podcast is made possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Vermeer Group. Vermeer Group is a residential real estate team that specializes in helping Naval Academy graduates and other select clientele move to both Monterey and San Diego, california. If you have any real estate questions at all, please reach out to me directly at grant at the vermeergroupcom. I'd be more than happy to help. Thanks, all right.

Grant Vermeer: 0:57

As we continue our Monterey Peninsula based series for people moving to the Naval Postgraduate School or the Defense Language Institute, we're going to be joined by Sean Sullivan. Sean's a Marine Corps officer heading out to MPS for an electrical engineering master's degree. Crazy, but he chose to live in Seaside, so I'm really excited to have him come on and talk about some of the pros and cons of Seaside and have him talk about the area at large. He also has an extremely mathematical, logic-based real estate mind. So if you are potentially interested in some of the investment side. This is a great episode for you to listen to because he talks about his thought process into why he decided to buy in Seaside, california. I hope you guys enjoy the episode. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions and, as always, beat army. Hey Sean. Thanks so much for coming to talk today about your experience in Monterey.

Sean Sullivan: 1:46

Yeah, thanks for having me, Grant. I'm pretty excited to provide as much value as I can to someone else.

Grant Vermeer: 1:52

I love it and just to give a little bit of context for anyone who's listening here, do you mind just giving a quick background on your military career and how you ended up in Monterey at the Naval Postgraduate School?

Sean Sullivan: 2:01

Absolutely so. My first duty station was over in Camp Pendleton. I was a logistics officer over there, spent some time living in San Diego and commuting from San Diego to Camp Pendleton. Then I moved over to wonderful Quantico, back next to the range where I worked on, the range where TBS works called weapons training battalion over there. From there I moved over to Naval post grad. When I got the notification I got accepted there and so now I'm in Monterey, sunny Monterey.

Grant Vermeer: 2:27

Dude, I love it. And what program are you doing?

Sean Sullivan: 2:31

I'm currently an electrical engineering major, which has been an interesting experience for some of us.

Grant Vermeer: 2:36

Was your undergrad education kind of in a similar vein, or is this something completely new to you?

Sean Sullivan: 2:42

You know I thought my undergrad major was similar to electrical engineering. I was a chemical engineer in undergraduate school, but rapidly I've learned that electrical engineering has very little to do with chemical engineering and has been very exciting.

Grant Vermeer: 2:55

And in that program specifically kind of what's your schedule look like on a daily base? Because we've had a couple of people on talking about their experience and we've had things from oh yeah, I go to class like three days a week and it's not that bad, to other people who are like, yeah, no, I'm there five days a week and I have to study a lot. What has your experience been? How often are you in class, how much free time do you have? And just kind of what's your experience on the academic side?

Sean Sullivan: 3:19

No, absolutely. That's a really good question and I think the best way to answer it is your schedule is going to depend a lot on both your major and your aptitude in that major and your previous experience all three of those things. And so if you look at engineering, typically you'll see a more busy schedule. Electrical engineering tends to be a little bit busier since there's a lot of practice you have to do, especially towards the beginning of your time. So, for instance, if you have some experience you were an electrical engineer as a bachelor's you're probably going to have a little bit more time in your master's program, because those who don't have that electrical engineering specifically electrical engineering experience you're going to have to take some classes to catch up, which is going to add some extra time to your schedule. Like, for instance, you're going to be doing four calculus classes in two quarters. So that's a lot of calculus and it takes a lot of your time up.

Sean Sullivan: 4:09

But to answer you in terms of, like, the actual schedule requirement, I think it's not a terrible thing because what it gives you is you'll have classes and those classes will vary from quarter to quarter. So sometimes you're going to be in class from some very broken out chunks from eight to 10 in the mornings almost every day, and then you'll be in class from like two to four or you'll have some varying pieces of class along the way every day. But you'll also have labs if you're in engineering, and those labs, while there's going to be a set block for those labs most of the time, you'll be able to coordinate with the lab technicians for a different time. That will work well with your schedule. So that's a good advantage for engineering specifically. That's convenient. Yeah, it's very convenient.

Grant Vermeer: 4:55

It's funny that you say that because, especially like your aptitude or background in it, I have so many friends in the cryptologic warfare community right, who were like some kind of political science or arts major in college and then now that the fact that they're in the cryptologic community they have to go get their master's in computer science and you're like there's a lot of catching up to do so, yeah, so that can definitely affect the way in which your schedule kind of flows in those settings and kind of just in terms of the actual area. You come out here you're studying the academic aspect that you're talking about, but did you know anything about Monterey before you arrived? And if you did or didn't, how did you start your search of research on the area?

Sean Sullivan: 5:39

No, that's a really good point, and I was just fortunate because I was in a class for real estate research and investing prior to this, so that was helpful to get a chance to learn how to do some research. But I mean, I looked at some of the basics and I thought this move would be very important to me because, as most of us who have been to California know, the real estate out here is exceptionally expensive. So you want to make sure you make the right move and you're very careful about what you do. So I was careful too at some time.

Grant Vermeer: 6:06

Yeah, sorry to interrupt. You mentioned a real estate course that you learned how to research. Do you mind telling us a little bit about that? Was what your experience was with that.

Sean Sullivan: 6:14

Yes, so actually I was in a course called the White Feather Real Estate Accelerator, run by Buddy Rushing, who you might already know, and basically it takes you through real estate investing in a six-month period, from the building blocks all the way to building generational wealth, and so I was luckily in the period where we were doing market research, and that's about a month to two months, so it was perfect for me researching Seaside, california in that area.

Grant Vermeer: 6:42

Yeah, 100%, dude. So I'm also a White Feather Accelerator graduate. I love Buddy and his course. It's great, right, like you're saying, for all those different aspects and this is a conversation for a completely another time but it is super helpful, right, and because of that course, I actually I now own an investment property through my self-directed IRA. Right, there are so many ways that you can get involved in real estate, which is really cool.

Grant Vermeer: 7:04

And I think, as a tangent to this episode, for anyone who may be interested, that is an awesome course to look up and potentially look at signing up for, because it's tremendously helpful from a real estate education perspective. As a homebuyer, as an investor, no matter what your threshold for what you want to, if you want to dive head in or you're just looking to buy a home, right, and so that's super great. And you were kind of mentioning that you were doing research on, like, the city of Seaside. Had you identified that's where you wanted to live, or kind of, how did you settle on that area? It's like, yep, that's where I want to be when I go out to Monterey.

Sean Sullivan: 7:39

No, that's an excellent question. I think those especially excellent question. I think those especially for those who are considering the move out or have been told by the military they're moving out to that area. There are really like four specific areas to look at and that's exactly what I did. So I looked at the Monterey proper area, Monterey, California and Pacific Grove, which is right to the south of Naval Postgraduate School. It's probably the most expensive, nicest area in the round you're going to see. You're going to see mostly rental properties there. You potentially could buy, but it would be kind of a stretch to buy something there. You might put yourself on financial difficulty. However, the rentals are nice and Pacific Grove is absolutely beautiful. So I took a look at that area. It didn't really make much sense to buy in that area. So I looked at some other areas too. I looked at Marina, California, which is just north of Naval Postgrad and north of Seaside. It's probably about a 20-minute commute from Naval Postgraduate School itself and it's an up-and-coming developing community where they are starting to build a lot of houses and specifically townhouses. They might call them condos, but whether or not they have adjoining walls is a speculation I won't make. It's a nice area and they're building right with a beautiful view. So kind of up and coming. Definitely. Prices are going up there and it's a good place. But the commute is just slightly longer, depending on what your appetite is. For those of you who come from Virginia, 20-minute commute seems rather easy, but for those who come from California, 20-minute commute is long, so it's really up to your discretion on that one let's see. So Marina was where I looked. I took a look at Marina.

Sean Sullivan: 9:10

I then took a look at Salinas, California, which is that's a little bit east of the coast, so it's about 30 minutes inland. So you're going to see a commute time If you go to Salinas. There are good things and bad things about Salinas as well. So Salinas there are good things and bad things about Salinas as well. So Salinas used to have a really high crime rate. The crime rate is coming down significantly and they've made massive strides in that area. It's also an up-and-coming community.

Sean Sullivan: 9:33

You'll see opportunities for bigger houses in Salinas. For about the same prices is what you're going to see Anywhere from three to five bedrooms. So it's going to be a bigger house and you're going to have probably more land and for about the same price and still up and coming and that kind of stuff. For Salinas Specifically, the commute is what you're going to have to focus on, though, and if you go in the far side of Salinas, you're going to have a commute about 40 minutes. Close side, you might have 25. So that's probably what your commute is going to look like. That's what you have to consider when you go to Salinas. Also, you're not on the ocean, so, depending on what you like, yeah, I think that's kind of the biggest thing that you mentioned.

Grant Vermeer: 10:08

Those are the trade-offs. Every city that we've mentioned Pacific Grove, monterey, seaside, marina, all of those you're kind of living the peninsula coastal lifestyle right. There's going to be a lot more fog in that area, it's going to be a little bit cooler, it's going to be tighter spaces, whereas when you get out into Salinas, which is more inland, you kind of break away from that. You're going to get more sunshine, it's going to be warmer, but you're in more of an agricultural town. It's not a coastal town anymore and so from that perspective it's a little bit different. But, like you're saying, you could likely get a four-bedroom house close to 2,400, 2,500 square feet for the same price that you would get a three-bed, two-bath townhome in Marina. That's like 1,400 square feet. And so those are definitely some of those trade-offs that you're mentioning between the different areas and I want to touch on because you were mentioning earlier. You're talking about, hey, renting in Civic Grove or Monterey, but it sounds like you knew that you were looking to buy. What was that decision like for you?

Sean Sullivan: 11:15

And why were you set on potentially wanting to purchase a home out in this area? Absolutely and just a quick touch on. So we covered those other communities I looked at. I settled on Seaside for a specific reason. One is one I did want to buy, and the reason I wanted to buy is I understand that real estate makes the most sense when you buy and you're planning on holding for a longer term. That's just like with the appreciation and the potential there.

Sean Sullivan: 11:35

But there's a lot that goes into that decision and California is a tricky.

Sean Sullivan: 11:39

Specifically in Northern California with the high prices it's hard to balance out the rent.

Sean Sullivan: 11:45

So my decision to buy was specifically based on the long-term knowing that it would be a good place to have a house and the other part of that, the reasoning behind it was really when you look at the rental numbers. I mean, let's be honest, if anyone who's ever been to a military community before, we all know that the landlords and those who rent to you know the BAH prices and they set their rent about the same. So you're going to get a certain amount of BAH regardless. Like you know what your BAH is going to be right around that area. So if you can find a place where you can buy and the mortgage with the interest and all that is going to be less than the rental, then you're essentially putting money in your pocket and you're building wealth for the long term, which to me, makes sense. Even for me, even if I was sacrificing a little bit more in terms of mortgage cost, it would be better to buy than it would be to rent, since there's long-term gain as well, if that makes sense.

Grant Vermeer: 12:39

Yeah, and you even offset that a little bit. You brought in a roommate, correct? And how have you navigated that situation in terms of buying a home? And again, just for context, your personal situation, right, not married. You had that flexibility. You mind talking a little bit about how that factored into your decision making.

Sean Sullivan: 12:57

Yeah, absolutely so I am. You're right, I am fortunate to a certain extent Someone would call me fortunate to be single. Sometimes I wonder about that, but ultimately it was helpful for the flexibility portion. Right, if you have a family, there are additional obligations you incur in terms of making sure that you provide a stable and good living environment for your family. And specifically, you'll see a lot of families move to Salinas because that's where you're going to get a bigger house for your money.

Sean Sullivan: 13:29

But for me, I had a lot of flexibility and that gave me a lot of power to decide how I wanted to run and how much. I had a higher tolerance for like a smaller space, and I could negotiate myself on many other aspects of the house, which allowed me to look more towards the logical what does the price look like, what am I going to be able to rent it for later and what does that look like? And I could do a more of a logical inclusion because as a single person, you can tolerate a little bit more just smaller space and risk and those kinds of things. So that's really what helped me. And when it comes to the roommate thing, we can talk about that in a second too. Yeah, I just want to give you a chance to touch on that if you've had any other thoughts.

Grant Vermeer: 14:01

No, I concur with that, and for the sake of keeping this episode kind of more about the area, I agree, right, I agree. So I'll kind of actually just turn it back to you to kind of hit on the roommate situation and kind of share your story and continue that.

Sean Sullivan: 14:15

Excellent, yeah. So first and foremost, I have to contribute Providence to how I found my roommate specifically. God was really at play there in terms of this should happen to someone who, from my actual class, needed a room, and so we were able to work out a very good deal that helped him as well, since he has a dog and pets, from what I understand. Again, I didn't do any searching for pets myself, but I think in that area it's difficult to find places that will take pets, which is kind of typical. So we were able to work out a good deal where I don't mind having a dog, because I'm planning on doing some renovation of the house anyway. So we were able to really work out a great deal where he contributed to the mortgage and so it actually cut my costs down to a point where it was totally tolerable to buy instead of rent as well. So house hacking is always a single recommended course of action.

Grant Vermeer: 15:02

Yeah, absolutely, and you mentioned and these are just discussion points for people as they figure out, because some people don't want the trade-off of sharing their space, but if that's something that you have, the affordability again, the trade-off of do you have a partner, are you single? Are you okay with those factors? Because, like you're saying, affordability can be really tricky, especially as a single member in the Monterey area, because things are, because things are really expensive, right, and mentioning, it's sometimes easier to house hack and bring in a roommate and you have a little bit more autonomy on that, and so I think all of those situations are really great, right, and I think that piece is really interesting. It's fun to have you on to talk about that situation because you've went that route of bringing someone in and having a roommate, which takes away from some of the potential personal privacy of the whole thing. But, like you're saying, it works for you and it's a great financial decision for you.

Grant Vermeer: 15:56

And so, yeah, just to turn it back to you on that is did that aspect of your personal situation, did that have an impact on the decision of where you wanted to live? Did that make Seaside even potentially a little bit more appealing to you of like hey, I'm single, I'd rather be close to NPS and have a place that can rent out to another single member that's close to NPS, we don't have to commute much. Was that a decision factor? What played in your mind in that decision when it came to again buying in Monterey, based on your context as a single individual?

Sean Sullivan: 16:28

Absolutely. I'd say first and foremost as a bonus point for couples don't discount the buying power that you have if you are a couple. So, for instance, we had a couple that came in with this dual military couple and they were able to very easily go to Marina, which is a little bit more expensive, and buy a house without worrying too much about whether they could make that work. I had to be a little bit more careful with my numbers and I also had to consider my roommates, my longtime roommates considerations and what he was wanting to do as well. So some big factors that did play into our choice was commute time was definitely big, because there is a significant.

Sean Sullivan: 17:07

When you're in California, everything's within 20 minutes.

Sean Sullivan: 17:10

A commute of 20 minutes seems longer to you and also when you're going to class back and forth it can stack up. So we did factor in commute time is about 10 minutes from my house to Naval Postgraduate School, which is nice, and we factored in price too and the big things to look at for that is if you're looking first of all, if you're going to buy, it's always good to like sort of have a strategy in place for what you're going to do with that house once you get ordered by the military to leave and go somewhere else, and that also factored in. So I took a look at the rental numbers for the different areas and, as usual, coastal towns tend to garner more rent. Salinas was a serious consideration for me, but you're going to see lower rental numbers there, and so when you look at the buy to rent ratio, you're going to see a significant disparity in Salinas versus all of the coastal towns I mentioned earlier as well, and that was what finally pushed me towards Seaside, which had that upside potential in the future.

Grant Vermeer: 18:05

Yeah, no, absolutely, and I'll take this point. I don't know if this will be your plan. It requires more work, but something that we talked about when we were working together is that Seaside is the only coastal town in the Monterey area that allows short-term rentals, and so I think that piece is also very interesting. If you're a person who wants to take a very active approach to real estate investing and do the short-term rental thing while you Because you can rent out a room you can be a owner-occupied short-term rental while you are living there and rent out a room on the short-term rental basis, but also when you move out and you PCS. Seaside is the only city that allows that.

Grant Vermeer: 18:44

Now there are a finite number of licenses. You have to apply for a license. You can't just be like oh, I'm going to operate as a short-term rental. There is legwork that goes into it and you have to do that, but it is the only town that does allow that legwork to happen and for you to actually get a license. And so just to double down on that in general, even on the long-term rental side, the coastal towns function better in that situation, but seaside is also the one that operates as a short-term rental area and so potential interesting thing for someone who may be open to the idea of operating and running a short-term rental as a home, and I can absolutely touch on this point, if that's okay, because this is absolutely part of the strategy that I implemented.

Sean Sullivan: 19:26

I came to the conclusion it was better to short-term rental a property afterwards than to long-term rental it, and I've discovered some things along the journey. For that One, there are a finite number of licenses. I'm actually number one on the wait list, so hopefully that'll come through shortly.

Grant Vermeer: 19:40

Let's go yeah, yeah.

Sean Sullivan: 19:41

So I've got two years Hopefully that'll happen, and I'm currently planning to do that and there's two different sets of licenses. You can get One if you get there's an owner occupied, which is what Grant was talking about earlier, and that one is a little bit more lenient. I don't know what the limit is on that and I think that it's pretty easy to get those, but I'd call the city of Seaside to confirm that if you were going to do it. And second, there's a second one and I don't remember what they call it. It's basically non-owner occupied Actually, I think that's exactly what they call it and that's like when you rent it, when you're not there, and that's like that would be your future strategy if you were going to leave that place. And that's something to consider because there's a finite, finite number of those.

Grant Vermeer: 20:20

Now and, sean, thanks so much for sharing that and kind of giving us an insight into your brain there. Just rough numbers here, without it directly in front of us. If you were to pull up AirDNA and look at the seaside market, the average short-term rental nightly rate is over $300. And based on occupancy rate and that daily or nightly rate, potentially upwards of $6,000 a month in income if operated well and done all these things. So potentially a really great option. And I think there are even more factors that really appealed to you for Seaside and the appreciation and development in the area. And I'll kind of turn it to you to kind of discuss what you saw when it came to your decision.

Sean Sullivan: 21:00

Absolutely. And so the biggest things again, like we said, commute were very important to me. It's nice to be within 10 minutes driving distance in a postgraduate school. Second, I did some research on the actual development plan Seaside has and I've learned a little bit more since I've been in the area, talked to locals and talked to those who know the area fairly well. And so what Seaside? We always wonder.

Sean Sullivan: 21:21

If you look at Seaside, the prices compared to everywhere else are a little bit lower than you'd expect for a coastal town Carmel, you have houses averaging about $2 million. Seaside, they average about $800,000, which is still significant, but not comparatively. Also, looking at the landscape, you'd think it'd be higher, so you're not really sure why. I think some of the limitation that we found is water limitation, which they're slowly getting rid of, and as they do that, they're looking to develop Seaside in a bigger way. There's a whole development plan on their site. That's a little bit been delayed due to COVID, but they started construction in a lot of places over there already.

Sean Sullivan: 21:57

I drive through some of the construction, which is really fun to see and watch as they put up new buildings, because one of the disadvantages you'll see in Seaside and most of the coastal towns around there the buildings are a little bit older, so it's nice to see new ones going up. And with new buildings, new people, more income comes in the house, prices go up and you see the cause and effect pretty quickly. So that's one of the exciting aspects of being in Seaside at the moment. So if you're planning on moving soon, now's a good time to take a look.

Grant Vermeer: 22:28

Yeah, 100%. And just to follow up on the amount of, I would say, like you're saying, even some new development, construction flips and different things in the homes in the area. That bringing in all this stuff is I've mentioned this in a previous episode that there is no more true development like new construction in the Pacific Grove, monterey, carmel areas. The inventory is completely fixed, whereas Seaside and Marina are the two places where you're starting to see new development and Seaside, like you're saying, maybe not even necessarily new construction or new development, but just renovations An area coming in and new buildings get put up because there are some older homes and you're starting to see, especially with the surge in demand, especially around the golf tournaments.

Grant Vermeer: 23:09

I think this is something that, as a short-term rental person, is thinking. You are, especially with a place in Seaside and the only place in the area that offers short-term rentals. You are the main market for anyone coming in to stay for a PGA Tour event at Pebble Beach, a Pro-Am event at Pebble Beach and just people coming in to take vacation and go golf at Pebble Beach. And the people who are taking vacation to go golf at Pebble Beach are people who are financially able to do so. Let's put it that way and so a really interesting potential market from so many different factors in again these surge events for these really high-profile golf tournaments, and so just a lot of cool factors. A lot of cool factors and things to consider and think about when it comes to Seaside as an area. And just talk a little bit about now your personal experience, kind of away from even the investment side, but just your experience. What have you really liked about living in Seaside? What would you consider some of the best things about living in Seaside? What have you really liked?

Sean Sullivan: 24:16

Absolutely. And I would say, first and foremost, I really love the people. For one, the community that is established here I mean I'm in a faith-based community a lot of the time, so we have a good. I like the community that I see here but even outside, like the Naval Postgraduate School lends itself to making, to building a community with both people from your service like I'm a Marine by trade and so there's a very close relationship with Marines, especially since we're here. But also I've made a lot of good friends outside of the Marine community and with other services. So it's the community building one that I really, really enjoy.

Sean Sullivan: 24:54

And the second part of that would be the location. And by the location I mean there are so much to do and the beauty of everywhere you go over there in Monterey California, in Seaside, in Marina, it's just absolutely breathtaking. You cannot find a spot. I tell a lot of people I know it's almost unfair to the rest of the world that Monterey California exists because it's so beautiful Most of the areas over there and we can talk a little bit of specific locations, but they're just like they're within 10 to 30 minutes at best driving distance in all the attractions over there. You could literally go nowhere and still be surrounded by natural beauty, and they're very good at conserving those things over there too.

Grant Vermeer: 25:40

Yeah, let's just jump into that and touch on those, which is some of the trips in natural locations and landmarks. What are some of the places that you really plan on trying to visit while you're stationed here?

Sean Sullivan: 25:49

Yes, so I'll cover the ones that I've already gotten been fortunate enough to visit. First, I took some time to visit the Great Sequoias because I've always wanted to do that In Sequoia National Park. That was about three hours driving distance, so not very far, but it's essentially a natural wonder. Those trees are massive. You feel like you're in, surrounded by, you feel very small and surrounded by those trees and it's gorgeous out there. Then you'll also find I took a drive down to Big Sur. Big Sur is absolutely beautiful and the whole coastline is just absolutely gorgeous, but Big Sur is particularly breathtaking.

Sean Sullivan: 26:24

You can't find a place like that that I've ever seen before and I've traveled a lot of places now. So those are the biggest and Carmel Beach. So if you ever get a chance, especially if you are a real estate buff like myself and you like the beach, you're in the right place. If you go to Carmel Beach, Because there's a beach right there, that's just like it's not too populated, it's really nice, really well taken care of and the real estate over there is just really cool to look at the houses. Like you look at houses and I like to play this game with some of my friends. We can go. How much do you think that house is worth? Like the first time, we were completely wrong. We looked at one house like that's about $2 million. No, it was about $10 million. So we were like we were very surprised. And it's like the shops are beautiful.

Grant Vermeer: 27:06

It's highly recommended. Absolutely, Absolutely, yeah, Any any others that you you plan on on going to?

Sean Sullivan: 27:13

Yeah, absolutely. So those are the ones I've pretty much visited and touched on. Also Point Lobo State Park, which is again beautiful. But besides that I'm looking to go to Mammoth at some point. So that's not very. It's about six hours, I think it's three hours drive, actually up Three to four, and it's great skiing. It's probably the best skiing, I think, in the area, like you'll find, like I've been to Big Bear and I hear the Mammoth is much better. I love Big Bear but I think Mammoth, I've heard, is really good. And then I'm looking to go to Yosemite National Park. The other thing to mention is if you are looking to drive and do some hiking, big hiking at some of the mountains on the Sierra Nevadas, there's a lot of opportunity for that. It's a beautiful drive. Keep in mind you can't do a straight shot. A straight shot through Yosemite is limited, you can't always do that. To drive across from west to east you will probably have to go around the Sierra Nevadas, which can add about an hour and a half, two hours, to that drive.

Grant Vermeer: 28:06

No, absolutely Dude. I mean kind of like you're saying it's almost unfair how cool being in the Monterey Peninsula is, from your proximity to all of these amazing landmarks to to just the stuff right around the area. Right, it's such a beautiful place to be and it's really cool. Check, it's really fun to talk about all the great things of the area. I do want to just kind of turn it over to you to discuss some of the things that maybe you feel like are maybe some of the worst parts of living in Seaside or the Monterey Peninsula in general. Just to provide a reality, check what are some of the cons and downsides of the area.

Sean Sullivan: 28:44

Absolutely no. That's a very good point, and every area has its downsides. I would say some of the ones that I found specifically in Seaside the buildings, like I mentioned earlier, they're a little bit older, so you're going to find a little older. You're not going to see as like modern construction, so you need to make sure you look at that there's possibilities for like old wiring and maybe weird wiring that maybe the owners did because they didn't want to add more expense to their own house. The other big things to look at as you're buying specifically are termite considerations.

Sean Sullivan: 29:17

Termites in California in general something I've learned recently since I was buying are significant and it's just something to look at and make sure that it gets looked at, especially if you're using the VA loan. We actually ran into the scenario where we couldn't seem the VA loan won't accept termites, so the owners from this previous house had to actually invest about I think it was $7,000 to get termites fumigate the whole house and get that done and it was kind of a hassle for them but it needed to be done. So that's just something to consider as you're buying specifically, and then later I can go into some others that are just general considerations.

Grant Vermeer: 29:52

Yeah, no, absolutely. I will touch on that really quick. Kind of, like you're saying, the great part about California is there's not a lot of like we'll use the term pests or insects or bugs. It's pretty great from that perspective, but the one thing that there is is there are a lot of termites, especially in these coastal towns. Right, and why that relates, or really is important, especially if you're using the VA loan, is that you can't get a VA loan approved if there's any, what we call Section 1 termite work, which includes an active infestation of termites.

Grant Vermeer: 30:19

Right, and so in order to get the loan closed, you need to clear all of the termites right. So that will require a seller in most cases. Sometimes they'll put it on the buyer to take advantage of. That's something that we would work is to get the seller to take care of it, to get out. But you will have to overcome that hurdle and bring in a fumigation or treat the termites in order to get the loan closed.

Grant Vermeer: 30:45

And so I would say, in the majority of cases, which are two factors one, like you're saying, they're older homes, and then two, based on location, the vast majority of the homes are going to have some kind of pest work that needs to get completed in order to get the loan closed. So I would just know, going into it, that that is probably the likely situation that you're going to have to overcome is negotiating in working with a seller in order to fix or address the termite situation in order to close on the home. So thanks for bringing that up and that's something that you would just want to go in knowing like, hey, this is probably a problem we're gonna have to address and then we'll move on. Exactly in your case, we can do it, it's easy, it's something that can get done, but it is just an additional hurdle. And I will turn it back to you now to kind of talk on some of the more general things that you were going to bring up.

Sean Sullivan: 31:34

Yeah, absolutely Really. Just view that as an opportunity too, because a lot of people don't want to deal with that. So actually I got a good price in the house because no one else wanted to deal with that particular issue. So just something to think about. But some of the other general considerations are space limitations. So, with any coastal town, everyone wants to be in the coastal town. So you're going to see, you're going to feel a little bit closer together.

Sean Sullivan: 31:57

Street parking is important, is a thing, and it's significant. Like you'll have a lot of cars parked on the street and just something to watch out for. Because parking is limited and because housing space is limited, you might feel just a little bit more crammed in, but that's kind of expected in a coastal town. So that's, if you're looking in Monterey Seaside even Marina potentially, but it's mostly in Monterey Seaside area You're going to see some cars parked.

Sean Sullivan: 32:19

When I say street parking, I mean it can be a little dangerous as you try to turn out of your houses or your streets, because the cars will be parked directly on the side of the road, right where your blind spots are, so you just have to pull out slowly. But people over time have adapted to that and they're careful and most of them are careful. I mean, you always have your bad drivers, but they know that's a possibility, so they're careful about not hitting anyone. That's just something to consider when you're in the Monterey seaside sort of area. Marina is a little bit better about it and you'll have plenty of space in Salinas. So those are just things to think about in terms of space.

Grant Vermeer: 32:51

Yeah, 100%. And kind of on that, like with the street parking, is that the streets are narrow right, especially in Seaside it's kind of a narrow area. You're not going to have these wide double lane streets, it's a lot of one-way directional streets and people park on the street. So you kind of have like people parked and then just enough room for car to go one way Right. And so just factors to consider, right, like exactly what you're saying.

Grant Vermeer: 33:13

At the end of the day, it all is trade-offs and if you're, you know, dual married to a couple, you maybe have a kid and a dog and you want space and CSA may not be the right spot, right, just based on those factors, but these to deal with. And so that's really great. And just to wrap it up again, this has been such a great conversation and we're going, but we'll start to bring it home here. I just want to ask 2 things. One is if there's anything you feel like you haven't touched on that you want to touch on, please feel free to talk about it right now. And then just kind of a last recommendation or parting thought for anyone who's getting ready to PCS, to Monterey what would you tell the person who just got their orders, knows nothing about the area and is getting ready to start this journey.

Sean Sullivan: 34:02

Absolutely. First say some practical examples could be helpful in terms of like when we talk about the space requirements. So some things I've run into over the course of the last six or so months is when you get a new house, you have to install a new washer dryer, and some of the older housing required more the new washers and dryers. They're bigger than typical, than you'd see back when the houses were created, so there was enough room to fit the washer dryer. But just take a look at it and make sure that the couple extra inches that we've added onto washing dryers nowadays over the last 30 or so years isn't a prohibitive factor for you in terms of like hallways, blocking hallway access, that kind of stuff.

Sean Sullivan: 34:39

And then the other option is, even when they were installing it for instance, the people who came in to help install the washer dryer they had a big truck and they had to park directly in the street.

Sean Sullivan: 34:48

Like had no choice and they had to move it a couple times as people were trying to get in and out of their houses. So they had to take that truck and they had to drive around the block. One of them had to drive around the block to give everyone the chance to get out. So that was just a consideration, and so the reason I bring that up is if you have a big moving truck, for instance, if you're PCSing and you're doing it yourself, for instance, if you're PCSing and you're doing it yourself, for instance or even you have movers, they're going to have to make sure they consider, or you're going to have to consider, how you're going to unload your stuff and do it in a practical manner so that you don't clog up the street and you also don't find yourself unduly in a hassle. So just something to consider as you go forward and that's not all the cases, but it was in mine. So it's just something to think about.

Grant Vermeer: 35:29

It's great. It's great insight, it's great. Those are the things you don't think about right, until they're actively happening Right, so I really, really appreciate it. Anything else you want to touch on? Are you feeling good?

Sean Sullivan: 35:41

Absolutely Like. Just one more parting thought I'd say is and again I'm going to approach this a little bit from the investment standpoint as well is like one thing to overall consider is Monterey, California and that area. It's more expensive to live in than most of the places in the military. You're going to go, but it's also an opportunity. You're going to go to Monterey and if you do it right and if you analyze and look at the properties correctly, you're going to have an opportunity when you move to be better off than when you started. So the reason I say is look at Monterey.

Sean Sullivan: 36:13

If you're going to Monterey, first of all, congratulations, it's an awesome place to be. Second, think about it as an opportunity and balance that opportunity with how do you provide the best life for your family? If you're married or have a family or single, how do you seize that opportunity to also have a chance in the future to set yourself up for success and whatever that looks like right, Kind of? Consider those factors, really think it through before you make a decision, because you only get probably one shot at Monterey, unless you're going back for a PhD. If you do that, let me know so I can learn how to do it too. So besides that, yeah, that's really all I have. I'm grateful that, hopefully, you guys are awesome.

Grant Vermeer: 36:54

No dude, sean, thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. This was super helpful and super insightful and, I'm sure, from either a person who has a real investor mind or just considering Seaside, I think it's helpful, extremely helpful on both fronts. So I really appreciate you taking the time to just come chat with us today. You're the man, dude, and congrats on finishing up those finals. Thanks, 41 down baby, thank goodness. Oh man, all right. Well, have a great day.

Grant Vermeer: 37:16

And to everyone listening, if you have any questions about this, please feel free to reach out and we'll be more than happy to answer any questions that you have. So reach out to me on the Facebook page, on my YouTube channel, email, grant ateer Group, and I'll be happy to address any questions you have. So thank you so much and have a good day. My man Sean, coming through with a ton of insight, a ton of numbers and a ton of logic, super fun change of pace in this series and I hope you really enjoyed it. If you have any questions about the Monterey Peninsula, please feel free to reach out to me at grantatthevermeergroupcom, shoot me a text message, 650-265-8121 or just head to our website, thevermeergroupcom, and reach out. I'd be more than happy to help answer any questions you may have. So thank you so much for listening. Hope you have a great day.