Okay, so I admit that I’m a bit fixated on Portola Springs. It’s really very simple. I owned a nasty, pre-Brady Bunch house for 7 years in Fullerton before I moved to Tustin, and the Tustin house was a mid-90s gem. I WANT A NEW HOUSE!!!!! Portola Springs and Woodbury are the most convenient options for me, and each one comes with a brand new retail center to boot. I know there are plenty of people who disagree with me and believe that new houses and developments have no character. I just have to say, in Southern California, character means old, nasty, dirty tract houses that all look alike, as opposed to new, clean, bright tract houses that all look alike.
I posted a comment on Piggington last month about a bad experience I had with a sales guy at the KB Home Bougainvillea development in Portola Springs. I asked the guy if there were any incentives on the Plan Two and he laughed at me. He actually laughed! He then haughtily explained that they were all sold out in the current release so there was no need for any incentives. Then he looked at me like the trash that I am, all single-mother-120k/year of me – before glancing meaningfully at the door.
Well, here’s all I have to say about Bougainvillea:
Residence One August/Sept. 2006: $784,000
Residence One October 2006: $725,000
Residence Two August/Sept. 2006: $822,465
Residence Two October 2006: $775,000
Residence Three August/Sept. 2006: $872,000
Residence Three October 2006: $820,000
Right back atchya, buddy!!!
And in response to some of my fellow bubbleheads out there telling me to stop torturing myself by going to open houses and model homes, isn’t it apparent by now that this is sport for me? A girl’s gotta get a good time going in whatever way she can!
“with a sales guy at the KB Home Bougainvillea development in Portola Springs. I asked the guy if there were any incentives on the Plan Two and he laughed at me. He actually laughed! He then haughtily explained that they were all sold out in the current release so there was no need for any incentives. Then he looked at me like the trash that I am, all single-mother-120k/year of me – before glancing meaningfully at the door.”
Wow!!! How insulting. ISM, make them pay by buying a nice home there for maybe 30 to 50% less than that sucker quoted, depending on how long you are willing to wait.
I think we all know who will get the last laugh here.
—–
What’s wrong with Nordstroms, Macy’s and Nieman Marcus if you need to get out shopping on saturday afternoon. Just think the guy that wouldn’t give you a discount on the house is probably selling shoes at one of these fine stores.
I can’t believe they’ve adjusted prices so much! Did they mention anything about incentives in October? I came across another blog where someone had a similar experience regarding the SAME tract:
Arbitrary Thoughts
Irvine SM,
Glad to hear you’re having sport with these idiots. Remember that for a good many of them already, the new lingo they are trying to learn is “can I super size that for you?”
I had a new construction appraisal in a high end KB tract in Riversippi the other day. Typically in new construction the research data is not available via the internet so we have to depend on the sales office at the tract for some comparable sales data. Any some sh*t bird salesman was trying to give me duff about him doing my job for me. I just noded for a while and went about my way taking the sales sheets he gave me for comps and transcribing them. Then I noticed all of the comps that supported our value / sales price were from over 6 months ago. When I asked him if there were any newer he quipped “maybe you’ll have to go find some”. I told him to put it where the sun don’t shine and that now his potential sale / revenue for KB was going down the toilet. Long story short, some divisional VP of sales called appologizing etc. I told him that I would not hold a large company to the example of the sh*t bird from the sales office but that I had already told the buyer to rethink their purchase based on market conditions. Buyer called me back to thank me for $65k in additonal upgrades (tile to granite, in ground spa, media center with 42 inch plasma, etc.) at the builders expense (builder cost probably 35-40k). Inevitably these McMansions will be $150k lower in 2 years but the buyer is not concerned as they like the house, have money to pay mortgage comfortably and will be there for at least 20 years. I will do another appraisal for them after it losses 75K in market value as then they save property tax money.
Bottom line, I’m not sure what happened to Mr. Sh*t bird salesmen but I got the buyer $65k in upgrades, let the VP know that his salesman cost KB profits and I later called the saleman inquiring about the tract, got him talking, asked him if there was a Starbucks nearby, when he replied “yes” I asked him to run down and get a large cup of “shut the f*ck up”. My job has turned strictly into sport and I’m just having a hard time trying to out do myself these days. Hang tight, we’re on the down ride and make sure to give plenty of sh*t to all in the R.E. industry that deserve it!
Turnaround is fair play and that sales person got what he deserved. I agree with you that all of the developments in Southern California lack any character. Other than old-town Fullerton, parts of Orange (near the Chapman Campus) and parts of Tustin, most of Orange County housing looks exactly the same. For me, I took the sacrafice and moved to Oceanside. The community still lacks character, but prices are as affordable as Riverside and much closer to the beach.
Cheers
RW
4MySales.com
I thought the KB salesman was pretty rude too. I have the photocopy plans and pricing from August as well before they printed the brochures. Those are eye popping reductions in prices.
I mentioned I didn’t care for long retangular designs which this one is, and the guy said all the homes are like this now – many of them are but I know of some that aren’t like Decada and Vientos – and said somehting about some homes in Huntington being even more narrow. Yeah good sales technique – blow off potential customers. I did like the open floor plan of plan 1 though.
About a month later when I visited Serra, the first thing the saleslady said to me is that there were $75K in free upgrades on the $1.5M homes.
Glad to see that someone likes those new homes. Their ultra dense design is a big turnoff for me with their postage stamp lots and windows looking into the neighbors windows. The houses are so skinny and clausterphobic that they feel like you living on a train. Everyone has different desires, I guess.
Here is a bit of inside info: these builders have wanted to reduce their asking prices for a long time now, but they had to have the Irvine Company’s permission to do so. Well, this month the Irvine Company finally gave them permission for a small drop. The builders want out quickly, but the Irvine Company is being stingy by not letting them reduce as much as they want. Your scorn is misdirected to the builders – it should be focused on the Irvine Company.
Remember, it isn’t just the prices that are killer, it is the 1.8% tax and almost $400 HOA.
It seems that the selling prices of Irvine homes are starting to fall rather rapidly……take a look at the $ per sq. foot of the houses that sold last week:
http://www.orange-county-real-estate-coach.com/weblogirv.html
There is one large house that sold for $332 per square foot. I am sure that the new home builders are looking at the falling prices of Irvine homes and starting to shake in their boots.
I’m in the same boat, enjoy going to open houses and touring the model homes.
However, the real torture for me is talking to the idiots in the sales office.
When I toured one of the Lennar tracks.
I asked the sales agent about possible price reductions in the future and the guy acted like I pulled a gun on him. Believe me, I wanted so bad to knock that smug look off his face. Needless to say the attitude coming from these low level sales guys is totally unjustified.
A friend of mine works for a big home builder, she said that most builders are not so interested doing business with Irvine company, because of so call ‘profit’ sharing polices imposed by I.O. the prices of a new house is basically set by I.C not builder (because need I.C. agreement) and I.C also shares the profits even though after the land sold.
She said to build a $800K house the cost of construction around 18%. 60% to around 70% (includes profit from land and depending on profit levels) goes to I.C, builder,Agents… take the rest.
BTW, given current housing condition, I really feel sorry for first time buyers and I believe CA’s price will go down 25% in 3 years but Irvine might only down 15% because of IC’s manipulations.
“She said to build a $800K house the cost of construction around 18%”
Your friend doesn’t know what she’s talking about, the cost of construction for an $800k HOUSE is not $144,000.
In Irvine,$160,000 is a more reasonable number. But in Tx, the cost is around $600,000.
Irvine Native: I agree with you completely that the density and size and proximity to neighbors’ windows in new houses is a turn-off. For me it’s a choice of the lesser of two evils. What I really want is a nice new house on a nice-sized lot. You can’t get that in OC unless you have a couple million dollars to spend. I remember driving in residential areas in New Jersey and salivating at the gorgeous, huge colonials so far apart from each other it seemed unreal.
And yes, I am well aware of the impact of taxes and HOAs on the total cost of owning one of these homes. I believe I have commented on that in earlier posts. It’s just ridiculous.
Jung,nowadays,most of Irvine first time buyers are asians and most (not all) of them have one aim – to buy a house / car bigger and better than other people they know. they’ll work like crazy and spend huge percentage of their income after this even if it means sacrifising life styles. Even though they are well educated they don’t realize they are just working to pay for someone elses retirement. The rate of immigration into bay area has definetely slowed so the pool of greater fools is shrinking. The wise ones will sell and can comfortably retire elsewhere.
Decada dropped again. Now they start in the mid-$600K range.
A more reasonable calculation:
18% construction cost + 5% processing cost + 5% profit
= 28% builder total cost
I don’t believe the characterization of Asians of being show-offs. Yeah there are some, but I think people of all races in OC tend to be show offs-compared to the rest of California. For the record, I’m Asian.
I do believe that there are a lot of Asians buying in Irvine. Who do you see checking out model homes? The model homes specifically state there is no racial preferences in the decorating, but there seem to be one home with Asians in the pictures.
One of the reasons I think Asians are buyins is that they tend to avoid debt and have more cash for the downpayment. That is not going to stop them from being the GF however.
Asians are also 29% of the population of Irivne. I pull this stat from the city’s site.
I also noticed that New Century Lending is the #8 largest employer in Irvine, Option One #10, Irvine Co. #4, and Washington Mutual #12. This will accelerate the downturn when they start getting laid off.
I also noticed that New Century Lending is the #8 largest employer in Irvine, Option One #10, Irvine Co. #4, and Washington Mutual #12. This will accelerate the downturn when they start getting laid off.
Hmm, I can’t seem to spot the diversity in this wonderfully diverse OC economy. We replaced the Military (aerospace) Industrial Complex with the Real Estate Industrial Complex.
As for Asians buying new in Irvine, my forays into Villages of Columbus suggest that they are indeed the only GF’s left in Irvine.
I am sure that if they would paint the garges blue, like at the cobblestone property, there would be lots of buyers. Maybe with blue garages these places would sell for at least 640K.
Asian, white, black, latinos… They are still buying because there are still some lenders out there providing option arms. No way 95% (maybe 99%) can buy at the current rate with their income. This is why we still have these gfs and that is why when the crash hits starting in late 2007 and 2008, its is going to be painful.
I have my downpayment ready for a nice 2000+ sqft home with a good size lot. I am ready to pay at most $400K. Until this time comes, I will not buy in Southern Cal. Waiting to buy in 2008 to 2010.
Actually I think this number (18%) is quite reasonable, back to 1998, the original prices set from Georgetown was high $200K and Lexington was high $300K (all at Northwood), but at the first day of Grand opening, the builder change prices to high $300K and mid $400K, now Georgetown is around $900K. So if $280K’s Georgetown still have profit for Builder(and of course Irvine company), and you know, the quality of Georgetown is much better than 800K houses in Portola Spring’s, so it is very likely the construction cost just around $150K even after factor in the inflation.
I think this all just proves how incredibly profitable Irvine company has when prices are so absurdly inflated. I though construction costs were over $150/ square foot in Irvine now. Does anybody have hard numbers on this?