[quote=bearishgurl][quote=earlyretirement] . . . I also TOTALLY agree with you about the power of having a listing saying, “NO MELLO ROOS taxes. Owner FOREVER paid them off’.
You’d definitely get attention. Even in a soft sales market vs. a healthier one like now, I believe you would (a) get back every dollar you pre-paid in MR taxes, (b) sell your house much quicker vs. someone that has MR taxes, (c) attract a MUCH larger audience of potential buyers. . . [/quote]
ER, I believe what you say here is possible … but your “shopping” audience would consist of those buyers who are already shopping in a MR area and thus it would be people who were already willing to pay MR or else they wouldn’t be contacting you, IMO.
Buyers who know SD County very, very well (mostly Native and longtime San Diegans) can smell CFD(s) from miles away and do not even shop in them or even view property in them (either online or in person). Especially from a zip code which is nearly all exclusively or all exclusively CFDs, (as yours is). Additionally, if a local agent/broker represents a buyer in a $1M+ range who gives them the edict, “Please do NOT show me any properties with Mello-Roos,” then they will NOT even be considering showing any properties to them which are located in 92127.
You would be surprised at how many SD County buyers in all price ranges there are out there who will NOT accept Mello-Roos unless perhaps it will be retired in <1 year (early nineties construction w/20 yr bonds). Many will not accept it under any circumstances and I am one of those people.
Thus, I feel your potential "buyer pool" will likely be fairly new residents of the county (<10 years) or relocatees, if you choose to sell, who will stumble upon your listing in their search and be pleasantly surprised that you have retired your MR 🙂
I'm not saying your neighborhood is not worth buying into. I'm just saying that well-heeled buyers in your price category have many, many excellent choices for a residence in this county which are NOT located in CFDs (OR HOA's) and this will never change.
I DO believe you can easily recover your ~$61K prepaid-MR cash outlay upon sale ... even now ... from the "right" buyer.[/quote]
Hey BG,
Quite honestly I disagree. I think any family with young kids even if they tell their realtor they don't want MR areas, can easily be directed to a property that might have their CFD forever paid off.
San Diego really is kind of like a village even though it's a bigger city. I can't tell you what a small world it is here. I'd think any realtor worth their salt could pretty easily get the word out on a property that has it's CFD paid off throughout the area and would be exempt from them.
Sure, I understand that many people don't want to buy in a CFD area and might tell their realtor that. But I definitely think that it wouldn't be difficult to get the word out amongst realtors that a property is available with no CFD and it would stand out.
I already know my neighborhood and others are worth buying into. Because I'm still getting unsolicited offers to purchase my house from families (bypassing realtors). For hundreds of thousands of dollars more than I paid for it a few short years ago.
I know you're not a fan of the area out here and call it "Lizardland" but the reality is that the lifestyle out here is probably amongst the best in the world. The weather is incredible and the schools are amazing. The quality of people living in the area I've found is extremely wonderful. People that are peers and professionals that I have things in common with and people that share the same outlook on life, raising kids, treating people, etc. I've only been here a few years and made some true lifelong friends already in this area. Just incredible people.
Plus, some of these individual communities (take Santaluz) for example are so unique to me. That I really think that very few areas around the world can compare to it from a pure lifestyle and raising kids aspect.
I've been to hundreds upon hundreds of cities around the world. And to me this is about as good as it gets with this area for raising kids.
Oh and BG, the last few new buyers that I have met lately are the type you mentioned. They have lived here pretty much all their lives in San Diego or in Southern California. And yes several of them said they didn't plan to buy in a CFD area but were just drawn to the area/community and felt CFD was ultimately worth it to raise their kids here.
This "buyer pool" that has recently bought many of them are from the area and ultimately saw that they had to pony up and pay it to have the lifestyle and raise their kids in this kind of environment.
