That was the big part of getting my Mello Roos taxes pre-paid off. As well, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are too many people starting to pay them off if they ban the pre-payment in the future. The thing with these types of things is you just never know.
A few years from now I wouldn’t be surprised if they quietly stop accepting pre-payments on Mello Roos taxes. And the pay off dates conveniently get extended out further into the future. In such a scenario, the people that have paid them off already will be laughing all the way to the bank.[/quote]
Totally agree with this. Very smart of you to pay off the Mello-Roos on your property; the fact that you plan to hold it for the long-term makes it a no-brainer.
What’s odd to me is that more people don’t grasp how valuable pre-paid Mello-Roos are when they look at houses. I would definitely pay more for a house where these bonds are permanently paid off, but have seen some people totally not grasp the value of this.
Also concur about people who want all kinds of high-quality public goods and services, but complain about having to pay for it. There is no public infrastructure fairly, no matter how badly people would like to believe in one. All too often, though, when the private sector and public money intersect, there is often a lot of fraud and abuse, and it seems especially bad where real estate and development are concerned.[/quote]
Hi CAR. I do think people are starting to realize how valuable a pre-paid off Mello Roos is. We have received SEVERAL unsolicited offers to purchase our home from private individuals. They were via letters in the mail from actual individuals. And they did research that we paid off our Mello Roos and were willing to more than compensate us for paying it off.
I just think that the actual % of people paying it off is so very low that most people never come across a home with a pre-paid off Mello Roos. I don’t think many people even know that is a possibility. I was having dinner the other night with a certified financial planner here in San Diego and he lives here in a Mello Roos area. I mentioned that I paid mine off and he thought I was kidding at first.
He had no clue that you could pay this off. I figure if a guy like that doesn’t know then the majority out there have NO clue you can pay it off ahead of time. And the PUSD likes that just fine that way.
I’d be curious how many times you SD real estate pros come across a paid off Mello Roos. How often do you come across properties like this?
I do believe that anyone paying off a Mello Roos that lives in a desirable area in this kind of market will EASILY get more than reimbursed for all pre payments they might have made. I don’t know how easily it would be in a bear market but I don’t foresee the real estate market getting ANYWHERE near the levels it got at the depths of the lows.
We are polite with the people that send the letters and I’ve taken the time to answer them back. I have a feeling some are pouncing on other properties as some properties in my neighborhood have went into escrow within a few HOURS of being listed. Others just a few short days.
I think this entire matter of people prepaying off their Mello Roos is so very small. I looked at a ton of houses in San Diego over the course of a few years and I would always look up on the Tax Assessor’s website and I never once came across anyone that had pre-paid off their Mello Roos.
And I TOTALLY agree with you that there is so much potential for fraud and abuse when the private sector meets public money. So very true.
[quote=ocrenter]
Problem ultimately is there is zero accountability. So what if a hospital went over budget by 1/2 billion? Pay is not reduced, no one got fired, you don’t even hear any investigations or news articles on this major mishandling of public funds. On the other hand, let’s say the administrators did complete the hospital on time and on budget, there’s zero reward for that type of accomplishment either. End result is projects run into problems, we’ll just throw more money at the problem because it really is just other people’s money.[/quote]
ABSOLUTELY agree! This happens all the time like this. There is NO incentive typically for people to do things the right way. Especially with OUR taxpayer dollars.
Unfortunately I don’t think too much will change in the future until taxpayers as a collective group DEMAND changes with the way things are done. The only good thing about this PUSD Capital Appreciation Bonds issue is taxpayers seem to be more aware of things.
