Villages of Columbus - Columbus Grove - Madison

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
It's my understanding that if the price drops before you close, the purchase price will drop accordingly. If the drop occurs after closing..well...you're SOL.
 
If you read your contracts from KB Home, it will have a disclaimer that they can lower the prices of the house. Therefore, once you move in, KB Home can do whatever they want. KB only dropped the prices of the home that fell out of escrow, not the one that haven't been built. Unlike other builders, KB will not build a house until someone buys it. Thus, if you are already in escrow and you ask them about the price drop, they will tell you that the house is different, the lots are not the same, and you can't compare them directly. Furthermore, they will tell you if you want one of the houses that have lower prices, you can move to that house/lot if you want. Never hurt to go talk to them yourself. Good luck.
 
The cement factory isn't the worst thing affecting Columbus Grove. It's the Waste Management transfer station. It's closer to homes than the cement place and has a the lovely aroma of, well, trash... I drove home from work on the backside of the District, now that Von Karman goes through to Warner, and the garbage smell is very strong from Lowes/Costco to Harvard.



Nice ranking CK. I think NW Pointe is right there with Northpark (vs. NP square) due primarily to the schools and better facilities/parks. NP Square just has the one park in the middle right? Great tot lot there though. Canyon View and Northwood High for NW Pointe vs. Hicks (overcrowded) / Myford (getting overcrowded due to Hicks overflow) and Beckman.



I'll probably see ya in NP, although I think we'll buy sometime in later 2008. I already own, so I'm losing money on my place anyway... Saving in prop taxes though as the market craters :)
 
I stopped by today..got the latest pricing sheet. What are they thinking?



As of Nov. 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)
 
<p>Poker-style bluff?</p>

<p>Try to get people to think that prices <em>have</em> bottomed, so you better hurry up and buy?</p>

<p>There's still plenty of pain to come...</p>

<p>SCHB</p>
 
<p>It is a good time to buy. . . always.</p>

<p>Personally, I like both Northpark and Woodbury. Northpark has that rustic feel while Woodbury is one of the better communities I have seen. I agree regarding V of C, I would only consider Columbus Grove since 1) it is technically "Irvine" and 2) the school are much better. Since I would not wish to live in V of C long term, I have to look at the resale value. I think one can get at least 50K more if one was selling an "Irvine" property vs. a "Tustin" property. </p>
 
My wife and I just closed on a house in Madison. If you still haven't closed on the home, you should definitely go back and ask for a lower price based on the current list price. Before you put down the deposit on the home, here are some stuff to considered. This is based on my experience dealing with KB Home and other people might have better experience dealing with them.

One. Any incentive KB Home is you that tie w/ Countrywide or any loan company that they are dealing with. They have to give you the same incentive if you go with another lender. That is a state law, they cannot give you and incentive that tie w/ a lender. You can check w/ you attorney on that. So at the beginning, I just agree to the incentive that they give me for Countrywide. But when an outside lender, give me a better rate. I ask KB Home to give me the same incentive to the outside lender as Countrywide. They said that the incentive have to be with Countrywide. I told them, that it is against the law, and they quickly give me the same incentive w/ the outside lender.

Two. I got the incentive for upgrade. In my contract, it has the 50% discount on option in the design center and an amount I can spend at the design center. When we are picking our design, KB Home try to let you think, you take the incentive amount off your option cost then, the 50% will applied. For example, if your option was $100,000 and KB Home give you $40,000 to spend at the design center. They will tell you, $100,000 - $40,000 = $60,000 * 50% = $30,000 is the additional cost you need to paid for the upgrade. It should be $100,000 * 50% = $50,000 - $40,000 (incentive) = $10,000 is the additional cost of the upgrade.

Three. At the design center, they tell you a lot of stuff that is upgrade, but it isn?t. One of the things that I learned, the back granite splash of the kitchen stove is an upgrade. But that is a fire code, so it is include without you having to upgrade. I don?t know other stuff that are standard stuff, and they will try to sell it to you as an upgrade.

Four. The title company. Remember this is based on my experience. I got the title company phone number about three week before my escrow supposes to close. I call them multiple time and left couple messages. No one every call me back. No one ever pickup the phone at the title company, all I got was voice mail. The only time I talked to someone was the date, when my deposit needed to be wire-in. After they received the wire, I tried multiple time calling them, again, no one even pickup the phone at the title company. All I get is the voice mail.

Five. Two week before we closed the escrow. We had a preliminary walk-through, at that time; they told us the gas meter is not in because the City had just completed final inspection. Therefore the gas meter would be installed the next week. I was dumb enough to believe them. At the end of the escrow closed, the gas meter was still not installed. I had to called the gas company and get setup a day for the gas meter to be installed. My wife and I had to live in the house without heat and hot water for nearly a week in the winter. All KB Home would said, is that in the preliminary walk-through we agreed that the gas meter won?t be in at the close of escrow. Therefore my advise would be not signed anything until all the utilities had been turn on at your house. All the houses that closed on Nov 30, didn?t get their gas meter installed until 5 ? 10 days after the escrow had been closed. So if you are planning on moving in right when the escrow closes, don?t sign anything until all the utilities had been turn on.

Please remember this was my expereince dealing w/ KB Home, as other might have different experience dealing with them. Thanks
 
<p>aldkj, That is a great example of your purchase. I'm sure many people will read it and learn from it. Thanks for posting and good luck.</p>

<p> </p>
 
aldkj, "They said that the incentive have to be with Countrywide. I told them, that it is against the law, and they quickly give me the same incentive w/ the outside lender."



do you have a actual reference for that ? some article or something ? i will be closing soon and thinking about putting some pressure on to get a better deal... but i don't want to pressure i can't back up...
 
flmgrip, i don't have an actual reference. I read it once in the la times. but if you tell them that then they will back off. I am sure if you search the web you will be able to find something. otherwise, i would call an attorney and ask about it. so it might cost you like 300 - 500 dollar but you will save money from going to another lender. also i have another story about countrywide. they will keep tell you it is no lender fee but they will add that on and said it is offset by the incentive that kb home is giving you. so be aware of what countrywide is telling you.
 
<p><em>"I am sure if you search the web you will be able to find something"</em></p>

<p>Here are some relevant articles that discuss this issue:</p>

<p><a href="http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20060626_builderincentives.htm">http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20060626_builderincentives.htm</a></p>

<p>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062300661.html</p>

<p>http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-mortgage0707oct07,0,5959200.story?coll=orl_business_xpromo</p>

<p>'Savitt and the NAMB have repeatedly argued that it is illegal under the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act to recoup the cost of "free" incentives elsewhere in the transaction, and a violation of the Federal Trade Act to offer incentives only to those borrowers who use the builder's mortgage affiliates. "If they offer to one buyer, they have to offer to all," he says.





"The whole idea of requiring buyers to use the in-house mortgage company in order to receive the incentives is to prevent them from shopping. If they had shopped around, they would have found that they did not get such a good deal."'</p>
 
so far UMAC (not countrywide) is just in line with my outside broker... i still have time and certainly will wait until i am with 30 days to see what i can lock in with whom and what the costs are....
 
flmgrip- i went though UMAC.... they suck at customer service but so far they came though. locked my in for 5.5% i did a 10/20. they also offer me a straight 30 year fix rate at 5.25%.... that is with a 13k buy down. i called up my friend from countrywide and they could only match it but they couldn't do any better. so i guess umac is inline with everyone else.
 
Anyone has the latest pricing list on the Madison? Wondering if the latest huge loss posted by KB Homes had any impact on the housing price...
 
I just stumbled on this blog. We are renting currently and have been pursuing to buy a new home in Irvine and have been watching the VOC for almost a year. The blog has been a lot of help in understanding some of the prices and pains we have to go through to buy a new house. Does anyone have experience working with William Lyons Home in Columbus Groove? We were particularly interested in Lantana. The sales people who drive jags were not particularly interested in selling the house. We were able to extract that the incentives for Plan 1 was 80K and they would do price reduction for the whole incentive amount. Talking to few friends we are under the impression, the incentive or upgrades will be lot cheaper if we do them ourself. Any thoughts?
 
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