Mericort - Starter 3/2 home??

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vtech22a_IHB

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Hello,

We bought the plan two in Mericort at the end of 2005. This is our first house and we bought it with the intention of staying for a while. I mean, it's a 3/2 with 1550 SQFT. It's enough right? Now we are planning to have a family (kids) in a year or so. Suddenly, this 1550 feels a little small. Don't really want to move after the little ones come. I really like Bugainvillea by KB in PS. It's still a zero lot line home but I am thinking, with all these planned development, what can we do with a SFR? There are also few other development coming from Cal Pac homes which are also a little bigger. After reading IrvineRenter's post about "The day market died" and "Collapsing from the bottom up". It got me thinking, the home that we have, is it a small starter 3/2? If so, will we be hit both way with our home going lower a little faster then the larger home? Perhaps we should tough it out for a while? I don't think we should rent it out first as with mello roos, there is no way we can have a positive cash flow. Selling? in the current market, it will be tough also. What do you think? All comments are greatly appreciated.

Thank you all.
 
FWIW, my parents raised their two kids in a 1200 sq ft house. While it feels small now, it never did at the time. Plus, they are still there - with the mortgage fully paid off nearly 10 years ago.

Your taxes, and likely HOAs, will be much higher in Portola Springs. That's money you could be putting toward the kids' college education. It's all a matter of priorities and personal choice, but if you're happy where you are, you might as well stay. Kids are pretty resilient. If you stayed where you are until they finish 6th grade, they would be changing schools for junior high anyway and it might be less traumatic - more so if you stay in the same general area (Irvine/Tustin).
 
vtech22a,

How many children are you planning on having? Unless it's more than 2 or 3 I don't see why you would be uncomfortable with where you are at now.

If you are pretty sure you want to upgrade to a larger place, then your best course of action really depends on where home prices are headed. If you think prices are going to stay the same then just sit tight until you can afford to upgrade and are at a convenient point in life to do so. If you think prices are going up then sell now and upgrade ASAP. If you think prices are going down sell now and find a nice SFR to rent with a long lease, then upgrade in a few years. BTW, selling is never hard in any market if you price correctly and have decent exposure.
 
First KB has the worst reputation in the industry. This is an Inland Empire builder. Many previous homeowners started website like "IhateKBhomes.com" This Company spent a lot of money to be on the Irvine Ranch for the first time in 7 years just to regain its reputation. Their last project in Oakcreek was bad.

The alley project that you are interested is not good. As I walked into all 3 homes there is no daylight. The back of the homes is a SOLID WALL with NO WINDOWS. It is the kitchen cabinet wall. The garage shares the back wall and the first impression is the messy kitchen. Because this is a zero lot project there are only windows on 3 sides of the home while the fourth side is solid for the privacy of the neighbor. Good luck when your neighbor has little kids who love basketball or the dad who over water the garden that may soak your wall and cause molds.

These homes are narrow, deep and dictated by the 20' garage width. Most windows are located to the side yard. The 2 story home next door blocks all possible sunlight. The only useable yard is the side yard. The yard has very bad proportion. The long and extremely narrow width would not suit well for furnishing. It is great for setting up lawn bowling. I take it back because lawn would not grow in shade.

Like I mentioned from my earlier post homes dictated by garage width are plagued with bad floor plans. All 3 models have very small secondary bedrooms and very poor furnishing layout in the bedrooms. The hallway is also very good for bowling if it is rainy outside. The Bedrooms are 10' wide at best and only 2 of the 3 plans offer 3 bedrooms for your family. You will just be making a parallel move IMO. The biggest plan has a tiny loft which is hardly an upgrade for you.

Why buy a bigger house when you will be getting smaller bedrooms. You will just be buying a bad floor plan with too much wasted circulation. Why switch from a builder who has for 5 years back to back reputation in winning first place rated by the JD Powers as the most customer’s satisfaction to a builder who ranks dead last?

Why would you give up your home with windows on all 4 sides for a home that shaped like 2 stacked single wide trailer?

Your master bedroom currently has windows on 3 sides and all of KB's Master Bedroom has limited windows.

Not to mention you will be losing tons of money in moving expenses and commission. You will be buying a much expensive home and I frankly do not see the positive side to this move. Portola Spring is too far to the freeway. There will be 5 more communities built around there and traffic would be nightmare in the future.

During the hey day of the sellers market architects and builders did very little in creating excellent projects. Bad projects got sold to desperate buyers. There were no competition. This challenging market IMO will have to produce better projects in order to compete.

The last recession in the mid 90s terminated all the homes with 3 car garages at the front of the homes. The invention was the garage located at the back of the house and the turned in sideway garages. The introduction of courtyard to the floor plan was big. 3 car garages were pretty much pre 90's era.

I have not seen any more detached "clondo". I think Cal Pacific is cooking some new recipe.

BTW isn't there another 1/2 bath down by the Dining next to your door to the garage. It is not really a 3/2.

I frankly like your location much better than Portola. Portola is also noisy from the Toll Road. At least you do not have to pay at your on ramp. Portola is a speedway and fatal accident is bound to happen. I hope that this will never happen. Few years ago I have seen flowers placed at various different spots along the side of the roads.

I hope through this forum we all can learn from the experts in different fields.
 
vtech22a,

Since I am an industry insider, I am familiar with the housing upgrading pattern. Your starter home is a detached condo; therefore, suitable for raising very young children. Homeowners of this type of homes usually upgrade in 3-5 years to add another 1,000 sq. ft. to their living space (children approaching junior high). Then in 3-5 years, people tend to upgrade to another 1,000 sq. ft (total 3,500 sq. ft to accomodate high schoolers).

Why this pattern? I believe, it's the parent that think they need more space, not the children. Children get used to almost any set up.

I also have seen people get tired of big space once they are in the big space (3,500 sq. ft) then they realize that the 2,400 sq. ft is the perfect size for a family of 4.

So I believe you will want to upgrade in the next 3-5 years. When is the good time to upgrade? The best time to upgrade is before the children start kindergarten. The best time to upgrade financially is when the market moves downward in pricing. You will pay less in price and tax with your udgraded home.

I think moving to a home such as Bouganvilla's is a wrong move for you. I think it is better for you to take a full step. Capanille in Northpark Square would be a better choice for the long run as upgrading homes are not cheap.

Best of luck to your making the right decision!
 
bigmoneysalsa,

We are planning to have 2 kids. Right now we are using one of the rooms as an office. This house is definitely good for us for the next couple years or so. I was thinking ahead and see if we can avoid some of the possible headaches.
 
nirvinerealtor,

Campanile is definitely one of the chioces. However, we don't like the way how the "great room" in these floor plans. It seems the media center is always a bit "off centered". That's the one thing that we have noticed through out the new developments. We have noticed that more the half of the floor plans we seen the media center is always off center. Why is that?
 
vtech22a,

Media off center? You will see many non-functional design features and you wonder why. The usuall answers I got from the good architechs are "laziness" or "inexperience" of the architects. I could believe that as builders try to cut cost in the design work labor as well. I also believe that builder design for low cost production.

That being said, when you pick a floor plan, think about how you are going to use the space and order the options accordingly. Example, if you want to watch your plasma TV standing or sitting in the kitchen, you should order the TV cable/power connections at the desired spot. Same for home office spots. I think this will solve your "off center" problem.

Since 2 children are in the picture, your upgraded home should contain the following features:

1. Open space, parks, and trails for children to roam as they love to be outside with their wagons, scooters, bikes, and mingle with other kids. A big back yard is usually useless for children as playmates are most important.

2. 4 bedroom minimum (not 3 + den). Better for resale and you always need to close your office to escape from screaming/fighting children.

3. Walking distance to an elementary is a must as children yearn to run out and meet classmates in the morning. Driving to school for drop off and pick up is a pain on the B$$$$.
 
I think we're too spoiled to think a 1550 sq ft 3/2 is too small to raise a family in.

When I was a kid we rarely spent our playing-time inside the house. I was always down by Santa Ana river fishing... but this was before the internet and the nintendo wii, so I cannot speak for kids these days.
 
momo,

Kids still love to play outside.

I felt I made the worst mistake by giving my children the electronic gadgets. They get hooked to these games and do'nt interact with human as much.
 
VTech,

The ideal furnishing situation for a living space is when you can have your 3 seater and the love seat that form a complete "L" configuration along 2 walls. This set up is the best for conversation. Ideal design is when windows are along the 2 furnishing walls and the sofas are centered below the windows. Floating a sofa is considered a bad design solution and is considered a bad floor plan. Designers would bandage this flaw by putting a narrow table behind the floating sofa. This would take away more of your living space and people run into the table corner a lot. I would not recommend it if you have very young children.

Floating a sofa is bad feng shui because the back is not secured and people find their defensible space by having their back along the wall. A good example is to study the most preferred seating at a restaurant. The tables that float in the middle of the space along the circulation path or near an entry are not occupied often.

Older homes have a token living room near the front of the house and a destination family room at the back with 3 furnishing walls. The TV and fireplace set up along one wall and 2 remaining walls for "L" conversation seating.

Newer homes sit on a much smaller lot and the token living room went away. The great room concept integrates the family and living room into a single room. As a first impression this room is position always near the entry foyer for visual "wow". The down side to this set up is this room must be dedicated as a walk through room to get to the remainder part of the home which is dining and kitchen at the very back of the home. 2 openings are required.

The living room has 2 openings then 2 out of the 4 walls are used up. The opening relating to the dining/kitchen is often a bigger opening while the entry opening is just sized just right and would not use up the entire width of the wall thus leaving some remnant wall for the TV. The TV requirement is an obstacle for many newer and compact homes. Unless there is a dedicated TV room I do not see the perfect integration between media and furnishing layout.
 
We are raising 1 (soon to be 2) kids in a 2/2 1200 square foot condo. It isn't too bad. 1500 square feet should be fine! The great room design is what makes it work for us. Couch, chair, small tv, dining table and a small computer table all fit in there with plenty of open floor space for the kids to play in. We might move to a slightly bigger place when the next kid is born, that's why I read this site. If we stay, the infant will go in our large master bedroom until he sleeps through the night, then they will share the second room.

We actually spend most awake time outside anyway. Woodbridge has awesome parks and such right out our front door. TV and computer use is allowed only after the kids go to sleep . If you like where you are, stay. Kids don't care how much square feet your house is.
 
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