Village: Portola Springs

Tract: Sendero (110 attached flats and condominiums) in the City of Irvine

Builder: John Laing Homes

Schools: Irvine School District (IUSD): Westwood Basics, Sierra Vista Middle, Northwood High

Tax Rate: The Mello Roos and property tax rate will be approximately 1.83%

HOA Dues: Sub Association $197; Master Association $175 at Build Out

Initial Deposit Required: $20,000

Plans:

Residence A (Pathfinder) - 2bd/2ba - 1457 sq. ft.

Residence B (Innovator) - 3bd/3ba - 1949 sq. ft.

Residence C (Entertainer) - 3bd/3.5ba - 2106 sq. ft.

Residence D (Romancer) - 3bd/2.5ba - 1685 sq. ft.

Residence E (Traveller) - 2bd/2.5ba - 1312 sq. ft.

<u>PRICING</u>

Phase 1A (Announced 20Jan07, Sales event 3Feb07)

Residence A - $542,880

Residence B - $657,880

Residence C - $672,880

Residence D - $595,880

Residence E - $532, 880

Residence F - $610,880 (no model)

Phase 1A & 1 B (Prices effective January 18, 2007, Estimated COE December 2007)</strong>

<strong>Homesite       Residence     Address                Price                Approx. Square Feet

Building 18

96                        FR                     145 Pathway        $600,880            1,752 - SOLD

97                            DR                    147 Pathway        $575,880            1,685 - SOLD

98                      F                         149 Pathway      $600,880          1,752 - SOLD

Building 17

91                        C                       136 Long Grass   $666,880           2,106

92                        CR                    138 Long Grass   $666,880           2,106

94                        A                       142 Long Grass   $531,880           2,457

95                        B                       146 Long Grass   $664,880           2,958 - SOLD

Building 16

100                        ER                   141 Pathway        $507,880           1,312

101                        DR                   139 Pathway        $575,880            1,685 - SOLD

102                        C                      137 Pathway        $666,880            2,106 - SOLD

103                        A                      135 Pathway        $531,880            1,457 - SOLD

104                        B                      133 Pathway        $642,880            1,958 - SOLD

Price sheet as of August 30th, 2007:
<u>Home site   Residence   Price             Size     </u>

89                 FR               $600,880   1,752 sqft

90                 DR              $575,880    1,685 sqft

91                  C                 $666,880    2,106 sqft

93                  D                 $575,880    1,685 sqft

99                  E                 $499,880     1,312 sqft  SOLD

94                  A                  $531,880     1,457 sqft  SOLD

95                  B                  $642,880      1,958 sqft  SOLD

Pricing as of 9/21/2008
Residence A - From the $500’s.  Next availability early 2009
Residence B - From the $600’s. Next availability early 2009
Residence C - $578,880
Residence D - $540,880
Residence E - From the $400’s.  Next availability winter 2008
Residence F - $551,880

Residence Key:

A - Pathfinder

B - Innovator

C - Entertainer

D - Romancer

E - Traveler

F - Explorer

R - Reverse Plan

I pressed the Laing rep on pricing yesterday.  Tentative pricing is mid $500s to high $600s.

Nice.. I saw something online saying in the $600s so it’s nice to know it’s come down a little.  Remember when the builders would launch a tract and indicate pricing to be anticipated in the $500s and it would end up starting in the $600s?

Pricing
Phase 1A:  Announced 20Jan07, Sales event 3Feb07
Res A- $542,880
Res B- $657,880
Res C- $672,880
Res D- $595,880
Res E- $532, 880
Res F- $610,880 (no model)
 
SCHB

their phase 1 sales event is this saturday. anybody checking this out? i’m curious to see what kind of interest (if any) is out there.

I’m baffled by those floorplans.  1 bedroom per floor?  3 floors?  Bizarre.

"I’m baffled by those floorplans.  1 bedroom per floor?  3 floors?  Bizarre."
Might work well for a roomate situation, but I don’t see it serving a small family.  Lennar’s Camden Place has a similar floorplan (3).
SCHB

I checked out the parking lot about an hour ago (9:30am) and it was full and overflowing.

Who would actually want to buy one of these funky little units?  If you’re out there, please help us understand!

I will try to help since I have the opposite view that there is nothing more annoying then having a bunch of bedrooms all right next to each other and all on the same floor!  If you have an infant, that’s different, but for many of us, including but not limited to people without kids, single professionals, baby boomers and lots of others, it’s REALLY nice to have friends, relatives and other guests over and they can have some privacy.  1 bedroom on each floor would be GREAT for a family like mine (young professional couple with no kids) who can have 1 set of inlaws over and who have friends all over the country who can stay comfortably and not worry that your host can hear you tossing, turning and whispering in bed.

It does sound like a silly floor plan- and I am sure baby boomers want nothing to do with climbing 3 flights of stairs.

you’re right - forget twhat I said about the baby boomers.  I hear the baby boomers are lining up for the plans with the master suite on the 1st floor.  The master suite floor plans in Astoria (columbus square) and Ciara (columbus grove) are sold out.

irvinesinglemom: you have to be at least a little interested in those "funky little units" if you just happen to drive by during the sales event at 9:30 am!

Sendero in my opinion is actually not too bad. I think only Plan C has 1 bedroom per floor correct? That would work really well for rommate situation like SCHB pointed out. Other floorplans are actually decent, single family home style.

I am a bit surprised to hear that new releases sold out. I guess builders realize that initial release is the window of opportunity thus put a lot more marketting effort into them now and price it "right" the first time. If you miss that window, it is usually harder and harder to sell in the next few weeks, just like resale home.

sportsfan8:  nope, I’m really not at ALL interested in Sendero’s funky little units.  I am, however, unabashedly fascinated with Irvine real estate in general.  That’s why I checked out the parking lot:  I wanted to see what kind of interest there was at their sales debut.

The pricing at Sendero and Verandas is what is generating all of this ‘sales’ activity.  Although there are many of us who wouldn’t buy right now, there are definitely people who still are.  I think if you compare the pricing here to some of the resale homes in Irvine, you’ll see that it’s a relatively better deal.  (I haven’t actually done this exercise but that’s what my guess is)

so john laing homes will adjust&nbsp;your&nbsp;price before escrow&nbsp;if it happens to go down on subsequent phase releases. anybody know if other builders are doing this?

Despite the apparent HTML problems, yes, other builders will do this.  And I’ll add my editorial content…"happen to go down" underplays the importance and likelihood of this risk. 
Laing will apparently put the guarantee in writing, others won’t, but it all comes down to the size of your deposit.  Any price adjustment in excess of your deposit, and you have the upper hand on the builder.  When it comes down to the day of closing escrow, you can always threaten to bail if they don’t adjust you.  Of course, this is a much bigger game of chicken when the deposit is $20k instead of $5k.
One counter argument is that they could let you walk (keep your despoit) and sell your property to someone else.  But the reality is that they wouldn’t be lowering prices if they had a waiting list of people waiting to buy.  Even if they turn your property around quickly, they’ll have more than a month of carrying costs and the risk of additional incentives to get it purchased.
SCHB

SCHB - do you know if builders these day would start construction immediately or wait until most of the lots are sold? If builders are willing to adjust price before close of escrow, then it definitely boosts consumer confidence. Many bears says spring of 2007 should "tell it all". Most people signing up contract now will have 6-7 months until close of escrow so they can watch what happens to the market.

Red, I think most builders have been dr-a-a-g-g-i-n-g out their phase releases so they have at least some of the units "sold" before breaking ground.  Truth is, I don’t know with any certainty.  I know last fall many of the Portola and Columbus builders were trying to sell inventory that was already well underway or finished. And I don’t think they’ve worked through all that backlog.
Some have throttled back, so that is a good question about the current situation.
The folks signing up now might be in the best position in a while to see how things develop over the next 6 months.  You could get a decent deal if you are willing to walk away from your deposit when push comes to shove.
SCHB

SCHB - Thanks. One advantage of sluggish market is you can take time checking out different communities and pick the perfect lot for your home. Now with the price guarantee it does seem like a good deal. But of course we know that the bears would revise their prediction if 2007 spring is (dead-cat) bouncing -.

"Laing will apparently put the guarantee in writing, others won’t, but it all comes down to the size of your deposit. "

That reminds of me of an article or video I saw where Ara Hovnanian indicated that buyers were walking away at closing and that they were making deals at the closing table and "doing whatever they could" to make sure the deal closed.  It makes me wonder what the real price of a K. Hov home could be.

And with Laing putting the guarantee in writing, they are guaranteeing that I won’t be buying in Stonetree regardless of how much I want to.  Their (advertised) prices actually have gone up $50K since I first looked there.

On behalf of housing bears everywhere I’d like to accept red’s complement. Most of us are willing to revise our opinions based on new evidence. I have never heard a bear say "It’s always a bad time to buy" or "real estate is always a bad investment."

And I added an important qualifier….in a while.  It’s been horrible until lately, and now it’s just OK if you have a long enough window until close of escrow.  I still don’t think it’s a good time to plunk down a deposit, it is just staring to head in the right direction.
You can still chalk me up as a bear, but like bigmoney, a rational one willing to look at new evidence.
SCHB

The main reason I am blogging here is actually to find up-to-date info regarding new home market. So many thanks to zovall providing this blog. It’s excellent.

Regarding the bulls vs bear game, I honestly dont really know how to judge winners or losers unless we are all willing to stick around for long enough. 2007 may end up being a great year only to find a huge crash in 2010, and vice versa.

With my personality (and luck), I will probably end up "loosing financially" when it comes to finding a home. I hate buying in a frenzy market so I actually welcome this sluggish market so at least we can take our time finding the perfect home. The good thing going for us is we do have some equity now so we may be able to weather some storms down the road although probably not if it is one as big as IrvineRenter’s or crucialtaunt’s scenario

got an email from sales last week saying 3 homes are available… i think there were only 6 total homes for the 1st release. sales are sloooooooow…

Word through the grapevine is they have experienced a lot of "churn" on their reservations.  All 6 of the first release apparently were reserved or deposited at some point, more than 3 have fell through, and a couple of those were picked up by new buyers.
The current net is that 3 of the 6 are still available, which has got to be depressing for them given their original grand-opening delay from October.  I wonder how long Laing can afford to pay two salespeople to stand around and not sell anything (even though this is a pricing issue, not a salesperson competence issue).
Considering how busy their January grand opening was, this shows that buyers can sense that prices are only going to drop.
SCHB