San Mateo Phase 2++ @ Stonegate

snut100

New member
After searching for Irvine homes for 1-2 years, I decided to put down 15K down payment for a cookie cutter San Mateo model 2 at Stonegate.  I admit that I made some mistakes and I have learned not to make the some mistakes with the knowledge shared on these boards so I thank you for that.  I have been lurking around here for the past year but never really registered.

The next San Mateo phase is basically part the original land set aside for San Marcos.  Houses are being built now for December move-in.  They did raise the prices about 1K-2K from the first phase but the back yard is a tad bigger and drum roll please.........YOU CAN NOW ADD A CALIFORNIA ROOM OR OBSERVATORY for an extra 14K.  This is an exclusive that was not available to the first phase.  It adds to the square footage of the house but cuts into your small backyard.  (WOW!, that's how it was presented to me)

Mistake 1:  The first time you visit this place, bring along your "friendly" real estate.  This how the broker co-op is earned.  It's a known fact among all the real estate professionals that you must accompany your clients to the first visit and register.  Work out a deal with your realtor.

Mistake 2:  Don't rely on TIC reps for accurate dates of the deadline to make decisions.  For example, when signing the contract, you have to decided on phase 0 items.  Do you want a trellis that is included (no cover), CA Room (+14K), Observatory (+14K), or shower in the master bedroom (+$1700)?

You can visit the models all you want and talk to the friendly sales people.  All facts are spewed generally like an information kiosk.  They will mention that it's a great time to buy because of interest rates.  The plan is all sold out but we have a waiting list.

NOTE:  The key to getting on the waiting list is to pre-qualify with their preferred lender (Wells Fargo).  Just some income verifications items with the Mortgage Consultant at Wells Fargo.  She is wonderful and works really quickly.  I suppose they have this process to weed out the "waste of time" buyers that will not qualify.  You are not stuck using Wells Fargo but they do a "hard pull" on your credit report.  My score was downgraded from Experian because I had too many credit cards, I have 7.  My wife's score was downgraded from Experian because she had too little credit cards which was 6.

Once you are pre-qualified, they will call you and tell you there are some homes for sale.  Don't be fooled, the "interest/want more information" list is long.  However, the pre-qualified, ready to buy list is short.  I admit that interest rates are at an all time low but if you cannot afford the monthly payments, the $110 HOA, and the 1.7 mello-roos infused tax, IT'S NOT A GREAT TIME TO BUY.  Keep saving your cash and stay on the sidelines.

I guess one good thing from buying from Irvine Pacific is that they now have a "renter's equity" program where a small percentage of your rent you pay IAC can be used to buy one of their homes.  It's a small perk and the credit accumulation stops the minute you sign a contract.  Also you can break your IAC lease WITHOUT penalty if you buy from Irvine Pacific.

Don't fall for the shill that you get your own "personal designer" at the Design Center.  You can learn more about design watching Russel Hantz on FLIPPPED OFF.  "Bring your checkbook" means that they want to sell you something.  For every option that you add, you have to pay 25% of the cost.

I just had my first "design star" appointment for Phase 1 and I met my "young" designer at the models who pointed out to me what was not standard in the models.  Duh, you wasted my time for all of that?  It says that right on the sheet and she make several mistakes on pointing out what was standard vs what was an upgrade.  There is a piece of paper in each model that tells you this.  She said crown molding was included in the master bedroom.  It is not!  After that ordeal, I was asked if I wanted to pay $600 to pre-plumb the house for soft water.  Since I may do that down the road and it will be more costly to do it after the fact, I wrote her a check for $152.

I did my best not to get mad at the waste of time since she just graduated from High School.  I have my Phase 2 appointment in 2 weeks and will report back my findings.  I am going to bring some barbie dolls to the appointment as a peace offering.

 
Forgot to mention about the properties I was looking at in Irvine during the past 1-2 years.  I needed a 3 bedroom, 2+ baths, yard for the wife to play farmville, and at least 1600 SF.  I saw plenty of properties that were going for $525-579K but they needed a lot of work.  I don't like the cape cod design or high priced HOAs.  The DISTRICT had some homes at one point but I found the $150 HOA to be pricey for what you get.  Almost bought one there for 599k.

I tried to avoid Mello Roos but someone has to pay for the new infrastructure.  All my "contractor" connections are out of state so buying something for 549K and then having to put in another 50K wasn't on top of my wish list since I am mostly at work.  I don't have any connections in So Cal so my options are Irvine Pacific, Home Depot, Lowe's, or Costco.  I went to HD and they guy there said, don't use lowes because their quality sucks and lowes told me their installation is done with licensed contractors/plumbers/electricians while if there is a shortage of people at HD, they just pick up a day laborer on the sidewalk.

I scraped and saved for the past 7 years in order to afford this San Mateo home so the math finally works out.  It just happens that interest rates are low right now.  If they were this low 7 years ago, there is no way I could afford to buy this house so don't believe TIC hype. 

There are some upgrades that I want to get:  Plantation Shutters + Hardwood Floors + Epoxy + Paint.  The washer/dryer and the refrigerator from the upgrade catalog are priced close to what you can find on Amazon or internet appliance stores.  But you have to ask yourself if you are going to spend that amount for a frig?

 
Thanks for sharing. We've been looking and it comes down to Sage or San Mateo. Can you share if you remember approximately how much the design center charges for wood flooring, additional recessed lighting and tiling work?

Thx and congrats on the purchase!!!
 
Thank you.
http://www.rental-living.com/renterequity/default.aspx
http://www.rental-living.com/assets/pdf/EquityCreditTermAndConditions.pdf

Under our "Renter Equity Program," renters automatically accrue 5 to 10% of their monthly net rent, based on terms of consecutive lease terms. So, the longer someone rents with us, the greater the opportunity to earn a higher percentage of "equity credit." In short, the Program transforms rental-living into an investment for the future.

You go here first:
http://myrental-living.com/

Then you select your community.  Once you bring up the community, you will see RENTER EQUITY on the list on the left.  Many people in my apartment complex did not know about this program that launched LAST YEAR on 7/1/11.  The people in my leasing office didn't know this.  Then again, why should they?  They are not there to make resident life easier for us apartment dwellers.  Their primary job is to act nice and lease out apartments, collect the rent, and stick notices on my door telling me they need to enter my apartment again or I can't park in my carport because they want to slurry the asphalt again.

I am looking at my design center webpage and it doesn't give me a price for wood flooring or tile work.  Recessed lighting is included in the downstairs kitchen.  However, it is not included in the bedrooms.  Each bedroom has a hook up for cable and internet, power outlets and an upside down switch controlled by a dimmer switch (CA building code?).  You do get a choice of 3 colors of marble you want for the kitchen and it just includes a small backsplash behind the stove.  It looks like a big piece of marble stuck to the wall.  The kitchen also comes with a media desk but not the cabinet above it.  I wouldn't mind the desk but it's not designed ERGO enough for me so I will upgrade to the pantry which is $1600.  When you take away something, they do not give you any credit consideration for it.  It's my wife's wish list so I would rather just spend the $1600 to avoid a fight.

If I want 4 recessed lights in the master bedroom, the first 3 will cost $120 each.  The 4th one will cost $225 because it ties the light to a dimmer switch.
 
irvinemonkey said:
Thanks for sharing. We've been looking and it comes down to Sage or San Mateo. Can you share if you remember approximately how much the design center charges for wood flooring, additional recessed lighting and tiling work?

Thx and congrats on the purchase!!!

Our design center experience for San Marcos was pretty underwhelming.  Our designer was felt cold and arrogant, kind of gives off this aura of "I know you don't want anything and you're just wasting my time."  She actually did say "this was just a waste of time" after we decided not to upgrade the wet areas to tiles because of the price. We looked at limestone for the master bath and porcelain tiles for the rest of the baths, and both came out to about 16.00/sq ft.  I got my own flooring guy and got nice porcelain tiles installed for about 7.00/sq ft.  My total bathroom sq footage is about 260.  For the counter tops, although granite is standard, but they're really sneaky about it.  You get to choose three color groups, white, brown or black.  Each group has 9 color samples, and they tell you that this is just a representative of what you MIGHT get.  The whites can range from clean white to yellow, blacks are pure black to greenish, browns from light brown to red.  They'll choose whatever slab is available (read: whatever is the cheapest) and you'll have to live with it.  You don't get to see the slab until they install it in your house.  For this reason, we chose to upgrade the counter top so we get to choose our own slab at the slab yard.  The upgrade cost was pretty reasonable, we paid 1900.00 to upgrade to a nice black granite with a even and consistent pattern.  They wanted 2800.00 to "upgrade" the paint to a different color, which I don't understand.  They need to paint the place anyway, so does it really cost them that much to get a paint color other than Swiss Coffee?  I got a painter to come in and paint the entire place for 1280.00, and he did a great job.

Overall, I felt the design center appointment was a waste of time, and really didn't offer us anything useful.  I wished I could just call it in and tell them I don't want anything instead of having to take a half a day off to go in to tell them.
 
Snut and gaogi: thanks for sharing your experiences. Its good to hear about other people's new home buying experiences. A couple of interesting things Ive gathered from your posts:

1. Interesting that a CA room and Observatory cost the same. My experience was that a CA room is half the price. Also, a CA room doesnt add to the total square footage of a home, while an observatory does.

2. May have missed out on it, but HD had great sales on Refridgerators and Washer/dryers for their 4th of July sales.

3. Epoxying the garage is easy to do yourself.  You just have to plan on doing it first before moving stuff in there. Buy the kit from HD, its around $80.

4. Do what gaogi did and hire painters (or DIY). Dont have their builder paint since they are severely overpriced and they have VERY limited selection of colors.

5. Like gaogi, i upgraded my granite and got to choose the slab from the yard, its amazing how much the same "color" can vary.

6. Ask the design center if they can "create" options. Some things I asked for was to prewire ceiling fans and light fixtures over the kitchen island. I wanted to put things there but refused to pay for their lighting (their options were overpriced and ugly). I also added extra outlets in key places where I thought I would need them and added a 220V dedicated circuit in the garage.

I'm interested to hear how your upcoming appointments go.
 
kubert13 said:
I also added extra outlets in key places where I thought I would need them and added a 220V dedicated circuit in the garage.

Nice! Our home came with one of these and it has been great for charging our Leaf :)
 
kubert 13 and gaogi, thanks for sharing and the advice.  At this point, those services offered by Costco are starting to look good.  I can get them to do the window treatments and water filter.  I may just have them paint the house white because I can change it down the line on my own terms.

It looks like they try to scare you into buying upgrades by claiming the house will look undone.  Put that fear aside, the feeling that you didn't have your money sucked out your pocket far out weighs the undone look.  I will put newspapers on my windows if I have too.

Also be prepared to go back to the sales office many times to sign paperwork that they messed up on.  I have already been back 4 times.  I must of zoned out during the CA room vs Observatory sales pitch.  Once I heard and extra $14,000, I quit listening.

220V sounds good.  Although, I may never buy a electronic vehicle, our friends may have one.
 
snut100 said:
Also be prepared to go back to the sales office many times to sign paperwork that they messed up on.  I have already been back 4 times.  I must of zoned out during the CA room vs Observatory sales pitch.  Once I heard and extra $14,000, I quit listening.

while $14K is a big chunk of change, if you can stretch and take it, it seems like a no brainer. 

you are getting about 80-100 sq feet of living area and with irvine being around $300/sq ft, thats $24-30K extra.  i believe there are a lot of people who use price per sq ft and i think you will get back much more than the $14K when you sell. 
 
kubert13 said:
2. May have missed out on it, but HD had great sales on Refridgerators and Washer/dryers for their 4th of July sales.

Check here also for appliances:[url]http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php/topic,2198.0.html[/url]
I got GE and Whirlpool discounts through my employer.  I bought a water softener and RO filtration system through GE, and washer and dryer from Whirlpool.  Whirlpool washer and dryer came out to be a little cheaper for equivalent features, but they don't offer any water products.

kubert13 said:
3. Epoxying the garage is easy to do yourself.  You just have to plan on doing it first before moving stuff in there. Buy the kit from HD, its around $80.

Go to Lowes and find the Epoxy-Coat or Performance Epoxy system, it's much better than the Rustoleum Epoxy from HD.  It's about 179.00 if it's carried in stores, or 350.00 if they have to special order it for you.  Epoxy-Coat is solid epoxy rather than water based epoxy.  You can also call Epoxy-Coat to order direct.  If you order online, they will charge you 95.00 for shipping to CA.  If you call them and ask for Christine Maguire, she will give you free shipping.  So, you can either save the 7.75% tax by ordering direct or you can use the 10% off coupon at Lowes.
 
zovall said:
kubert13 said:
I also added extra outlets in key places where I thought I would need them and added a 220V dedicated circuit in the garage.

Nice! Our home came with one of these and it has been great for charging our Leaf :)

We hope to have some variation of an electric car one day. If that falls through, we can always put a second refridgerator or freezer in the garage.
 
rkp said:
snut100 said:
Also be prepared to go back to the sales office many times to sign paperwork that they messed up on.  I have already been back 4 times.  I must of zoned out during the CA room vs Observatory sales pitch.  Once I heard and extra $14,000, I quit listening.

while $14K is a big chunk of change, if you can stretch and take it, it seems like a no brainer. 

you are getting about 80-100 sq feet of living area and with irvine being around $300/sq ft, thats $24-30K extra.  i believe there are a lot of people who use price per sq ft and i think you will get back much more than the $14K when you sell.

Agreed, extra sq. Footage or covered outdoor space is super useful.
 
rkp said:
snut100 said:
Also be prepared to go back to the sales office many times to sign paperwork that they messed up on.  I have already been back 4 times.  I must of zoned out during the CA room vs Observatory sales pitch.  Once I heard and extra $14,000, I quit listening.

while $14K is a big chunk of change, if you can stretch and take it, it seems like a no brainer. 

you are getting about 80-100 sq feet of living area and with irvine being around $300/sq ft, thats $24-30K extra.  i believe there are a lot of people who use price per sq ft and i think you will get back much more than the $14K when you sell.

Talked to the sale person about the conservatory room option.  Below is the information I got.
- the room is around 130 sqft.
- no glass between the great room and the conservatory room.(Similar like the current window without glass)
- no door between dinning room and conservatory room.
 
irvine123searching said:
rkp said:
snut100 said:
Also be prepared to go back to the sales office many times to sign paperwork that they messed up on.  I have already been back 4 times.  I must of zoned out during the CA room vs Observatory sales pitch.  Once I heard and extra $14,000, I quit listening.

while $14K is a big chunk of change, if you can stretch and take it, it seems like a no brainer. 

you are getting about 80-100 sq feet of living area and with irvine being around $300/sq ft, thats $24-30K extra.  i believe there are a lot of people who use price per sq ft and i think you will get back much more than the $14K when you sell.

Talked to the sale person about the conservatory room option.  Below is the information I got.
- the room is around 130 sqft.
- no glass between the great room and the conservatory room.(Similar like the current window without glass)
- no door between dinning room and conservatory room.

what are reasons that one wouldnt spend the $14K to get 130 sq ft which equates to almost $40K at current selling prices?  maybe losing backyard space?
 
i didnt mean to insult OP...assuming you can handle the additional $14K, thinking of reasons why a buyer wouldnt jump at it?  for builders, its a smart up-sell.  i figure more of them will start offering these.  i am surprised irvine company gives the conservatory for free
 
OP, what do you plan on doing for backyard landscaping and what is the estimated cost if you don't mind me asking?

Actually to anyone who has purchased new construction if you don't mind sharing some details I would appreciate it.

Thanks!
 
rkp said:
i didnt mean to insult OP...assuming you can handle the additional $14K, thinking of reasons why a buyer wouldnt jump at it?  for builders, its a smart up-sell.  i figure more of them will start offering these.  i am surprised irvine company gives the conservatory for free

As the conservatory room takes the space from the backyard. People who prefers more outdoor space will choose not to add the conservatory room.
 
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