Irvine Condomoniums- Should I wait?

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micksmastamike_IHB

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I've been looking around at many condominiums in the Irvine area and had a couple of questions for the more experienced/knowledgeable.

The trend I have been seeing is that 2bd/2bth condos have an avg asking price of $400,000. Given the economy right now, would it be

stupid/ignorant to buy at around this price? What is a reasonable price to negotiate? It seems as though these properties haven't dropped much

since the whole subprime mess. My intention of this property is not as an investment- but more of a place to call my first home. If something happens where I lose my job,

I can try rent it out to students (main reason why I am choosing Irvine). Your help is appreciated.



Any opinions on the following properties?

1. Watermarke

2. Avenue 1
 
You answered your own questions. You said "given the economy right now". Indicating you know its bad...so why would you buy?

You also said "if something happens where I lose my job". This indicates that you aren't 100% confident that you will keep your job. Until your job is secure, why would you buy?



If you want to buy because emotionally you simply want a home...then it is the perfect time to buy. Have fun.
 
Read this from my previous posts and both projects are the worst choices:



Detached condo is a much better for the money spent. You do pay a premium of up to 10% but you do get window on all four sides of your home and you do have a side yard and a patio backyard while town homes backyard is often at some really awkward location like at the front of the home that looks really good when presented in the model homes but no one really uses it in real life. BBQ should be a backyard activity.

Because side yards are dedicated for house separation the footage of the detached home is smaller than the town home where the side yards are filled in as footage. I like the side yards better for some privacy buffer. You will still hear the noise but you can mitigate this by planting a columnar type tree in between. In a town home situation, you will hear the headboard banging in the middle of the night while in these detached condos master bedrooms are positioned away from the neighbors. In a town home situation sharing the bed wall could not be avoided.

The bedroom sizes are actually bigger in the detached condo compared to town homes at the similar price range. Even though a town home offers more footage the area is extremely wasteful in the long hallways and circulation. The secondary bedrooms are actually smaller than the detached condo by 3 feet.

Garage in Irvine is 20? wide standard and builders would never build an oversize garage because the selling price of the home is governed by the livable area. The 2 secondary bedrooms must fit across this 20? garage dimension as a result the bedroom width is about 9?-9" for each.

Termite infestation spread is a problem for town home. The entire building has to be treated even your unit has no sign of termite presence. One could not sell their unit if the complex is in litigation. It is against the law for the seller to sell his unit without disclosing all the previous litigations and construction defects that took place. Potential buyers are scared of these things. These legal issues are a hindrance for resale of attached units whereas the homeowners of detached condo could sell their home anytime.

Potential water damage, electrical malfunction, structural damage, and fire are intertwined for town homes. The most alarming is all the town homes are integrated together and share one common roof. One could theoretically crawl through the common attic across each ceiling of all the adjacent units and drill a small hole, install a small probe camera lenses and watch everything that you do in your master bedroom. Sometime in between the units the wall does go all the way up the underside of the roof for fire separation but this plywood wall could be easily cut manually and quietly with a manual coping saw.

Buying a town home with a little more wasteful footage for the same price for a detached condo is not worth the headache due to the negative baggage that comes along with the town home.
 
Bk - I went to look at some models in Portola Springs. I can't remember the name of them but they were attached. The sales person told me they are separate units with the stucco connecting them on front and back to conceal the narrow void space in between them. Is your opinion of this the same as any attached unit? Thank you.
 
[quote author="SoCal78" date=1232439603]Bk - I went to look at some models in Portola Springs. I can't remember the name of them but they were attached. The sales person told me they are separate units with the stucco connecting them on front and back to conceal the narrow void space in between them. Is your opinion of this the same as any attached unit? Thank you.</blockquote>


If no common living space wall is shared then it is technically detached. Patio walls may touch both units but they are detached living. Code may consider them attached pending on the size of the element touching both units.
 
[quote author="SoCal78" date=1232439603]Bk - I went to look at some models in Portola Springs. I can't remember the name of them but they were attached. The sales person told me they are separate units with the stucco connecting them on front and back to conceal the narrow void space in between them. Is your opinion of this the same as any attached unit? Thank you.</blockquote>


All contemporary townhomes are constructed this way. The wood structure of each individual unit is stand alone and does not touch its neighbors. The only thing connecting the units is the outer skin. However they are still considered attached.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1232450698][quote author="SoCal78" date=1232439603]Bk - I went to look at some models in Portola Springs. I can't remember the name of them but they were attached. The sales person told me they are separate units with the stucco connecting them on front and back to conceal the narrow void space in between them. Is your opinion of this the same as any attached unit? Thank you.</blockquote>


SoCal I mis-interpreted your question earlier. I thought the narrow gap is a narrow sideyard of a few feet between 2 houses until I read it again and picked up the word "void" as in a narrow gap of just a few inches between walls. Yes, AI is correct the units are a part of an attached building (townhomes)



Here is an example of what I thought you were referring to: The project was Strata at Newport Coast and the only attachment were the tower facing the street behind the turned garage of the first house and a sideyard wall toward the rear yard. There are 2 completely detached homes duplex with slight patio wall or tower attachment depicted in the photo that appear to resemble one large mansion.

<img src="http://www.annmattesonconsulting.com/images/255_Strada_model_bldg_website.jpg" alt="" /></blockquote>
 
Right - it sounds like they do not truly share a common wall. Like having two shoe boxes sitting side-by-side, with a few inches in between, then covering the opening with a piece of paper on each side to disguise the opening that you would normally see through. Do these type of townhomes still have the potential for the electrical malfunction, structural damage, etc to be intertwined as you mentioned in your first post above?



(My apologies for hijacking the OP's topic.)
 
[quote author="SoCal78" date=1232461258]Right - it sounds like they do not truly share a common wall. Like having two shoe boxes sitting side-by-side, with a few inches in between, then covering the opening with a piece of paper on each side to disguise the opening that you would normally see through. Do these type of townhomes still have the potential for the electrical malfunction, structural damage, etc to be intertwined as you mentioned in your first post above?



(My apologies for hijacking the OP's topic.)</blockquote>


Yes and more trouble with mold, dry rot and other issues that you neighbors can give to you. Read my old posts on mold in condos and townhomes. Don't buy a townhome. The slight saving now is not worth a huge headache in the future.
 
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