Hey fat_lazy (no offense!) – you might be right – when you suggest that a 600K in Chula compared to a 800K in Carmel Valley. But what 800K’s are you talking about? There are some (few) 800-1M’s in CV, they are not the typical I was used to. My old neighbor has his home (exact same plan I had) up for 1.8M. He copied our plans (we added a room by putting up a ceiling in a double high master, and we sold our house for 1.4M 3 years ago.
When we redid our kitchen, we found out that the crappy crew in 1992 who had recently learned how to use a nail gun, had put 5 nails into the kitchen trap pipe. When we opened up the cabinets, there was mold everywhere. Luckily we had completely gutted the kitchen (down to the studs – and we replaced those as well), but when you open up a CV home (especially circa early 90’s) – these homes are built like paper-mache.
There have been countless problems with the CV homes, mostly swept under the rug by the homeowners and the Realtors. Luckily they don’t have any realistic requirement to disclose (sure legally they do, but for the 10 hours of training and 100$ fee doesn’t exactly bring a sense of ethical responsibility). Some of the builders in CV went out of business in the last bust, not having completed required landscaping of public areas and fixing of major problems. Leaky pipes, air conditioners which leaked, crooked homes, cracks, etc. these houses were built quickly and with terrible quality – remember, they only cost 300ishK new (including the land!)… Now, supposedly these McMansions on 5-7K of usable land are worth between 1.1 and 1.9M????
I got a real sense of satisfaction moving to a very-high end tract home (oh excuse me ‘production home’) and getting away from the paper thin, listen to your neighbors cough CV home (in supposedly the nicest area of CV by Ashely Falls). I got an even better sense of satisfaction selling my recent home in December… No one is showing up to buy the other houses in the neighborhood… I’m sitting this one out!
