world chaos said:
was availability the only deciding factor between cambria and san mateo for u? seems like from ur post that u were on the wait list and prequalified for both... would definitely be interesting to hear the opinion of an actual buyer on why choose an attached condo over a detached condo... or did u buy both with an intent of renting one out?
i was #100 or so back in november on san mateo, so i really didnt think i had a shot actually. but IP really timed the release of these two well, so ill give them that. you do have to make a trade-off, they make it difficult for you to have a choice between both at the same time. i hear this quote a lot on these forums "buy now or be forever priced out." - yea its a little bit of that. each phase seems to be going up $5K which is crazy. I liked the house, I've visited over 100-150 homes over a year-long search now throughout OC, I thought would be comfortable living in it so i went for it. the pricing was also pretty attractive for me so i could cut more of that interest expense.
the rental parity on these two communities doesnt work out .. so i wouldnt even think of it that way.
I did a lot of homework on the two communities, heres what i found..
SqFt diff
Cambria cut .5-1sq foot or so in a few of the rooms each side (the great room, the master bath, entrance hallway, and the master closet). my biggest concern was bedroom sizes, and those were equivalent. $/SQFT are about the same, slightly higher at SM.
Detached vs Attached
i thought about this a bit and i have lived in a few condos before. i never had any noise problem in newer condos. my primary concern with many condo designs was lack of sunlight due to no windows from people living around you 360degrees. cambria and SM are equal in lighting in that regard (for the most part). the hoa does suck but after seeing the breakdown its ok.. not great tho.
Community Layout
I only looked at a handful of SM homes, but I noticed the lots are arranged very condensed to compensate for their detached nature. I prefer detached like anyone else, but it just felt equally stuffy comparable to an attached community. Also, many of the homes did not have a through street separating them where you could park in front of. I prefer the front door to face a parkable wider pass-through street rather than those garage-through only streets or whatever you call them. I really wasnt sure what Phase 3 was going to look like, sounds like they have addressed this with bigger lots and driveways in Phase3/Plan3. I could say I missed out but I read in another post that those lots are 695K??
I've seen the first section of Cambria (Phase1-14) full layout and its mostly through streets where you could potentially have parked right in front of your house. The downside that I later found out was that the whole community's streets are 'private streets' meaning you cannot actually park in front of your houses. There are some visitor parking spots that I need to check out when they are built... Their excuse was safety and that many SG residents broke many fire code regulations: the fact that many people stuff their garages like huge storage closets and park outside creating a cluster-f of cars. Ultimately though, it wasnt a deal breaker for me. Maybe it will seem less crowded with less cars. I just hope it doesnt turn into one of those condo communities with no parking anywhere like that westpark gated condo area. You can park along crested bird and maybe Santa Clara next door.
Is there a way to find out how many people before you in the list?
they wouldnt tell me exactly, but they gave me a ballpark. i have come to realize their # is inflated and maybe 1/4th of it are actual "committed" vs "interested" buyers.
