First Coast Homes & Cane Bay (Charleston, Summerville: sales, 2010, credit)

[rhiannon353]

We're currently living on Charleston Air Force base and are looking to buy a house. After much research it looks like our final decision is between Arbor Walk (Ryland Homes) in Summerville and Cane Bay (First Coast Homes). I searched the forum and it appears that some people were having bad experiences with First Coast Homes responding to repair issues last year and I was wondering if anyone could give me an update on how they're doing now, a year later. Are you feeling better or worse about your home purchase? I'm a bit nervous about First Coast Homes as they're new and I can't find any information about them, whereas Ryland has been around a lot longer. The houses are similar, but First Coast Homes includes quite a few things that Ryland considers options so the First Coast house is cheaper and a tad bigger.

Also it appears that there are a number of Cane Bay residents on the forum who seem to like where they live. Would you recommend it over a more central Summerville location like Arbor Walk (near Old Trolley & Bacons Bridge)? It definitely will (eventually) have a lot more amenities than Arbor Walk (which doesn't even have it's own pool or playground) but it's a bit further out & away from my husband's work. And it appears there's still some wait for many of the amenities. I've heard property taxes are higher in Berkeley Co than Dorchester. I'm wondering if utilities would be higher as well and how our overall cost would compare assuming we'd be paying approximately the same amount for each home.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Brandi

[pokrplr]

Hi Brandi - There's a few people who have purchased @ FC in CB, i'm sure they can assist you with there satisfaction. We've heard the reverse on the taxes and maybe someone who's in Dorchester Cty can assist, but Berkeley "they say" is far more LESS expensive. Our property taxes are low, thank goodness! We are in CB on the Centex side, they have been outselling First Coast by about a 3/1 ration. I would check into the ammenities @ FC to see what's coming and when? Our pool/playground went in last summer and is being used by the residents daily. Its really nice now that it has all come together.

Amenities for CaneBay are "suposed" to begin in Jan of 2010, from what they have told us the shopping/grocery stores should be completed in Sept of 10' ... If you need more info, i'm sure a few other will chime in ...

~Good luck

[nomony]

Hey Pokr,

Heading to Yankee Stadium on Saturday,mostly to root against the Phillies. Want some pictures posted or have you already been there?
Haven't been on the boards much lately. Some of the discussions are getting a little nasty. I'll just lurk a bit.
Also have luxury box tickets for Mets/Yankees at CitiField. I'll definitely post some pictures of that for you! I'm pretty excited, first time in a luxury box and probably the last time. Got them from a client for free, the prices are way out of my range.(prices are even crazier at the pinstripes palace!)

[helenah]

I love FirstCoast Homes at Cane Bay! There are ponds, tons of common space and there will be amenities. What I like about FC at Cane Bay is the curb appeal. The houses actually have character and don't look so cookie cutter. They are also energy star so that saves you money on your energy bills. Also, great for resale. As far as the warranty.... I am not aware of any issues. Usually, pretty quick to respond. All request are made online which is really cool. I think they build a great home. Can't wait for the shopping and walking trails. Hope this helps....

[rhiannon353]

Thanks for the info. We've looked at both Centex and FC and I really like the floor plan of the FC over the Centex in the same price range. I love the Charleston Single series of the Centex, but the prices are higher, so we'd get much less house for more money, which I can't really justify. So, between the two similar size/price I like the FC better. I do wish the FC amenities were done though. That's the main reason we're thinking of choosing Cane Bay over the closer/more central Arbor Walk, because they have no plans for an amenity center at all. But the house won't be finished until mid-late Aug, so I guess we'll just have the end of the season without a pool. So, I think we're leaning toward Cane Bay and FC, unless I find a reason to believe that we shouldn't buy from FC, although I've found that most builders have horror stories out there about them...


Brandi

[pokrplr]

Originally Posted by nomony

Hey Pokr,

Heading to Yankee Stadium on Saturday,mostly to root against the Phillies. Want some pictures posted or have you already been there?
Haven't been on the boards much lately. Some of the discussions are getting a little nasty. I'll just lurk a bit.
Also have luxury box tickets for Mets/Yankees at CitiField. I'll definitely post some pictures of that for you! I'm pretty excited, first time in a luxury box and probably the last time. Got them from a client for free, the prices are way out of my range.(prices are even crazier at the pinstripes palace!)

Haven't been to the New stadium yet? Hoping i can escape here this summer and check it out. Yes please post as many pics as you can! i would love to see it. Go bombers

[carolinagirl1]

Originally Posted by rhiannon353

Thanks for the info. We've looked at both Centex and FC and I really like the floor plan of the FC over the Centex in the same price range. I love the Charleston Single series of the Centex, but the prices are higher, so we'd get much less house for more money, which I can't really justify. So, between the two similar size/price I like the FC better. I do wish the FC amenities were done though. That's the main reason we're thinking of choosing Cane Bay over the closer/more central Arbor Walk, because they have no plans for an amenity center at all. But the house won't be finished until mid-late Aug, so I guess we'll just have the end of the season without a pool. So, I think we're leaning toward Cane Bay and FC, unless I find a reason to believe that we shouldn't buy from FC, although I've found that most builders have horror stories out there about them...


Brandi

Hi Brandi,

My husband and I are building with FC and since this is our first home purchase (yay!) I was super paranoid about where we lived, what school district, will my neighbours be crazy people, would the home builder be a nightmare in the making etc etc (We don't have kids yet but a girl has to plan!)

Now I will be frank - Centex looks better as they have 3 or 4 completed subdivisions, and that awesome amenity center. They also have a cool energy timer thingie that allows you to micromanage your energy usage (my husband was sold on Centex because of that gadget lol)

Why did we chose FC?

- Craftman style architechture- either you like it or you don't (hubby likes it). Once you get past the shingles (SHUDDER) its a pretty cool style. It's more colonial rather Charleston-y.

-Floorplan. Now this is my thing- just because Im in the budget for a smaller house, it shouldn't *feel* like it. Now this is just my opinion - the smaller (and Im talking 1800 sq feet) homes felt spacier with FC than Centex. Centex's bigger homes were awesome, but had big home prices.

- Cabinets/kitchen- there were more cabinets and nicer laid out kitchens IMO at FC.

- Incentives- we got a lot of stuff thrown in for their July incentives.

Now we are building at the Villages, is that where you are ? The sales lady said that they were building towards the amenity center which is why they opened up the Villages. Because of the first time home buyer tax credit there are a lot of new houses going up. (You should be finishing up your house around now so I guess you would see that)

Right now we live in the Oakbrook area and it's the promise of the Publix, Harris Teeter, medical facilities etc etc that we are moving to Cane Bay. I am spoiled right now with everything so close (I can walk to the Oakbrook publix).

http://www.seaboardcommercial.com/up...20Sites.ov.pdf

Not sure if that link will work but it has detailed info. Note it mentions a new exit off I-26 which will be awesome !

p.s copy and paste the URL into your browser to get to the page

[MBMcKenna]

We purchased a home in Sanctuary cove in 11/07 and it was finished in June 2008. We have had no problems with the builder, anything that needed to be fixed we did it online and they responded very quickly. This area is a work in progress. We are very happy with our home there and while we still live out of state we look forward to our trips there and to the day when we will be there permanently