Thinking of buying in Portola Springs. Few questions…

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coder77 said:
I have a location question.

I just saw this house listed in Orchard Hills:


I can get a brand new construction in Azul cheaper than what they listed this for.

Do you think the price of the home is justified due to the location compared to Portola Springs or the sellers are looking for a sucker?

Thanks in advance.
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Orchard Hills is superior compared to Portola Springs and I would personally pay more to be in OH (if I could swing it). Some would argue that OH is the most desirable Irvine village right now. This specific home is in the Strada community which sold very well when it was initially built out. This area of OH (officially OH Village 2) is non-gated and borders the backside of Northwood HS. That said, even though there's been a recent price drop on this listing, I still think it's a bit over-priced.
 
potsticker said:
Orchard Hills is superior compared to Portola Springs and I would personally pay more to be in OH (if I could swing it). Some would argue that OH is the most desirable Irvine village right now. This specific home is in the Strada community which sold very well when it was initially built out. This area of OH (officially OH Village 2) is non-gated and borders the backside of Northwood HS. That said, even though there's been a recent price drop on this listing, I still think it's a bit over-priced.
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Thanks. What do you think a fair offer would be for this home considering the slow market right now? A comparable new construction move-in ready home in Azul is selling for $2,825,000. There are not many buyers in this price range right now and it looks like they might be motivated to sell.
 
coder77 said:
I have a location question.

I just saw this house listed in Orchard Hills:


I can get a brand new construction in Azul cheaper than what they listed this for.

Do you think the price of the home is justified due to the location compared to Portola Springs or the sellers are looking for a sucker?

Thanks in advance.
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OH has quite a bit of location premium over PS. Ravello costs almost $1M more than Cielo. And KB Home's Fresco, which is a lot smaller than Cielo, costs as much as Cielo. Whether or not this premium is worth it, who knows.
 
coder77 said:
Thanks. What do you think a fair offer would be for this home considering the slow market right now? A comparable new construction move-in ready home in Azul is selling for $2,825,000. There are not many buyers in this price range right now and it looks like they might be motivated to sell.
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I'd probably say high $2.7m or low $2.8m. There's one nearby that's smaller and on a corner that sold for $2.82m in June so they're probably pricing off that sale...but it's been over 90 days and it's stale. The hard part with Irvine sellers is that the majority aren't desperate...
 
coder77 said:
I have a location question.

I just saw this house listed in Orchard Hills:


I can get a brand new construction in Azul cheaper than what they listed this for.

Do you think the price of the home is justified due to the location compared to Portola Springs or the sellers are looking for a sucker?

Thanks in advance.
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Orchard hills charges a premium due to the Guard Gated status.

That said, the backyard on this home is disappointing.
 
homesweethome said:
Orchard hills charges a premium due to the Guard Gated status.

That said, the backyard on this home is disappointing.
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I don’t believe this home is in a guard gated community. Is the main advantage of Orchard Hills closer proximity to retail? I see that Orchard Hills have their retail with grocery but Portola Springs residents need to travel to Woodbury.

In terms of access to 5, Orchard Hills might have an edge. It is also closer to the Marketplace.

I still don’t hate the idea of owning a new construction in Portola Springs. The home in Portola Springs would also have a bigger backyard. This OH home seems to also have its square footage inflated with the conservatory option. I think without it, it is slightly over 2600sf.

It is not a straightforward choice.
 
coder77 said:
I don’t believe this home is in a guard gated community. Is the main advantage of Orchard Hills closer proximity to retail? I see that Orchard Hills have their retail with grocery but Portola Springs residents need to travel to Woodbury.

In terms of access to 5, Orchard Hills might have an edge. It is also closer to the Marketplace.

I still don’t hate the idea of owning a new construction in Portola Springs. The home in Portola Springs would also have a bigger backyard. This OH home seems to also have its square footage inflated with the conservatory option. I think without it, it is slightly over 2600sf.

It is not a straightforward choice.
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SFR new constructions in PS have various lot sizes, depending on community.

Olivewood homes have really tiny backyards. Most of them are 3600 to 3800 sq ft lots (5-8 ft to back wall). Except for a few homes, all are below 4000 sq ft lots. I've heard that Olivewood is a copy/paste of Strada and it looks like the lot size takes after Strada too.

Azul homes have reasonable lot size, but they're mostly still below 4500 sq ft. Most are 4000 to 4500.

Cielo homes have the biggest lots. They range from 4500 to 8000 sq ft. My home has 5109 sq ft lot, which is just average. A lot of the remaining homes are over 5500 sq ft lots, some even over 7000 sq ft.
 
CalBears96 said:
SFR new constructions in PS have various lot sizes, depending on community.

Olivewood homes have really tiny backyards. Most of them are 3600 to 3800 sq ft lots (5-8 ft to back wall). Except for a few homes, all are below 4000 sq ft lots. I've heard that Olivewood is a copy/paste of Strada and it looks like the lot size takes after Strada too.

Azul homes have reasonable lot size, but they're mostly still below 4500 sq ft. Most are 4000 to 4500.

Cielo homes have the biggest lots. They range from 4500 to 8000 sq ft. My home has 5109 sq ft lot, which is just average. A lot of the remaining homes are over 5500 sq ft lots, some even over 7000 sq ft.
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Cielo is above what I’d like to pay for now and they don’t have move in ready homes. Azul has the best option for me and that home has a 4700sf lot. Cielo starting price is about $3.25 million right now.
 
A lot of newer PS has great city views where you can see the orange ballon at GP, out to Signal Hill etc. Not sure if anywhere in OH has that panoramic city view. I agree with others, why not Shady Canyon if paying those exorbant prices lol
 
coder77 said:
Cielo is above what I’d like to pay for now and they don’t have move in ready homes. Azul has the best option for me and that home has a 4700sf lot. Cielo starting price is about $3.25 million right now.
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The $3.25M is due to the extra $300k for lot size premium . I think the starting price is around $2.9M, if the lot size is below 6000 sq ft. In the July release, Plan 2 with 7828 sq ft lot went for $3.35M.
 
CalBears96 said:
The $3.25M is due to the extra $300k for lot size premium . I think the starting price is around $2.9M, if the lot size is below 6000 sq ft. In the July release, Plan 2 with 7828 sq ft lot went for $3.35M.
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Interesting. That would be in my price range. Unfortunately they don’t know when they will release the next phases.

Edit: Apparently the lots without the large lot premium will be released next year.
 
coder77 said:
Based on what you are saying these people are charging a huge premium over builder’s pricing, right?

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Yeah, this one isn't going to sell at this price. This is practically the WORST home in the entire community, being a Plan 1 with the smallest lot.

We were offered this one back in April last year by IP at $2.5M, but they changed bath 3 to shower instead of bath 2 (that we wanted) in builder's pre-selected upgrades, and they refuse to swap them, so we declined it. The other reason we declined it is that it has the smallest lot in the entire community at 4288 sq ft, and sales told us that we had a really good chance at getting the home in phase 7. And that would have happened hadn't IP decided to stop being builder.

For a while, we kind of regretted not taking it, but that ended up being the right decision, since we got one with larger lot, and we only had to pay about $60k more for base price. And the direction of our house is much better. Our backyard is facing northeast. We visited one of the Azul homes that had their backyard facing SW/W, and it was so hot in the afternoon.
 
CalBears96 said:
Yeah, this one isn't going to sell at this price. This is practically the WORST home in the entire community, being a Plan 1 with the smallest lot.

We were offered this one back in April last year by IP at $2.5M, but they changed bath 3 to shower instead of bath 2 (that we wanted) in builder's pre-selected upgrades, and they refuse to swap them, so we declined it. The other reason we declined it is that it has the smallest lot in the entire community at 4288 sq ft, and sales told us that we had a really good chance at getting the home in phase 7. And that would have happened hadn't IP decided to stop being builder.

For a while, we kind of regretted not taking it, but that ended up being the right decision, since we got one with larger lot, and we only had to pay about $60k more for base price. And the direction of our house is much better. Our backyard is facing northeast. We visited one of the Azul homes that had their backyard facing SW/W, and it was so hot in the afternoon.
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That makes their asking price even crazier.

California Pacific Homes

calpacifichomes.com calpacifichomes.com

This house is sitting on a 4700sf lot and priced at $2,825,000 with window shutters and backyard landscaping (a pretty basic one).

Basically Cielo listing has 314sf extra space, smaller lot, no landscaping, no window shutters and cost $435k more. I don't even know if the builder warranty transfers to the new owner. Since they did not even live in it (which frustrates me even further), they probably are not even aware of fit and finish issues.

Some sellers believe that the Irvine craze is non-stop I think.
 
coder77 said:
That makes their asking price even crazier.

California Pacific Homes

calpacifichomes.com calpacifichomes.com

This house is sitting on a 4700sf lot and priced at $2,825,000 with window shutters and backyard landscaping (a pretty basic one).

Basically Cielo listing has 314sf extra space, smaller lot, no landscaping, no window shutters and cost $435k more. I don't even know if the builder warranty transfers to the new owner. Since they did not even live in it (which frustrates me even further), they probably are not even aware of fit and finish issues.

Some sellers believe that the Irvine craze is non-stop I think.
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I believe that the builder warranty comes with the house, so it should transfer to the new owner. Some of these are FCB investors, so they depend on their agents for the walk-through and such. Some agents do a good job with that. The agent selling 134 Hyperion had previous made Youtube videos of her helping her clients selecting upgrades and doing walk-through.

The 134 Hyperion is also Plan 1, but it's a 7663 sq ft lot, listing at $3.38M (base price was $2.92M back in Jan). So there's no way 118 Sunnyslope will sell at $3.26M.
 
CalBears96 said:
I believe that the builder warranty comes with the house, so it should transfer to the new owner. Some of these are FCB investors, so they depend on their agents for the walk-through and such. Some agents do a good job with that. The agent selling 134 Hyperion had previous made Youtube videos of her helping her clients selecting upgrades and doing walk-through.

The 134 Hyperion is also Plan 1, but it's a 7663 sq ft lot, listing at $3.38M (base price was $2.92M back in Jan). So there's no way 118 Sunnyslope will sell at $3.26M.
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I think $2.9m is a fair offer compared to what is out there. Maybe they will find another FCB for that crazy price somehow.
 
ThirtySomethingWEquity said:
Have those people never been to Shady Canyon (or even Turtle Ridge?) :D
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There are people who have 100% never go south of the 405 in Irvine, especially people who are new to the area in these new builds. I was born and raised in Irvine and have friends who live in North Irvine that don't even know their way around South Irvine because they never go that direction. One of my friends grew up around Northwood/Northpark and only frequented places north of the 5 and at The Market Place.

But I always ask myself that same question when I see people paying these crazy prices for OH and PS, but I guess people want brand new.
 
irviniteeee said:
There are people who have 100% never go south of the 405 in Irvine, especially people who are new to the area in these new builds. I was born and raised in Irvine and have friends who live in North Irvine that don't even know their way around South Irvine because they never go that direction. One of my friends grew up around Northwood/Northpark and only frequented places north of the 5 and at The Market Place.

But I always ask myself that same question when I see people paying these crazy prices for OH and PS, but I guess people want brand new.
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It might sound like a silly reason but I don’t prefer the older parts of Irvine because there is no fiber internet service. I work from home and that is a must have for me. Obviously, this can change in the future and there are some pockets of areas with fiber but generally this is why I consider the newer builds.
 
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