Development: Villages of Columbus

Village: Columbus Grove

Tract: Madison (85 single family detached homes) in the City of Tustin

Builder: KB Home

Schools: Irvine School District (IUSD): Stone Creek Elementary, Lakeside Middle, Irvine High

Tax Rate: The anticipated total effective tax rate is approximately 1.7%, which is inclusive of all Community Facilities District (CFD) rates.

HOA Dues: Estimated at $175/month, proposed to be $148/month at build out.

Deposit Required: $25,000

Plans:

Residence 1 - 3bd+loft/2.5ba - 2592 sq. ft.

Residence 2 - 4-5bd/2.5-3ba - 2732 sq. ft.

Residence 3 - 5bd/4ba - 2879 sq. ft.

<u>PRICING</u>

Residence 1 - From the mid $900,000s

Residence 2 - From the low $1,000,000s

Residence 3 - From the low $1,000,000s

Phase 1 (January 28, 2007)

Residence 1 - $908,640 (not available during phase 1)

Residence 2 - $934,540

Residence 3 - $958,290

Residence 1 - from $916,470

Residence 2 - from $932,690

Residence 3 - from $958,880

Featured Homes as of October 12, 2007

Residence 1 - $829,990

Residence 2 - $849,990

Residence 2 - $854,990
The featured homes include maple cabinetry, granite countertops, and Whirlpool appliances in the kitchen.
Pricing as of November 11, 2007

Plan 1 $829,990 (Lot 177)

Plan 2 $849,990 (Lot 224)

Plan 2 $833,990 (Lot 26)

Plan 3 $870,990 (Lot 25)

Plan 3 $863,990 (Lot 27)

Plan 3 $889,990 (Lot 195)

These homes look more "traditional" as the sales lady like to say.  Compared to the rest of Columbus Grove I think it is more conservative which to me is good.  Alot of the contemporary styling don’t agree with everybody and middle of the road is always safe.  Driving around Columbus Grove, I noticed some of the architecture are just plain ugly.  I think the builders want to move away from the cookie cutter houses but then it gives the neighborhood a "Frankenstein" look.  Back to Madison, I was able to get a price sheet and there were reductions.

Phase 1:

Res 1:  $908,640 (not available during phase 1)

Res2:  $934,540

Res 3:  $958,290

$25,000 to reserve

Res 3 has a great circular entryway into the master bedroom (i love circles in houses).  But the staircase has too many turns and may be hard to maneuver with large furniture pieces..  From the price sheet the price reduction is about $60-70K per lot.. 

looks like the builders in Villages of columbus are getting a little nervous, as they are now listing their homes on the MLS.  check out mls # <nobr>S475537.  I think this is a Madison home.</nobr>

Anyone have any comments on these?  I’m not sure if I’m crazy about the big combo living dining room in the front of the house.  But these houses are quite a bit cheaper than the Westbourne houses (although they are bigger).

Need your help and opinion.  We are interested in a home at Madison by KB homes.  KB homes is celebrating their 50th year anniversary and they are giving away incentives.  $50K off the purchase price and 50% off upgrades up to $25K.  The incentives expire this Sunday 5/20.  We are considering Plan 1.  It’s currently around $907,990 - $927,990.  We try to negotiate with the builder but they will not give us any additional price break or upgrades incentives.

So far, we have done some preliminary research and talked to several people about Columbus Grove.  There seems to be a few negatives.

1)  Noise from Jamboree

2)  Power lines

3)  Processing plant on Jamboree/Barranca

4)  Train tracks

5)  KB homes have bad track records.  Reputations for building faulty homes.

6)  Some type of disclosure when you purchase a home that you cannot plant fruit trees and eat the fruits.  (Not sure if this is true or false).  Wife is concern about our health.

7)  Address is in Tustin.  Even though high school is Irvine High School, it has the lowest test score of the 4 high school in Irvine.

We currently live in Ladera Ranch and love our house but it’s a little small.  We would love to upgrade to a larger home.  Also, both of us works in Irvine.  Therefore, it would be nice to buy a new larger home but it’s not a must.  Should we wait for the prices to come down further or should we bite the bullets and put down a deposits.  We appreciate any feedback or comments you might have.  Thanks.

The concrete processing plant and the power lines plus the Tustin Address was enough to make us reconsider then came the train…

I honestly don’t know if its the bear in me or not, but every incentive that I see nowadays seems like a marketing ploy by the builders to hide the fact that they can’t sell the house.

I’d suggest walk away but if you’re in love with the house layout and the convenience that is has to offer as far as location then go ahead with it.

These factors can’t be measured and only you and your wife can make the call.

The fruit plant disclosure makes me wonder what the hell do they have hidden under the soil. It was a former base and all so anything is possible.

slamduck73:  have you list or sold your ladera ranch house yet?  If you haven’t, just to remember you will lose your deposit up to 3% of the purchase price.  It is not easy to sell right now.

slamduck73 - I prefer to sell a property first before I make an offer on any other property, unless I do not need the proceeds from the first and am planning on renting it out.  Most folks seem to make an offer and sometimes close escrow on the new property before they sell their older property and the agents all seem to prefer their clients buy and sell in the popular order, but it seems to me you would be much more in control to sell first.

1)  Noise from Jamboree - I can’t hear anything. I sat there for about 30 minutes listening for landing planes to John Wayne and didn’t hear any. For that matter, I did not hear any train horns either.

2)  Power lines - that’s your own preference. No data right now to convincingly suggest EMFs are bad for you. Or good for you.

3)  Processing plant on Jamboree/Barranca - more a problem for Lantana. The other side of VOC is bordered by the gulch.

4)  Train tracks - see #1 above

5)  KB homes have bad track records.  Reputations for building faulty homes. - I remember. KBhomesuck.com ...

6)  Some type of disclosure when you purchase a home that you cannot plant fruit trees and eat the fruits.  (Not sure if this is true or false).  Wife is concern about our health. - what the rep told us was this "toxic plume" is an issue for Columbus Square because that’s where the planes took off from. The VoC was the officers quarters or something like that so the plume has a risk of spreading underground to the other side of Jamboree.

7)  Address is in Tustin.  Even though high school is Irvine High School, it has the lowest test score of the 4 high school in Irvine. - The API score is what matters. All 4 Irvine HS have API’s of 10. This is also more of a philosophical issue.
Just because a school has "lowest" test scores (and they are still not shabby!!) does not predict that your children will too. You provide the best environment in school but I believe parents have an equally (if not more) important role in fostering educational values for their kids. You can send your kids to Harvard Westlake and say nothing about their homework, does that guarantee entry into Harvard? Stanford?
Likewise, just because you send your kids to Uni High and watch their schoolwork like a hawk does not guarantee entry into Harvard either!
Ultimately, your choice of home purchase has to do with how much you like the home, neighborhood, and layout, what your time frame of ownership is, and if you can afford it.
I am not sure if you plan on taking HELOC money to serve as a down payment or if you are rich enough to afford 2 homes outright both with conventional loans (please don’t do any I/O or neg-am stuff), but it may be iffy to carry 3 debt instruments at the same time (Ladera home primary note, HELOC, and new home primary note).
My $0.01.

Re: #6 Above: Tustin MCAS Superfund Site Study by the EPA can be found at this link:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/dfa/download/tustin.pdf
In my view this is more relevant and a lighter reading (at 40 pages) with a graphical representation of the toxicplume on a map of the base on the cover page!
The EPA Superfund record is 315 pages long and can be found at the following link:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/dfa/download/tustin.pdf
It is very interesting to see how they strees "no action is the remedy" for several sites (starting on page 14).
Happy weekend reading!  Make sure you order a subscription to one of these.  Only $1 a day might save your kids’ lives…

Wow, you guys are great.  The comments and informations are great.  One of the biggest motivation for us to buy now is the price.  Is there anything we can use for leverage to lower the price or get some free upgrades ?  What kind of things we can use to ask for lower prices ?  Thanks.

The best leverage for a lower price is patience.

Ask for a (former) EPA Superfund Site discount.  Minimum 50% off!

Visited here today.  Prices have not changed much.  The sales guy barely got out of his chair to acknowledge us, so I didn’t engage him in any discussion of incentives.  Maybe he has given up trying to sell anything?

Residence One - from $916,470
Residence Two - from $932,690
Residence Three - from $958,880

The way you get lower prices is to submit an offer with exactly what you want.  If you want 70k back at closing for furniture and landscaping then put it in the offer.  I would look at 1) getting the developer to pay points to bring down your mortgage costs, 2) design center credits, 3) cash back at closing.  Also, if you have a friend who is a real estate agent (isnt everybody) you can get them to represent you to the developer and credit you back 2% of their commission as well to close the deal.  These things can help the developer show that they did not lower prices, but you essentially get a lot of cash back to do the things you would want to do with a new house.  Now someone will say that they don’t want to pay taxes on the difference, but 1 to 1.5 % on an extra 50-100k is not going to make or break you over a 12 month period.  I have seen some friends go in with very bold offers that get accepted.

Stopped by the Madison today.  List pricing is still the same. 
They are still doing $50K off list, which they began during their 50th anniversary celebration in the summer.  Probably not dropping list so those in escrow don’t come back for the added incentives.  Anyone in escrow with KB on the two phases they are building now that isn’t pushing for discounts due to market conditions is a moron.  They have three already built homes sitting as "available" and have been unable to sell out their 4th phase despite many months of trying.
New property tax bills that just came out have the houses paying almost $6,500 in mello roos.  For that hefty sum, plus another $10K in regular prop taxes, you get one tiny park (couldn’t bother to spring for swing set), one mediocre pool, a community center, and a drive to Irvine schools in Woodbridge.
 

Mello Roos doesn’t pay for neighborhood parks, the HOA does.  If you want parks on every corner then move to Ladera and pay $300-$400 per month in HOA, plus Mello Roos, plus taxes.

So no $ from mello roos goes toward the construction of city parks?  There is an Irvine city park going into Irvine side of Columbus Grove.  I think there is another park that is supposed to run along Harvard adjacent to the Tustin part of Columbus Grove too… 

Community Facilities District financing (Mello Roos) can be used to construct parks. The HOA or a municipality ends up being responsible for the ongoing maintenance.

>>There is an Irvine city park going into Irvine side of Columbus Grove.

I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to score federal funding for that park.

Doe’s the land nearby previously being federal land have anything to do with that?

It may, but it just seems odd.  I don’t think Tustin scored federal funding for a park, nor do I believe that the department that the funding came from was military related.  IIRC, it was something like the Dept. of the Interior.

Just got an email from KB
Plan 1 $829,990
Plan 2 $849,990
Plan 2 $854,990
The featured homes include maple cabinetry, granite countertops, and Whirlpool appliances in the kitchen.

at least its less than $300/sq ft

Is the 2nd Plan 2 supposed to be a Plan 3?  Or does that mean there are 2 plan 2’s for sale?

they are both plan 2’s.  i believe the second one has more upgrades.  these are all "quick move-in" homes.