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Well, my wife and I have been thinking about putting our home up for sale and moving to a slightly bigger home and several years newer.
There's a lot of reasons why we are looking to move, but I won't bore you with the details.
The problem is that we've found a home we really, really like... but don't really care for the lot location or the location of the development itself. The lot backs up to commercial real estate, namely, a storage facility. The hours of the storage place are from 6am to 8pm.
This new home is a bit farther from the elementary school than our current home... we can walk to school now, and the adjoining park, very easily. That would not be possible with the new home.
The new home has an HOA, but there's no community pool or clubhouse, or anything. It's just like our current home, which we don't like. We really would like to be part of Stonebridge Ranch, but this new development is not. The neighborhood across the street is part of SBR though, but unfortunately we haven't found a home we like in that area.
My main concern is resale. If we decided to purchase this newer home, how much would being located next to a storage facility impact resale? Would most people care about that or not? It may be just a hangup of mine than for most people.
We've thought about just having the home we like built on a lot we like... and we can't justify the cost. It would cost $575k to build the exact same home, same options, on a different lot. The home we are looking at is just 3 years old and selling for $100k less. (Which I think still may be a bit overpriced based on comps and location, but we'll see.)
I'm looking for opinions as to whether we should make an offer or not. We have absolutely no complaints with the home itself, but just not thrilled by location. We're unsure how much weight location should play into this, and whether we should just go for it or not.
If you are bothered, so will others be. My last home had an alley and fast food places behind it. I was desperate when I bought. Turned out to be really quiet after 10 p.m. unlike some friends who had party-central behind them.
What's the view from the back yard? Any Windows face that direction? Some people will see the value but it will never be worth any similar house in a better location.
Have you visited the potential new house at night yet? What is the lighting situation - I would think a storage facility would have some pretty bright lighting for security reasons...you'll want to make sure it's not flooding your backyard or into the back windows of the house. Noise probably isn't a concern but lighting definitely could be.
For me, I would never consider property backing up to commercial. If I ever bought, I would expect to get it at a big discount compared to an interior lot - 25% or more. There is one street in my neighborhood that backs up to something seen as an eyesore/ undesirable and those houses go for about 1/3 less than comp homes on any other street. They also take longer to sell, even in a strong market. The ONLY house in my neighborhood that listed this spring and hasn't sold yet is on that street. The price has already come down about 20%, too.
The final dealbreakers would be losing walkability to school and still not being in the neighborhood you really want. If I remember, you have made many posts over the years about wanting to be in Stonebridge Ranch - and were somewhat duped when you bought your current house as to the amenities that came with it? You can always remodel another house over time, but you can't change the neighborhood or the lot location.
It's a fenced backyard (6ft tall) on top of a 2 ft retaining wall. You can just see the tops of the storage buildings behind it, so the view itself isn't really an eyesore or anything. Putting in an 8 ft fence would probably completely hide the storage facility from view. So far, it's been quiet when we've gone to look at the home, but we've only been there 3 times for about 45 min each time.
Have you visited the potential new house at night yet? What is the lighting situation - I would think a storage facility would have some pretty bright lighting for security reasons...you'll want to make sure it's not flooding your backyard or into the back windows of the house. Noise probably isn't a concern but lighting definitely could be.
For me, I would never consider property backing up to commercial. If I ever bought, I would expect to get it at a big discount compared to an interior lot - 25% or more. There is one street in my neighborhood that backs up to something seen as an eyesore/ undesirable and those houses go for about 1/3 less than comp homes on any other street. They also take longer to sell, even in a strong market. The ONLY house in my neighborhood that listed this spring and hasn't sold yet is on that street. The price has already come down about 20%, too.
The final dealbreakers would be losing walkability to school and still not being in the neighborhood you really want. If I remember, you have made many posts over the years about wanting to be in Stonebridge Ranch - and were somewhat duped when you bought your current house as to the amenities that came with it? You can always remodel another house over time, but you can't change the neighborhood or the lot location.
Good point... we have not visited it at night. However, there are no towering bright lights there, they close at 8pm. They have some lights mounted on the side wall of the buildings as the only lights we could see. Still, we will go check it out at night, that's a good idea.
I tend to think they are listed a bit high. One wrinkle in this is that the seller actually works for the builder... he knows exactly how much it costs to build the exact home new with all the same options. So I think he would be reluctant to come down in price much.
You are correct about how we were duped. It wasn't SBR, but we were led to believe that our home had access to the community pool/clubhouse, and it turned out that we didn't, even though it was on the MLS listing and our realtor also said it was included. So not really looking forward to paying another HOA fee and still getting nothing for it (but since that's what we are currently doing, it's not a knock on the new house, and the yard is big enough to put our own pool in.)
Well, my wife and I have been thinking about putting our home up for sale and moving to a slightly bigger home and several years newer.
There's a lot of reasons why we are looking to move, but I won't bore you with the details.
The problem is that we've found a home we really, really like... but don't really care for the lot location or the location of the development itself. The lot backs up to commercial real estate, namely, a storage facility. The hours of the storage place are from 6am to 8pm.
This new home is a bit farther from the elementary school than our current home... we can walk to school now, and the adjoining park, very easily. That would not be possible with the new home.
The new home has an HOA, but there's no community pool or clubhouse, or anything. It's just like our current home, which we don't like. We really would like to be part of Stonebridge Ranch, but this new development is not. The neighborhood across the street is part of SBR though, but unfortunately we haven't found a home we like in that area.
My main concern is resale. If we decided to purchase this newer home, how much would being located next to a storage facility impact resale? Would most people care about that or not? It may be just a hangup of mine than for most people.
We've thought about just having the home we like built on a lot we like... and we can't justify the cost. It would cost $575k to build the exact same home, same options, on a different lot. The home we are looking at is just 3 years old and selling for $100k less. (Which I think still may be a bit overpriced based on comps and location, but we'll see.)
I'm looking for opinions as to whether we should make an offer or not. We have absolutely no complaints with the home itself, but just not thrilled by location. We're unsure how much weight location should play into this, and whether we should just go for it or not.
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
Location is extremely important. For the reasons you listed, I wouldn't even consider buying that house.
Personally I would never buy a house that backs up to a commercial property or a busy road. I wouldn't even want a house that backs up to a school. Backing up to a storage facility is going to be a problem when you try to sell that house. Most people probably would not want that. Plus, it may not be a storage facility forever. And they may extend their operating hours. Or it could shut down and become a blight.
Some people live in storage facilities. Some people use them to manufacture drugs. You have no idea what kinds of things people are storing in there. Plus, rats LOVE them. Plan for tons of rats, plus a feral cat colony.
Location is extremely important. For the reasons you listed, I wouldn't even consider buying that house.
Personally I would never buy a house that backs up to a commercial property or a busy road. I wouldn't even want a house that backs up to a school. Backing up to a storage facility is going to be a problem when you try to sell that house. Most people probably would not want that. Plus, it may not be a storage facility forever. And they may extend their operating hours. Or it could shut down and become a blight.
Some people live in storage facilities. Some people use them to manufacture drugs. You have no idea what kinds of things people are storing in there. Plus, rats LOVE them. Plan for tons of rats, plus a feral cat colony.
I wouldn't just pass, I'd run screaming.
LOL Well you've given us some worst case scenarios to consider!
The storage facility has an 8 ft wall surrounding it, though there are a few gaps in the wall with a locked iron gate. Then, there's about a 12-15 ft gap between the retaining wall/fence of the house we are looking at and the wall. In this gap, they've planted trees about every 15-20 ft. When they get older and more mature, they should do a good job of blocking any view of the storage buildings. I don't think we'd have to worry about rats too much, but... you never know.
We previously found a great house about 2 months ago, price was excellent, seemed to be in a good area... then brought up a satellite map and the house DIRECTLY faced an elementary school.
LOL Well you've given us some worst case scenarios to consider!
The storage facility has an 8 ft wall surrounding it, though there are a few gaps in the wall with a locked iron gate. Then, there's about a 12-15 ft gap between the retaining wall/fence of the house we are looking at and the wall. In this gap, they've planted trees about every 15-20 ft. When they get older and more mature, they should do a good job of blocking any view of the storage buildings. I don't think we'd have to worry about rats too much, but... you never know.
We previously found a great house about 2 months ago, price was excellent, seemed to be in a good area... then brought up a satellite map and the house DIRECTLY faced an elementary school.
Scratched that one off the list, LOL
Being across the street from an elementary school is FAR more appealing than backing up to commercial. Lots of families with young children like being that close to the school, plus the ability to use the school's field and/or playground after school and on the weekends.
I wouldn't even set foot in a home with a bad location.....as you're finding out, now you're attached to that home and are starting to compromise the real estate basics (location, location, location).
How long are you planning to be in your next house? If it's a forever home, it may be worth it to look into building one exactly the way you want.
Being across the street from an elementary school is FAR more appealing than backing up to commercial. Lots of families with young children like being that close to the school, plus the ability to use the school's field and/or playground after school and on the weekends.
I wouldn't even set foot in a home with a bad location.....as you're finding out, now you're attached to that home and are starting to compromise the real estate basics (location, location, location).
How long are you planning to be in your next house? If it's a forever home, it may be worth it to look into building one exactly the way you want.
Being across from an elementary school can be a nightmare! The long, long lines of mad moms in mini vans doing the pickup and drop off can make exit and entry to your home very upsetting.
Backed up to commercial can be ok or awful. It just depends. I once considered buying a rent house that backed up to a new car dealership. There was a wall behind the house, and an alley and a wall for the dealership lot. Looked ok because that part of the dealership was just a parking lot for inventory cars. But, as usual, I visited the place all times of the day. One afternoon (when it would be usual nap time for small kids and that smaller bedroom faced the dealer lot) I heard a really, really loud grinding noise. It was the delivery of new vehicles being unloaded. This would be a common occurrence and so I passed on the place. Just really important to visit at all times of the day.
Well, my wife and I have been thinking about putting our home up for sale and moving to a slightly bigger home and several years newer.
There's a lot of reasons why we are looking to move, but I won't bore you with the details.
The problem is that we've found a home we really, really like... but don't really care for the lot location or the location of the development itself. The lot backs up to commercial real estate, namely, a storage facility. The hours of the storage place are from 6am to 8pm.
This new home is a bit farther from the elementary school than our current home... we can walk to school now, and the adjoining park, very easily. That would not be possible with the new home.
The new home has an HOA, but there's no community pool or clubhouse, or anything. It's just like our current home, which we don't like. We really would like to be part of Stonebridge Ranch, but this new development is not. The neighborhood across the street is part of SBR though, but unfortunately we haven't found a home we like in that area.
My main concern is resale. If we decided to purchase this newer home, how much would being located next to a storage facility impact resale? Would most people care about that or not? It may be just a hangup of mine than for most people.
We've thought about just having the home we like built on a lot we like... and we can't justify the cost. It would cost $575k to build the exact same home, same options, on a different lot. The home we are looking at is just 3 years old and selling for $100k less. (Which I think still may be a bit overpriced based on comps and location, but we'll see.)
I'm looking for opinions as to whether we should make an offer or not. We have absolutely no complaints with the home itself, but just not thrilled by location. We're unsure how much weight location should play into this, and whether we should just go for it or not.
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
If it bothers you a bit now it will bother you alot later. Better to take money and enlarge your current home or look for something else altogether. It all comes down to location...unless of course you want to be in a position of selling it rock bottom later just to people to bite on price.
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