It's been almost a year since we were fortunate enough to purchase a bijou (tiny) place in Carmel By The Sea. Carmel's charm, character and locale make it one of the best travelled destinations for locals and tourists alike.
We had been looking for a few years for a property we could use to generate income and perhaps stay in on the off periods. The usual suspects for someone based in the Bay Area were Tahoe, Bodega Bay, St Helena, Maui etc.
I commute a lot so I didn't really want to fly to the location, the drive needed to be near enough without feeling like in was a chore to us ( I have a lot of friends with Tahoe cabins who share this frustration). Additionally, I really wanted to be able to park up on a Friday night and not fire up the ignition till Sunday. This we ended up setting sights on Carmel, Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove. The later two got nixed on value/price/upside, proliferation of students and short term noisy renters and sketchy weather.
This blog is supposed to give some tips/guidance for anyone planning to take the same journey as we did on finding, purchasing and living with a place in Carmel.
Yes, my implicit bias has kicked in, I'm certainly catering for people who muster the courage to look for a place as an investment or vacation home rather than full time and tilting to a place of character rather than a recent build.
On that topic, we felt strongly on wanting a place of character and age. Being British x-pats we do miss the cultural aspects and celebration of older structures. Granted there are some fantastic recent builds or modern structures but the point for us was to have a different feel, a place to recharge, disconnect and our belief is your surroundings help embody this desire.
Carmel really has a few regions;
Carmel-By-The-Sea
- The original part (if the house has no number it's in CBTS proper)
Carmel
- When the core expanded the houses got numbers
Carmel Valley
- Down past Carmel and hang a left, much warmer, better bang for the buck but not within walking distance of the action
The Golden Rectangle
- A slice of a handful of blocks halfway down the main drag on the left, normally a flat walk to town and equidistant from the town and the beach. Makes for a premium price.
Carmel Point
- Down the main drag and hang a left as far as you can go. Carmel juts out and that point has some of the larger houses, approx 1mile walk and the slightly more expensive end of town.
Tip - Find a good realtor who's been in a Carmel for years and knows the regions. We stumbled on Randi Greene who was fabulous but I'm also sure there are many others.
This market is in a bubble so it is steady. It seems to be the hot place for Bay Area folk to look for an alternative to Tahoe so there's a lot of interest and limited inventory.
What we observed was anything under $1M got snapped up fast and mainly by cash buyers. Sweet spot for deals seemed to be in the $1.6-$2M where the house isn't palatial and at the right time e.g the winter months likely means the seller is motivated so perhaps a deal could be had. Higher than this, the owners likely aren't in any financial pinch so don't expect bargains.
Tip - You can use Randi's website to see what a house was offered at and what it sold at.
Assume also it will take you 6 months or so to find the right place so have patience and try not to get trigger happy. This right house will come up for you, you just have to keep watching and get used to the prices and neighborhoods that work for you.
Things to think about ;
The nearer the ocean the colder the house (sea fog)
- Yup I would love an ocean view but if I can't see it, why be cold for an extra few minutes walk
- I talked to a chap who had a full ocean view, moved back a few blocks as it was too cold, then did it again and was gloriously happy
- Yes there is a segment of Carmel they call the Banana belt near the majority of Comstock homes.
The larger the house and lot the more maintenance.
- If it's a weekender or rental, will you do the work yourself or pay someone to maintain it.
The cheaper the house the further you walk.
- Inland from Carpenter, down by mission and up and to the left as you look from the sea are the best bang for the buck right now.
So once you've decided your budget and priorities, each neighborhood has a few broad categories of houses to choose from;
Plot of land or knackered house on plot that needs to be scrapped
- Code for plot of land where owner looks for premium price as they think the house is useable
Oldish non descript but tidy usable house with little character on lot
- Great start and solid rental
Quirky or character house
- Be careful not to fall in love with this category
Made it house
- New build (normally approx 1600sq ft on a ~4k lot)
- Large new house on larger lot
- Large character house, Comstock or Murphy are gold
- Ridiculously impressive house on large lot smothered in flashy cars.
We ended up falling for the quaint cottage type, when I say we, I mean the wife, I liked it, she loved it, we now both utterly love it.
Some of our initial observations and their ramifications ...
How cute is that house
- Old houses come with single pane windows that have the noise and heat retention of cling film (but they are authentic).
Tip - Install a Nest thermostat so you can remotely warm the house before you arrive.
- The widest door is 31" and no normal furniture fits through that gap.
Tip -Sectional low back sofas and careful shopping is essential
- Water runs downhill so a lot of the houses have sump pumps for that little quirky touch.
What a nightmare finding a location of an open house
- Prepare to fight and argue with insurance companies, title companies, utilities etc on exact location.
- Wait till you try to get Comcast switched on without an actual house number.
- How many times will you have to describe the house and directions for delivery vehicles and friends.
Tip - Name the house and count how many houses from a junction and go that route
I love the fact the houses are nested between the trees
- Trees are a protected species in Carmel, you can only hack off a branch if it is under a certain circumference.
- Trees drop leaves, I vacuumed up three bin bags of leaves last weekend. It's singularly the largest time sync on our property.
- We couldn't use our own insurance company based on the fire risk and compulsory rebuild cost the mortgage company wanted so be prepared.
There are no sidewalks or mail boxes
- No sidewalks also mean no street lights means
Tip - always carry a flashlight or get the app on your phone (tree roots, uneven surfaces and it's 'dog friendly' hint !).
- Heels are the enemy of Carmel and only seen on tourists.
You get a PO box at the post office
Tip - This has to be provided on every corespondent as the funky addresses you have from your realtor will get all mail returned to sender.
It's just a short commute from the bay so the perfect location
- Absolutely true but if you are like me and drive through Santa Cruz to get there and back
Tip - leave late or early or you will literally sit for half the journey looking at Capitola.
- Additionally if you drive down on a Sat or Sun late morning you might spend half the day on the fields around Moss Landing staring at the rear license plate of a Prius.
So now for the biggest warning of all. Once we found the home and visited it a few times, we fell in love with it.
Instead of furnishing with 'rental quality' we chose carefully and tried to furnish tastefully and in keeping (code for wallet busting). Once my wife finished redecorating and we sorting all the niggly problems with the roofing, electrics, cracked windows, and furnishing the idea of renting the property was totally out of the question.
So, as for an income property we failed, as an investment I believe it's really sound and as for a place to relax and recharge... I doubt we could have found a better choice.
So our weekends...
- Load up clothes (whatever you pack the weather will be opposite so keep a variety there), bulldog and wife
- Swing by Whole foods for milk, bread and nibbly bits
- Unload load bulldog for sniffing and peeing on everything
- Switch on lights, wind up clock, get the kettle on, relax !
- Morning arrives, breakfast followed by us taking the Bulldog to beach via every tree and fire hydrant and tourists camera.
- Drop him back at the cottage for snore fest and go mooching with wife around shops
- Stop at the cheese shop to pickup our monthly cheese club package
- Anthropology is a must (happy wife happy life) along with Sur La Table (still getting things sorted) and down to the club and Paloosh via a couple of shoe shops and a pet store.
- Back for lunch, back out to do some gallery hopping or another walk to a different beach or around the town.
- Off to a restaurant for dinner (repeat favs are Casanova, Cantina Lucca, Basil, Flaherty's and Dametra.. (Order in decreasing price but all highly recommended)). BTW, you might think Carmel is a sleepy town but we find it's restaurant seen absolutely buzzing so book in advance.
- Back to the cottage for a glass of wine or a cuppa tea, PJ's, a snuggle on the sofa and a fuss of the dog and off to bed.
- With Sunday comes another trip to the beach, back via petals and pastries for their white chocolate and cherry tart to accompany a large cuppa coffee.
- Tidy up around the cottage and garden and head out to miss the tourist traffic.
So a year on and no regrets. The initial hassle has shrunk to a distant memory, half the store owners know my wife by name (both a good and bad sign) and we've rekindled what we missed from the UK in being in a village with people who care and have the time and inclination to chat over a garden fence.
I wish you the best of luck in your search. If it's not you thing then why not give to the community and stop by a hotel or B&B or perhaps go rent a house and disconnect from your daily grind and reconnect with your loved ones.
For your further delectation, here's a smattering of rather nice houses we've seen on our travels with plenty more on Flickr, just search for Carmel Cottages;
