Bob, thank you again for letting me share my position on this topic. First I wanted to let IONEGARM know he has permission to post the letter that was addressed to Pardee’s President, Mike McGee.
Also, in response to lendingbubbleco’s comments; I take full resonsibility of purchasing my home from Pardee. I love my house, the area is great and it has been a real pleasure getting to know all my new neighbors. It’s funny you refer to “Let the buyer beware” in your post script. That is exactly what was on our flyer that we gave to prospective homebuyers. Pardee has done and is still doing a horrible job with the Mello-Roos disclosure. It was my understanding and all the other homebuyers in the community would have a Mello-Roos. This doesn’t just mean that every home will be assessed an addt’l 4500k-6000k on there tax bill, it also stated that every home would have a “Senior Tax Lien” on their home until the bonds issued are paid off (up to 2044/45). Our issue is that our home would have this tax lien and our neighbor will not. When we decide to sell our home, the individual who buys it, assumes the tax lien. Our neighbor, would potentially get to sell his home free of this lien.
The other issue we have is that time and time again, we asked if we could payoff the Mello-Roos up front and possibly roll it into our loan. The sales force said this is not an option. The rumor mill has heard rumblings of Pardee giving buyers this option. If this is the case, then I have a “LOST OPPORTUNITY” compared to a new buyer. If you polled the current homeowners, I can gurantee that all but a few would have considered the option to either pay this tax in full or roll it into our loan. Let me repeat myself, I am not opposed to paying this tax assessment, however I was told by Pardee everyone in the community would be subject to the same assessment. Pardee needs to make a decision… is our community a Mello-Roos Community or not.
I wanted to make a quick comment to Perrychase. In the news article, the reference of $150k is in regards to total cost of Mello-Roos payments over the life of the term. This is actualy incorrect, the figure is closer to $200k. If the Net Present Value of this cashflow was calculated today, the figure is more like $75k-$85k depending on home size. Myself and current homeowners will be the first people to say that when Pardee started giving new homeowners free home upgrades, backyards, computers or whatever we did not have a single issue with this. I am happy these people were able to negotiate and get a good deal. If PardeeWhen Pardee started to tamper with the Mello-Roos, the sales force specifically told us, what we do for one, we would do for everybody.
Here is an example of what a builder that “did the right thing”. William Lyon Homes is a development less than a 1/2 mile away. The homes are in comparible size to Paree’s, they are priced approx $70k to$85k higher, however they do not have a Mello-Roos. At the beginning of the year William Lyon Homes slashed prices by approx. $75k accross the board. They went back to their 1st Phase Homebuyers and gave them money back. This is something that they did not have to do, but “did the right thing”? Pardee’s direct response to the price cut is the “no Mello-Roos” offer… approx. worth $75K.
Also, the reference to “picketing” the sales office is misleading. We are not telling people to not purchase a home or this is not a desirable community. We are simply trying to educate people about how Pardee misinformed us and failed to disclose specific information.
I’ll keep you posted, we plan to educate more buyers this weekend.
