Villages of Irvine Survey

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
irvine_home_owner_IHB

irvine_home_owner_IHB

New member
I'm taking this new online survey for the Villages of Irvine that had some very interesting questions regarding:



1. HOA fees.

2. Types of parks (smaller neighborhood, medium regional or large community)

3. Type of front layout (2 ft grass curb/sidewalk/house vs. no curb/sidewalk/house/2 ft more backyard) <-- sounded like a BK question

4. Asking about different Villages (no_vas' favorite Villages of Columbus was on of them)

5. An interesting exercise on tradeoffs between different styles of homes and neighborhoods.

6. A build your own neighborhood using points and various community features.

7. School districts



It was a fun survey because it actually confirmed what I felt my needs were in a home (sorry... no choices for velodrome or kitty litter room).
 
Fotget about survey. Give me a 3 car garage and driveway. It will saves the developers tons of money in design and execution of the "village". Pave the front of the house with concrete. This will eliminate the space parkway, sidewalks, architectural style and architect fee. With money saved give consumers a wider lot for a 3rd car or a deeper lot for a rear yard!!
 
The points thing was interesting as it tied into an HOA fee exercise.



Basically, you were given 3 tiers of points to build a community... so it gave you an idea of what things you wanted most.



What was strange was one of the 3 required options was neighborhood monuments (I'm not sure if that's the phrase they used). You were given a choice between a basic one, like Westpark, a medium one or a more extravagant one like Woodbury. Does anyone even care about those things? Or is that an Irvine thing?



After you created all 3 tiers, then you were told how much the HOA was for each tier... I believe the amounts were 100, 175 and 250 per month. I, of course, picked 100 a month no matter what tier it was... hehe.



Then the next question was would you pay whatever amount you chose if there were Mello Roos.



Like the IHB "Are you smarter than a Realtor"... this kind of survey/poll/exercise would be cool for this site.
 
I think the survey is trying to gauge the consumer?s preference for the different levels of villages. Let me put that in a 5th grader term. Developer spent a lot of money in design and execution of the village ambiance. Developer has numerous villages to be released as economy improves. I will call them these villages Kmart village, Wal-Mart Village, Target Village, Macy Village and Nordstrom Village. Obviously the developer is interested from the consumers? point of view if they will be willing to pay a premium price to purchase and pay a higher HOA due in a Nordstrom village. I?m sure it is a major concern for the developer to seek the right village direction for developing Stonegate, Woodbury East, and planning area south of Woodbury. Will the consumers glut for a status driven village?



With the state of the economy Orchard and Laguna Crossing are up in limbo. Will the consumers buy in the Nordstrom Village and just suck it up when the pricings will be much higher than the flat land Wal-Mart villages. I know ISM loves Orchard Hills and will she be willing to pay for the location. Developer is obviously worried as not to over designing a Kmart village into a Macy village because the consumer will not be willing to pay for a higher HOA due. HOA cost is a deterrent factor for a lot of consumers and especially for the residential towers.



Here is my opinion of what consumers really want and is totally against the grain of my design philosophy. Consumers want a bigger lot for the extra garage driveway and yard and who cares about what the village really look like. Save the overhead cost and pass on the saving to the consumers. As a matter of fact a Kmart village would be best. Cheaper to buy into and cost less to maintain. However, the goods from Kmart must come in a big box. Forget about the neighborhood brick towers and neighborhood parks and just prorate the expenditure into a bigger lot and lower home prices. Why built all the fancy things when the consumers want are the garage, driveway, yard and a bigger box. Executing a quality village takes a lot of design time, and rebuilding things several times to getting it right and all that are costly. I suggest the developer in taking a no brainer approach and step up the community a notch to Target and sell homes in bulk rather than a Nordstrom village that sell boutique homes one at a time.



The consumers are not willing to pay the extra $$$ so why keep on building Nordstrom when they are seeking Kmart pricings. Consumers in our current economy need value villages. Build a big ugly box and it will save a lot of money for not providing the nice aesthetic but build the 3rd car garage to lure the buyers. From my cost analysis the developer actually gain much more $$$ revenue by giving away a 3rd car garage but cheapen up everything else on the house and around the community.



West Irvine is a good example of tight cost expenditure, cheap boxes, one recreation area, generic block wall, one kind of tree Pepper, cheap community signage but bigger lot sizes that everybody want. The secret is Inland Empire formula but at Irvine location. It is totally Kmart but no one is complaining. CK. IPOP, and IR2?
 
bk is spot on as usual... at least from my perspective.



The one big problem with West Irvine is the school district... FCBs prefer IUSD over TUSD. Other than that... I think that some of the neighborhoods could have used a small HOA. People are willing to pay an HOA as long as it's not too high... I think $150 or below is the sweet spot.



Columbus Grove was okay in intent, HOA not too high... and IUSD... but the location wasn't very good and the Mello Roos was way too high considering they are not building any new school for them at any level.



But I do have to say that the "frills" are nice. It's what attracted us to Woodbury initially and although it didn't mean much to me before, I like the extra stuff I get to look at in QH compared to the other Irvine 'hoods I lived in. I actually appreciate that strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk... but if it mean paying $50 more a month in HOAs... forget it. If it doesn't cost much more and only takes 2 feet from my backyard... I'm okay with it... although I would rather put that 2x30 strip space into my garage... heh.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1236139131]

West Irvine is a good example of tight cost expenditure, cheap boxes, one recreation area, generic block wall, one kind of tree Pepper, cheap community signage but bigger lot sizes that everybody want. The secret is Inland Empire formula but at Irvine location. It is totally Kmart but no one is complaining. CK. IPOP, and IR2?</blockquote>


As usual, right on IMO, BK. When we first moved to Irvine in early 2006 it was going to be Northpark or Orchard Hills or bust for us --- so we thought. But as time has passed and our child started to grow up, we have started to value function much more. For the price of a 3 level attached townhome in Northpark (and probably Orchard Hills someday) we have a SFR in West Irvine with a *driveway* and a *backyard*. Yes, there are some parts of West Irvine we think are a little <em>too</em> budget oriented, but at Ivywood where we live, we just love it. Maybe its something about the value-village, but we find the neighborhood to be very friendly and non-pretentious --- much more so than do our friends who live in places like Northpark and Quail Hill. Neighborhood block parties and obscene Christmas light displays may be a little IE for some of the more high class Irvinites, but are just fine by my family...



And oh yeah, they just raised the HOA --- to $50, and we have a strip of grass between the sidewalk and street.
 
I absolutely agree with IHO. Bren has good taste regarding environment but lets not impose it on to the consumers. Lets not create communities to satisfying the expectation of planners, architects, builders and Bren.



I learned a good lesson from a slumlord who rents his cockroach and rat infested properties to tenants but he goes home to his beautiful mansion without any guilty conscience. Why not just develop ugly villages with cheap 3 car garage boxes as long the creators are living somewhere else.



Irvine is no longer a place for extravagant spending fueled by the previous creative financings. Communities first must meet the consumers budget and not planners ego.
 
[quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1236139967]



The one big problem with West Irvine is the school district... FCBs prefer IUSD over TUSD. </blockquote>


You should refer your FCB over to the school ranking thread....The TUSD schools in Irvine/Tustin Ranch are batting a higher average of hitting the "Gold" ranking than are the IUSD schools. 4 of 5 TUSD earn the top rank, while only 13 of 20 IUSD schools do. And spending any quailty time around West Irvine (like maybe 5 minutes) would indicate to anyone that there are PLENTY of FCB who have no problem with the schools...
 
[quote author="CK" date=1236141323][quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1236139967]



The one big problem with West Irvine is the school district... FCB prefer IUSD over TUSD. </blockquote>


You should refer your FCB over to the school ranking thread....The TUSD schools in Irvine/Tustin Ranch are batting a higher average of hitting the "Gold" ranking than are the IUSD schools. 4 of 5 TUSD earn the top rank, while only 13 of 20 IUSD schools do. And spending any quailty time around West Irvine (like maybe 5 minutes) would indicate to anyone that there are PLENTY of FCB who have no problem with the schools...</blockquote>


I agree with CK. Myford, Hicks Canyon, and Pioneer has surpassed most Irvine schools scholastically from test scores. My analogy is Mercedes (Irvine) no longer makes reliable cars but its name ranks high in status. Lexus (Tustin) is perceived with a lower status but its cars are much more dependable and out perform Mercedes in reliability.



Most Asian children attending Tustin Schools has lesser sense of entitlement. They focused less on materialism but more on their academic. Perhaps chidren raised in families with tighter $$ buget are less spoiled? I can feel this thread is going to be severely derailed.
 
If you want to appeal to the FCB demographic, do away with all community amenities because FCB's never come out of their houses anyway. Some of the most desirable FCB enclaves are the Country and Ridgemoor in the SGV. These communities have no community amenities but they do have 24 hour guarded gates because many FCB do lots of business in cash and feel safer seeing a guard in front of their community when they bring home the day's loot in the evening. The restaurant owners and foreign concubines who live there don't know anything about architecture so developers can save on construction costs. FCB's see the lack of tot lots, swimming pools, club houses as pluses because it reduces the cost of the HOA fees.
 
[quote author="CK" date=1236141323][quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1236139967]



The one big problem with West Irvine is the school district... FCBs prefer IUSD over TUSD. </blockquote>


You should refer your FCB over to the school ranking thread....The TUSD schools in Irvine/Tustin Ranch are batting a higher average of hitting the "Gold" ranking than are the IUSD schools. 4 of 5 TUSD earn the top rank, while only 13 of 20 IUSD schools do. And spending any quailty time around West Irvine (like maybe 5 minutes) would indicate to anyone that there are PLENTY of FCB who have no problem with the schools...</blockquote>
Perception often differs from reality.



Maybe if there was a UC Tustin... FCBs would be more willing to live in Tustin or TUSD Irvine neighborhoods.



I don't set the behavior... I just report it.
 
That is true Gravity. Chinese do not care about neighborhood amenities except for guard gate and grand approach to the gate. Safety is their priority due to the amount of cash in the house. During the 80's I knew of many Chinese Jewelers who had shops in the Jewelry Mart in Downtown LA. Many drove Mercedes with personalized license plate like GEM 888 and Gold888. Many thieves follow them homes to South Pasadena and San Marino and robbed them.



They learned later not having special plate was safer. While they were attending trade show their tires were 85% slashed and they were robbed some distance away from the safety zones provided by the convention premises. They also learned to have decoys posing as customers to transfer cash and jewels out of the store prior to closing time as well as not driving the same route home each time, driving around the blocks several times, driving slow up to the yellow light then speed to pass intersection then look at the rear view mirror. During store hours friends would deiliver and remove Chinese food takeouts but filled the boxes with gem stones and cash. Chinese are good targets for robbers because merchants like to deal with cash transactions to hide profit from Uncle Sam.



Direct access from garage to house is paramount for Chinese buyers for this reason of safety. Guard gate is also another insurance. Ridgemoor was a production home project designed for Chinese and The Country a custom home community in Diamond Bar designed initially for the white folks and 25 years later sold to Chinese.
 
[quote author="emoh88" date=1236154690]Dammit Bk! You are really exposing too many things.</blockquote>
Chinese are the same in Denver?
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1236148533]That is true Gravity. Chinese do not care about neighborhood amenities except for guard gate and grand approach to the gate. Safety is their priority due to the amount of cash in the house. During the 80's I knew of many Chinese Jewelers who had shops in the Jewelry Mart in Downtown LA. Many drove Mercedes with personalized license plate like GEM 888 and Gold888. Many thieves follow them homes to South Pasadena and San Marino and robbed them.



They learned later not having special plate was safer. While they were attending trade show their tires were 85% slashed and they were robbed some distance away from the safety zones provided by the convention premises. They also learned to have decoys posing as customers to transfer cash and jewels out of the store prior to closing time as well as not driving the same route home each time, driving around the blocks several times, driving slow up to the yellow light then speed to pass intersection then look at the rear view mirror. During store hours friends would deiliver and remove Chinese food takeouts but filled the boxes with gem stones and cash. Chinese are good targets for robbers because merchants like to deal with cash transactions to hide profit from Uncle Sam.



Direct access from garage to house is paramount for Chinese buyers for this reason of safety. Guard gate is also another insurance. Ridgemoor was a production home project designed for Chinese and The Country a custom home community in Diamond Bar designed initially for the white folks and 25 years later sold to Chinese.</blockquote>


If TIC redesigned the IUSD part of Orchard Hills into a Ridgemoor like gated community and replaced Pavillions at the retail center with 99 Ranch Market, TIC would not need to spend any money on marketing Orchard-moor, such a village would sell itself.
 
[quote author="High Gravity" date=1236155802][quote author="bkshopr" date=1236148533]That is true Gravity. Chinese do not care about neighborhood amenities except for guard gate and grand approach to the gate. Safety is their priority due to the amount of cash in the house. During the 80's I knew of many Chinese Jewelers who had shops in the Jewelry Mart in Downtown LA. Many drove Mercedes with personalized license plate like GEM 888 and Gold888. Many thieves follow them homes to South Pasadena and San Marino and robbed them.



They learned later not having special plate was safer. While they were attending trade show their tires were 85% slashed and they were robbed some distance away from the safety zones provided by the convention premises. They also learned to have decoys posing as customers to transfer cash and jewels out of the store prior to closing time as well as not driving the same route home each time, driving around the blocks several times, driving slow up to the yellow light then speed to pass intersection then look at the rear view mirror. During store hours friends would deiliver and remove Chinese food takeouts but filled the boxes with gem stones and cash. Chinese are good targets for robbers because merchants like to deal with cash transactions to hide profit from Uncle Sam.



Direct access from garage to house is paramount for Chinese buyers for this reason of safety. Guard gate is also another insurance. Ridgemoor was a production home project designed for Chinese and The Country a custom home community in Diamond Bar designed initially for the white folks and 25 years later sold to Chinese.</blockquote>


If TIC redesigned the IUSD part of Orchard Hills into a Ridgemoor like gated community and replaced Pavillions at the retail center with 99 Ranch Market, TIC would not need to spend any money on marketing Orchard-moor, such a village would sell itself.</blockquote>


This would be politically incorrect for TIC's organization to just market the community to the Chinese. OH has to appeal for everyone. As we speak we are pumping up OH's reputation. IHB is like free advertising for TIC. This is why Zovall is still a poor man.
 
I received this survey as well. It was a pretty good one and as much as I dislike filling out a bunch of 'this or that' type questions, the ones on this survey were not too bad. There were some really cool drawings which were nice and this shows that TIC really wants to know what tradeoffs people are willing to make. What they are going to do with that information is another story ;)
 
Yeah... I was impressed by whatever survey service they used. You can click on images/plans to enlarge them and they gave you photo examples of features they were referring to.



I was half-expecting a message from bk to pop out and say "I know that's you , IHO!".
 
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