Ok gang, I need your input on this Irvine home

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usctrojancpa

usctrojancpa

Well-known member
So I took at look at this Irvine home over the weekend when they had their open house...
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/3-Windarbor-Ln-92602/home/4794126

The home has all of my "must have" requirements (1,800sf+, 3+ bedrooms, downstairs room, downstairs shower, SFR, a driveway, and under $700k).  The other thing that I liked about the home is the huge lot (large side yard) and 3-car wide driveway (I know IHO, not as good as a 3-car wide garage).  It's in good condition and basically move in ready (upstairs bathrooms does need to be updated and the upstairs carpet needs to be replaced).  Obviously the big negative is that the side of the home is right up against the toll road.  You can hear the noise of the cars and from the master bedroom you have a view of the on-ramp onto the southbound part of the toll road. 

I have submitted an offer and got a counter today which is too high (I may or may not counter back with a best and final).  There were 2 closed comps of the same exact floor plans in the past 3-5 months that were $650k and $660k (interior locations with small lots).  What do you guys think of the home?  ???
 
It looks nice, large lot and all, but I would not buy that location personally.  Then again, I'm willing to wait out the market for another year at least.  Sold in 2002 for 450k and if we are to believe that prices should drop near those levels...
 
Nous said:
It looks nice, large lot and all, but I would not buy that location personally.  Then again, I'm willing to wait out the market for another year at least.  Sold in 2002 for 450k and if we are to believe that prices should drop near those levels...
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Those are exactly the kind of comments I'm looking for.  I like the home, but don't love it (due to the location).  I think I can pick the same floor plan of an interior location in the low $600k but it will have a lot 1/2 the size of this home and will need some upgrading. 
 
villagepeople said:
nice house, don't care for the location (same as nous)... although i doubt it would drop to ~$450k.  how much would you this place rents for?
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Rents range from $2,700 to $2,900 per month for this exact floor plan (homes that are not as upgraded with smaller lots).
 
As a realtor, you have seen tons of homes and know all the pros and cons so not sure we can really enlighten you.  I like West Irvine from a location point of view: close to shops, awesome sports park, nice neighborhood feel.  The negatives are tustin schools (not that they are bad but you are paying Irvine premium), most of West Irvine is bland and doesnt have a lot of curb appeal, and this particular house backs to a mini-freeway. 

With a woodbury SFR just closing below $300 sq/ft, I think areas like West Irvine have to fall much further.  If you can get this close to $600K, then it might be worthwhile and at rental parity but not at $700K.
 
rkp said:
As a realtor, you have seen tons of homes and know all the pros and cons so not sure we can really enlighten you.  I like West Irvine from a location point of view: close to shops, awesome sports park, nice neighborhood feel.  The negatives are tustin schools (not that they are bad but you are paying Irvine premium), most of West Irvine is bland and doesnt have a lot of curb appeal, and this particular house backs to a mini-freeway. 

With a woodbury SFR just closing below $300 sq/ft, I think areas like West Irvine have to fall much further.  If you can get this close to $600K, then it might be worthwhile and at rental parity but not at $700K.
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I guess I wanted to confirm what I was thinking about the home (having those 2nd thoughts).  The words..."location, location, location" keep repeating themselves in my head over and over again.  I know that the price of this floor plan will fall and get closer to $600k when I was planning on buying (next Spring/Summer).  No way would I pay $700k or close to it for this home.  Besides that, Las Ventanas plan 2 has a better floor plan than this particular floor plan. 
 
First, you are speaking to somebody who lives about the same distance to that house from the toll road.  I've lived here since 2001.  There has never been one day in my life that I have been bothered by the noise, nor has there been any problems with dust, etc.  People like to say "oh I'd never live there, yada yada yada"...    I hear cars and motorcycles... but that actually comes from Jamboree, which is far from where I am and not the toll road.  Also, I work all day, and leave in the morning.  I'm usually too caught up with starting my day than thinking "what can I hear today from the toll road".  So don't let that stop you.  Rather, use it as your bargaining chip. 

Interior looks like its been nicely done up.  I've been spec'ing out homes for remodels and it is EXPENSIVE to do good work.  So yes, upgraded homes ARE worth something (well, only if its too your liking).  Me personally, too much dark wood in there.  But hey, a lot of people like the look.  I'm an entertainer, and we like having people over.  So having a nice family room gathering area is important.  This home looks as if the family room is a bit small, with what seems to be an awkward setup for the television.  Also, if you have guests remember that most (newer) neighboorhoods in Irvine have the street signs that prohibit parking at the end of cul de sacs.  Just a thought.  Also, GlenWillows is part of the HOA right?  I have a friend who is in the non-hoa part of WI.  He has (not joking) about 10-13 cars he parks on the street.  That's why I dont mind HOAs....  Lastly, West Irvine is great.  You are conveniently located to so many amenities - parks, shopping, etc.  $55 for the association dues is awesome, plus you have really low HOAs.  Our neighboorhood is mostly young couples with young kids.  Its pretty cool to walk to the park and see all the other parents doing the same. 

So those are my thoughts.  Would I buy that home?  Well, not me personally, because I need more space.  I need about 2300 sq ft+.    West Irvine generally trades cheaper than the rest of Irvine.  So I'm thinknig $650-660?

 
Yeah, you definitely should not buy it if you don't love the place.  That's the only reason to buy right now.  As for location, say what you want about the noise not being that bad, you'll always lose potential buyers being next to any majour road.
 
Here's my first reaction--not what you asked for--but that is a piss-poor listing.  WTF are there 9 pictures covering basically 2 rooms of the house?  Am I to assume the 1 bedroom worthy of 2 pictures is the nicest of the 4 in that home?  Other than that, the lot is big and well proportioned, though that quirky culdesac protuberance really shouldn't be considered for lot size.  I personally would not buy that close to a major road--there is a strong correlation between proximity to busy roads and higher incidences of health problems, especially in children (in case you foresee any mini-Trojans running around that place :) ).  It's also like buying a car with a salvaged title.  It might not have any impact on the quality of the car, and some people don't care, but a lot of people do.  Finally, 1900 sqft is a good-sized home, but a 4/3 seems like a bit of a squeeze.  Disclaimer--you may recall I am NOT an Irvinite, so I'm not all that familiar with your housing customs.  ;)
 
I've looked at that listing... I like the floorplan but you know me... I'm street noise adverse.

You can learn to put up with it but we made the mistake of going for lot size over location... in the end... we felt that quiet is worth more than size.
 
Like some others above, I also would not buy this home because of the location next to the toll road. Even if it doesn't bother you, it will be another hurdle you will have to overcome when it's time to sell (because it will be a big negative to potential buyers).

I do like the fact that it has a bar, though! :)
 
I wouldn't buy it as a personal home to live in. You already know location is the most important and as far as upgrades, you can do that stuff yourself over time. Although, you may not see rates lower.
 
I'll play devil's advocate. I don't see anything wrong with the location being next to the toll road. This is a toll road, not a freeway. Not as much traffic. It's not like you'd be living off the 5. You don't have the stop-and-go squealing of brakes like you would on Jamboree. If you're hell-bent on Irvine... it's so dense and has such little privacy as it is, I think you'd like being on a culdesac (certainly mini-Trojans would) and having that extra grassy area out front and in the yard. I'm a value-oriented person and would try to use that as leverage in getting the best deal possible. That said, the deal-breaker for me isn't the location - it's the lack of a pool. You're a young, single man. You need a pool to hang out by so you can socialize. When you're older, your kids will want to spend their summers swimming. I suppose you'd have room to put one in as the neighbors with similar lots have done, but that's a whole 'nother issue.
 
Thanks for the great feedback everyone.  Since you guys have been so frank and shared your thoughts with me, I'll share some more information.  I submitted an offer of $650k for the home on Sunday and the seller came back with a counter at $685k which I will be passing on.
 
So, my previous house backed to Main street so I know a little about noise.  The traffic on Main was nothing like a freeway but it was busy enough to be noticed.  At night, it was not an issue at all because the amount of traffic was minimal except for when a ricer decided to downshift and let everyone hear the beautiful sound of his raspy exhaust :sarcasm:.  The only time I noticed the traffic was during evening rush hour (4:30PM-6:00PM) and I opened the doors/windows to let the nice breeze blow in.  A plus was that you had no neighbors behind you so the back yard felt more 'open' since you had an unobstructed view of the sky and tree line.
Personally it did not bother me 99% of the time.  The actual problem with living next to the road came when trying to sell.  I lost many potential buyers when they identified it was next to the road regardless of how nice the house was.  Also when I received offers, one of the main points a majority of buyers said was they loved the house but they wished it was not next to the road.  I can see from the posts in this thread that a majority of people have the same sentiments.  So that will shrink your buyer pool and thus lower your offers price later down the road.
 
 
Solid pass. Too much downside on housing recently, and a $685k counter to me shows that the buyer is too over leveraged to come down to $650. Let this HELOC abuser suffer in their bad debt as you find a better deal elsewhere.
 
SoCal78 said:
I'll play devil's advocate. I don't see anything wrong with the location being next to the toll road. This is a toll road, not a freeway. Not as much traffic. It's not like you'd be living off the 5. You don't have the stop-and-go squealing of brakes like you would on Jamboree.
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I'll play the devil's advocate advocate.

I think the issue here is it's not just next to the toll road, but also an on ramp. The noise from accelerating vehicles trying to get up to toll road speed is actually quite loud. I thought living next to a main road would be quieter than a freeway and it is in some regards, except that we were on the right hand side after an intersection. And we weren't on the intersection, we were quite a ways down but all the cars/motos/buses accelerating was noisier than we imagined. And while not the constant buzzing of a freeway, the irregular frequency of engine noise was probably just as bad.
That said, the deal-breaker for me isn't the location - it's the lack of a pool. You're a young, single man. You need a pool to hang out by so you can socialize. When you're older, your kids will want to spend their summers swimming. I suppose you'd have room to put one in as the neighbors with similar lots have done, but that's a whole 'nother issue.
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I'm a bit neutral on this. We would like our own pool too but not the maintenance headaches of it. And like street noise, some buyers are adverse to pool homes because 1) They don't need one 2) They are afraid for their kids/guests 3) There is a community pool (not sure if this 'hood has one) or 4) Like us, they don't want the extra expense.

We wouldn't mind a pool, but we aren't particularly looking for a home that has one. We have friends and relatives with pool homes and the pros/cons seem to cancel each other out.

I think in the end, it comes down to what you can deal with and how long do you plan to stay. It doesn't matter what future buyers will think if you aren't selling until 3011.

An 8000sft lot is tempting... but for us, the noise downside even makes a $650k price a bit high.
 
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