Barcelona at Los Olivos Village

[Burn That Belly]

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[Burn That Belly]

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[paperboyNC]

They offered me Plan 3 in phase 1 and I said No  ;D

Here is little bit about us: We were in the market for a 4br+ Detached or SFR in Irvine specifically in CW, EW, or SG. Then, I heard about Barcelona and started following the development since the beginning of this year.  We were preapproved up to 1.6M but we wanted to keep it as low as possible so we don't have to worry about making ends meet.  From our side, Barcelona had some pros and cons:

Pros:
- Location, location, location
- Low MR, and HOA
- Brand new development
- Brand new Park and school.  Depending on your homesite, they are walking distance though the location of Phase 1 would make it harder

Cons:
- Motor Court
- Tiny backyard
- Plan was Ok, not our favorite. I'm not sure about Loft area and if the parents would be able to use it in any way.  It is destined to be the play area for the kids which is not a bad thing for some people but it was not our favorite.  Also it had one single window.  Depending on which homesite you pick, you might not get much sunlight.
- No upgrade is included.  Their flyer is misleading.  I confirmed that with two different associates
- Mortgage rates are rising and they will even be higher by the time you close escrow
- There will be construction noise around you for at least one year for Phase 1 buyers.  Pool and other amenities are on the other side of the community and they told me that those amenities won't be ready by Phase 1 move-in date.
- There will be parking problems
- First phase is close to the gate which means there will be constant noise from people who are trying to get in or leave, lose their gate openers, phone calls about what the code is, etc.
- And all this is just for $1.55M+ for the base price? Are you serious?

At the end, I really wanted Pros to outweigh Cons but it just didn't work for us.  We'll see in couple of years whether we made a wise choice or not.

Thank you for sharing. How does Barcelona compare to buying Sheldon back in 2015? (http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php/topic,12822.msg262029.html#msg262029). Have you been renting for years?

 

[Irvinecommuter]

They offered me Plan 3 in phase 1 and I said No  ;D

Here is little bit about us: We were in the market for a 4br+ Detached or SFR in Irvine specifically in CW, EW, or SG. Then, I heard about Barcelona and started following the development since the beginning of this year.  We were preapproved up to 1.6M but we wanted to keep it as low as possible so we don't have to worry about making ends meet.  From our side, Barcelona had some pros and cons:

Pros:
- Location, location, location
- Low MR, and HOA
- Brand new development
- Brand new Park and school.  Depending on your homesite, they are walking distance though the location of Phase 1 would make it harder

Cons:
- Motor Court
- Tiny backyard
- Plan was Ok, not our favorite. I'm not sure about Loft area and if the parents would be able to use it in any way.  It is destined to be the play area for the kids which is not a bad thing for some people but it was not our favorite.  Also it had one single window.  Depending on which homesite you pick, you might not get much sunlight.
- No upgrade is included.  Their flyer is misleading.  I confirmed that with two different associates
- Mortgage rates are rising and they will even be higher by the time you close escrow
- There will be construction noise around you for at least one year for Phase 1 buyers.  Pool and other amenities are on the other side of the community and they told me that those amenities won't be ready by Phase 1 move-in date.
- There will be parking problems
- First phase is close to the gate which means there will be constant noise from people who are trying to get in or leave, lose their gate openers, phone calls about what the code is, etc.
- And all this is just for $1.55M+ for the base price? Are you serious?

At the end, I really wanted Pros to outweigh Cons but it just didn't work for us.  We'll see in couple of years whether we made a wise choice or not.

Agreed...it's crazy numbers and people wondered why Eastwood was selling like crazy.

 

[Burn That Belly]

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[eyephone]

Agreed...it's crazy numbers and people wondered why Eastwood was selling like crazy.

I learned from USC today. Prices don't sell houses. Emotions sell houses.  ;D

But if the price ain?t right to begin with. It sits on the market until the potential price adjustments. 

 

[usctrojancpa]

Agreed...it's crazy numbers and people wondered why Eastwood was selling like crazy.

I learned from USC today. Prices don't sell houses. Emotions sell houses.  ;D

But if the price ain?t right to begin with. It sits on the market until the potential price adjustments. 

Agreed, a home has to look the part and be priced right to create the right environment to spur buyer emotion. 

 

[usctrojancpa]

Visited yesterday. Although I could hear some freeway noise, I really liked the location.
Being close to Los Olivos plaza, Irvine Spectrum, Laguna Beach and 5/405 freeways are surely going to sell it like hot cakes. Also low HOA and MR? No brainer.

One thing I didn't like (and it's a personal taste) was it seemed like there was too much upgrades done on models. I mean who's really gonna have that much upgrades and always open to yards on their home? Even though I like TIC products better than others in Irvine, I think CalPac kinda does their model homes in a realistic sense. I didn't like weird orange-ish color accents, but these are just preferences.

Overall great homes on a great location. I think the majority people were millennials, either children of FCB or young startup business owners I assume.

Did you get those cute little Barcelona-branded boxes of macarons? The filling was incredibly creamy, we loved it. We ate like 4 boxes.

They looked yummy but did not look low-carb friendly so I passed unfortunately.  haha

Come on. "Live the Full Spectrum" a little.

Yeah but it would have been hard to just stop with one once I had a taste so it was probably just easier to remain tough and say no to the sugary goodness. 

 

[Burn That Belly]

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[Irvinecommuter]

Agreed...it's crazy numbers and people wondered why Eastwood was selling like crazy.

I learned from USC today. Prices don't sell houses. Emotions sell houses.  ;D

But if the price ain?t right to begin with. It sits on the market until the potential price adjustments. 

Many of the new homes in Irvine are basically locked into prices by other communities.  They cannot underprice because it would undermine the other communities that are selling.  They will end up offering more upgrades to sell the homes but the price will never drop.

 

[usctrojancpa]

Agreed...it's crazy numbers and people wondered why Eastwood was selling like crazy.

I learned from USC today. Prices don't sell houses. Emotions sell houses.  ;D

But if the price ain?t right to begin with. It sits on the market until the potential price adjustments. 

Many of the new homes in Irvine are basically locked into prices by other communities.  They cannot underprice because it would undermine the other communities that are selling.  They will end up offering more upgrades to sell the homes but the price will never drop.

Agreed, the last thing the builders will ever do is drop prices....they'll give away design center upgrade credits, closing cost credits, and/or free F/W/D.  I overheard two of the senior sales agents telling two different agents on Saturday that iPac will slow down releases if sales are slow as they are more concerned about getting their price than they are at the speed of sales. Of all builders, they have the greatest flexibility to do that for obvious reasons.

 

[aquabliss]

I went by this afternoon with a couple co-workers, and still no sold or pending buttons.  The agents said they are already including free landscaping with purchase, which meant concrete pad all around the patio area (not just small one by the slider) and planting with irrigation. 

Not sure if that just started today or if it was offerable over the weekend, but maybe no contracts for a Phase 1 over the weekend got the IP execs a bit spooked.

 

[keilbros]

Do you remember who you spoke to?
I was there this afternoon too an hour ago and spoke to a lady named Amber (Asian sales rep)...she said all of Phase 1 has sold out. They are not sure when Phase 2 will be available for sale...

The floor plans are okay. They didn't have any Plan 1 homes for sale in Phase 1.

My biggest complaints were the lack of in-suite bathrooms for the children room's upstairs and the lack of a downstairs bedroom. They had a weird prep kitchen type thing in the pantry of the 3rd Model home which was sort of interesting, kind of perturbing. Like they were trying to make the kitchen more grand than it already isn't (but they ran out of space!).

 

[Burn That Belly]

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[keilbros]

Yeah, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Here are some photos I took today...

 

[keilbros]

More

 

[keilbros]

Final

 

[aquabliss]

They didn't specifically say that they hadn't sold any homes, I just looked at the board (under glass) and didn't see any sold buttons, that in combination with the fact that the sales rep (was the older white lady) said that they had an added incentive, and none of the line items on the price list said sold so I put 2 and 2 together...

Could have sold the ones in P1 and not put anything on the board or crossed off on the price list...

 

[bones]

They didn't specifically say that they hadn't sold any homes, I just looked at the board (under glass) and didn't see any sold buttons, that in combination with the fact that the sales rep (was the older white lady) said that they had an added incentive, and none of the line items on the price list said sold so I put 2 and 2 together...

Could have sold the ones in P1 and not put anything on the board or crossed off on the price list...

They prob took holds/deposits on the homes but didn?t sign contract and take the big check yet.

 

[Burn That Belly]

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