San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

floorplan+exterior look i vote for pienza

I vote against Maybeck. There is virtually no yard. They have taken the small postage stamp sized backyards to a new low. Maybeck is essentially a 3000sq/ft condo dressed up and trying to be a single family home. I hate the Maybeck layout. I would (am) leaning towards Pienza as well. I lost out on a lowball bid on a foreclosure and am back to considering new construction.

In search of a crystal ball . . . .

Personally I like Silhouette (especially plan 3), but I'd go for the lowest priced one. Pienza is way overpriced IMO. Maybeck has to cost 100-150K less than others to compete.

If you decide to proceed with the purchase, please keep us informed how it goes.

#1 is Silhouette and #2 is Chanteclair. Don't even consider Maybeck because it does not have a front driveway - it reminds me of Portico in CV with driveway in the rear. As for comparing the looks/styles of the builder John Laing, I think the ones in La Costa are far better looking than the 4S but you have to deal with the I-5 and San Marcos school district. Good luck and let the forum know what kind of incentives or price reduction the builders willing to concede.

I see alot of discussion on 4S on this site. As an insurance industry professional, I hope that you consider wildfire risk when purchasing new home. You should probably wait until later this summer when updated fire risk maps become available. It is VERY likely that we'll see an elevated risk level in many areas of Rancho Bernardo, and San Diego county for that matter.

4S Rancho Bernardo is already in a HIGH Wildfire risk zone. No gettting around it. Other areas in San Diego county have much lower wildfire risk. Here's a link to the older fire risk maps, new coming ones this summer. You can subscribe to it to get additional details.

http://www.sanborn.com/solutions/ca_wild...

Shelter-in-place concepts do not work for any respiratory sensitive populations, such as children and older adults.
4S Rancho Bernardo had a mandatory evacuation order during the 2007 wildfire that clogged exits out of the community. If wildfires overtook the exits, we would have seen major catastrophe.

I, like many others have excluded 4S Rancho Bernardo, Ramona, and other areas for consideration for place of residence. These areas have a high risk of future wildfires. I personally don't want to take a chance and put my family at risk.

Thanks for info, NTSD.
Could you please tell us a bit more about how different locations affect insurance prices? Jim the Realtor wrote recently about how difficult it is to insure a canyon-facing property. Is there anything else we should be looking out for?

My homeowner's policy is up for renewal & since I live in fire zone (lost fence & several trees; smoke-damage within), I wanted to increase limits.

I opted for Umbrella policy thru Auto Club of SoCal - $500K each for home/auto & additional million over that. After hearing neighbors' horror stories about rebuilding & ins. pay-outs, it seemed like a good idea.

ACSC was terrific at paying out insurance claims from fire.

We live in Rancho Santa Fe, and many of our friends also had mandatory evacuation orders on $5-20MM homes during the 2007 Firestorm, as did friends who live in Del Mar, so it's not just 4S Ranch. Plus, some less
fire-prone areas of San Diego have other problems many of us wouldn't want to deal with.

Lots of our friends and family live on the
coast and feel they are immune--but, surprisingly, the Weather Channel once had a program showing how a fire could roar down the eastern canyons of the county toward the coast and destroy La Jolla--so go figure.

At any rate, the reason for my post, was to mention that some friends who are looking to buy in 4S have found they like Silhouette and Pienza best--in that order--but they have found there are not many good lots left, so if you are interested in those developments, you might want to check out the lot situation ASAP.

Good Luck!

For Pienza, I think the builder currently accepts offer with $100K incentive for inventory homes.
For Maybeck, after the recent price drop down, there are only $20K incentive for the new release;
For Chanteclair, just sold out the inventory around $650K, hasn't made new price information publicly yet.

I bet, in year-end sale, the 3000 sqf. will go down to $600K, and you can get any plan3 from 4S builders with $650K.

Sandi,
Fire risks depend on the are fire risk maps, immediate proximity to fire suppression zones, property features such as sprinklers, roofing material, etc.

I would to out and try to get multiple quotes on any homeowners insurance. You'll see a good degree of differences in prices, and please ensure that you have adequate coverage. Try to get apples-to-apples comparison.

Personally, I would only go with sprinkler installed homes if I absolutely had to live anywhere near high risk fire zones. Problem with these sprinkler systems is potential water pressure problems. During any large fire event, there is always potential problems with water availabilty, e.g. all the water is being used to put out fires elsewhere, pressure drops, etc.

I suppose there probabably are some interesting fire suppression systems utilize your pool along with a backup pump. These are probably not cheap. In addition, any backup pumping system would probably have to be on battery backup.

Flyer,
You are right, there is no place is without some risk. The coastal areas are less prone to wild fires, however the immediate beach areas could be impacted by Tsunamis. I remember shuddering when I saw video of the Indonesia Tsunami a couple years back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoQkplXJalk

Personally, I would not live within mile of a beach. Just me and my level of risk tolerance. Other problems with beach are transients, beach rental houses next door, etc...

Pienza is in its last phase and maybe open to negotiation. Silhouette (which I like better) is not willing to negotiate at this point as they have many phases left.

What do you think would be a good price on Pienza including incentives for a plan 2 or 3.

660-700K? We wanted around 650K or lower, however last time we had suggested it, they would not even consider that (with the previous sales counselor).

If they will not lower the price, what other things would you ask for?

We all in the process of making an offer.

SD/sd Realtor, I believe you tried to negotiate for your clients, what would you ask for?

Thanks

Chanteclair 3200 sq-ft model is around 690k, so I don't think 660-700k is too bad of an offer, especially if it's their last phase and it's standing inventory. If they won't budge on price, I personally would ask them to pay for the MR. That will allow them to have their high price but you'll save about $100k. Not sure if they'll bight though.

4s Renter

Maybeck - Love the layouts and love that the garage is on the back of the home. Dont like the fact that the yards are super tiny.

Chantaclair - hated the layouts - one of them you walk into a living room and through the kitchen to get to the backyard and family room. Not very functional imo. Did like the location up on the hill but it borders Alva (Open land on the hill- more prone/closer to open brush wildfires)

Pienza - havent toured

I wish builders would put garages on the right or left end of a home and build homes right to left instead of back and forth deep, like you see on the east coast. I know that they want to maximize the builds on the land space so going wide isnt practical.

Personally, I like Maybeck plan 2 more, then Silhouette plan 3, ok with Pienza Plan 3. I don't like Chanteclaire.

It's funny when I started shopping for 4S ranch, Silhouette plan 2 and 3 were my favorite. After touring dozens of times and justifying my real needs, Maybeck plan 2 (with a guest suite) caught my eyes. The floor plan seems simple but flawless. The guest suite in the first floor is perfect for senior inlaws. The ally design gives a nice curb appeal and best privacy to the house. The houses in Maybeck are nicely planned so that the (side) yards are faced each other. Literally you can only see one neighbour's yard from the 2nd floor. In a corner house you don't see any neighbour's yard. No neighbour can see you either. Given the modest lot size (5300 sqft), that ally design achieved privacy preservation very well. All the Maybeck houses are planed to built in a flat plain area, no houses will be sitting higher than any other houses. Other pros include: Maybeck houses offer more house, more garage, better materials (check toilette, faucet, etc) and technologies (e.g. tube in the wall) than other builders. The biggest con is the lot size.

Not sure what are Silhouette lot sizes now. Last december, Silhouette houses offered houses on lots as small as 4600 sqft, which was the smallest in all 4S 3000 sqft-up plans. Pienza and Chanteclaire offer lot sizes around 6000 sqft, which is nice. They both are close to Alva road. Pienza is constructing its last houses on Alva road which oversee the yards of its previous releases. In some Pienza previous releases, houses have a big back yard with a steep slope. The slope brings a risk of mud slide.

No plan is perfect under scrutiny. I wonder if only a real rich person can buy a perfect home.

Wow, 4600 sq-ft lot? I'd consider that small even for a 1000 sq-ft house in MM, much less a 3000+ sq-ft house. That's just plain old ridiculous.

4s Renter

NICMM - Tubes in the wall - my wife is the one selling that product, got it in those homes. I agree with you on all points abou tthe homes.

LAAF,

Your wife is selling "Tubes in the wall"? Which company? Amazing! "Tubes in the wall" sounds good. Does it really work? Since when homebuilders put this into homes? How many percentage is the coverage of all homes? Do you know?

can you guys explain what "Tubes in the wall" is?

It is a tube system that is embedded in the lower bottom of the walls for injection of pesticide.
When a house grows old and has termites, owner can easily have someone inject pesticide through it without vacant the home.

4s Renter- Hi everyone- I am the rep for HomeTeam Pest Defense that sells TAEXX-a built in pest control system- formerly known as tubes in the wall. The 1/8" polyethylene tubing is ran along the perimeter and wet walls of the first floor of the home in the construction phase. We put our port box on the exterior of the home so we can access it on a quarterly basis for service. The TAEXX system will handle all general pests such as ants, crickets, cockroaches, spiders and centepedes. Unfortunately this does not handle termites but builders are now being required to apply termite treatment for VA/FHA lender deals. Our system is installed in the following William Lyon Communities in 4S: Amante, Ravenna and Maybeck. We are also in Del Sur at Alcala and soon to be Pasado. It really is a great added feature. We don't have to enter the home and we keep the bugs out! Now there's my sale pitch for the day! ps. I am a big fan of Maybeck too!

Did any of the posters ever buy in 4S Ranch? I walked through there this weekend and the one thing that I kept thinking was, how strange that on a Saturday the neighborhood feels like a ghost town. There were very few garages open, very little life and activity. I saw only 1 kid biking. It was truly strange, I felt like I might as well have been in the middle of nowhere.

In a walk through Pienza which I'd never seen before, I couldn't want to get out of there because the houses smelled - I suspect it was the disgustingly cheap carpet installed in the model homes. Or maybe it was the fridge in one of the models where upon opening, you couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the smell of rotting food. The houses felt cheap and poorly built. From the fixtures to the outdated glass sliding door closets.

I agree with the poster that said if you compare the John Laing homes in La Costa to the ones in 4S, the layouts are much nicer in La Costa.

I think all the homes have something to offer in 4S it really just depends on why your purchasing. Are you purchasing a "Home" or a House? Is location important to you? do you want to live next to a park or have a view? These are things that you are paying for along with the floorplans. Which floorplan suits your family's needs? Of course price is important but it's not the MOST important factor in purchasing a home.

As far as Golfgirl's comment I can almost guess that she didn't talk to any sales agents about the comments she made here. If she had, she would know that the Silhoutte and Pienza models have been around for quite a while and that the outdated carpet at Pienza is no longer offered or the mirrored wardrobe doors (I think the models are a good 4-5 years old and many features have changed). As far as the ghost town, Im sure you didn't drive a couple blocks north during your visit because if you had you would have seen that half the neighborhood was at the waterpark. Golfgirl are you looking to buy the model at Pienza? I would assume so since the only critiquing you did was regarding the models themselves and not the floorplans or the lots.

What is it about people that only have negative comments with nothing positive to prevail?

Lookingn4S: Member for 4 hours 48 min.
Which means the handle was created just to make this post. And by the looks of it, it doesn't look like you're just looking.

Well let's all keep in mind 4S is fireproof.

And methane gas proof
Submitted by 4Sbuyer2002 on July 25, 2008 - 5:04pm.
"Yes folks to protect you from a non-existent danger much less lethal than cow farts each home in 4S had the cost of construction raised by thousands of dollars to pay for you own custom methane remediation system in your 4S home. Its nuts."

"PS. I guess the upside is I could probably hack into my sheet rock and rig up a pretty cool toxic gas contraption to also vent the air from within my house up through the same vents while all my windows and doors remained sealed. This way when the Chinese eventually take over America and try and gas everyone in So. Cal. with Nerve gas before they invade I can sit comfortably in my 4S Ranch home safe in the knowledge that my state of the art 'methane remediation system' is gonna save the day."

There's no requirement.

Anyone have an update on sales for the 4s and Del Sur Builders? I would be interested to know how they have been selling, if closing etc.

They are selling OK. Last time I checked with Chantclair two weeks ago, they sold four houses a week after new release. I believe they sold all of the previous release. The price is from 670K with 20K incentive.

I drove around the area this weekend, went into a couple of the models at Del Sur just to check them out.

Had never been into the Sentinels before, actually kind of liked them.

Surprisingly more people looking then I would have thought, a LOT of young Asian couples.

They said it was pretty busy, but the last week had been very slow.

Outside of the models, the actual neighborhoods felt VERY much like a ghost town. Everywhere we drove, no kids playing in the street, most parks were empty and it was just dead silent. I actually prefer it quiet like that, but yeah there was a bit of a creepy factor to it.