Noble's Pond (live, pool, housing market)

[christina0001]

Threads merged due to being same topic.

[JamesfromVA]

We are looking for retirement home away from the hubub of DC so have visited several 55+ communities locally and further South.

Just received a postcard type invitation from sales team bragging about homes as low as 178,995 with tease of Cruise and 5 grand. lol

We want a retirement home not a Cruise but it did sound interesting. But, it is a long drive from here to there so a bit of quick information would be very helpful.

I read about the leasing business in this and several other threads and that is all new to us. We have been looking at Khov's 4 Seasons which are much higher priced but include the land.

We see the advantage of leasing to drop the total costs needed to buy in.

Some questions leap out though. If you are currently living there now please advise.
What is the current annual lease cost ranging at?
What was the price when you moved in and how long you been there?
How does a buyer have equity they can retain for future sale or to pass along to heirs with the lease option? Can we pass the house along to heirs so they can sell or move in?
Someone else asked a while back here for some average costs for insurance, utilities and such. But, I could not find any responses. I would sure appreciate some kind of ballpark numbers.
Can we garden in our yard or are there restriction from such? Several communities we have seen restrict to very small gardening more on scale with regular landscaping.
Is a small koi possible as we love our fish and spend some time in yard regularly now. Great pasttime?
Obviously we have many more questions but we need to get over the first ones above about just what we are buying and what can we consider it to be worth down the road?
The leasing thing is a biggie for us.

Thanks. We are looking forward to considering Deleware area for retirement. One sure does not want to retire in metro DC area!

[maryCh]

Hi JamesfromVA,

First, let me welcome you to the DE forum! And I will say, I know what you mean about not wanting to retire in the metro DC area! I grew up in Va Beach, and "northern VA" was pretty hectic even then. Great place to visit and explore, but I don't see the average person wanting to continue that pace of life in retirement.

I know you asked for someone who actually lives at Nobles Pond to respond, but you may not get any replies on that one. Several people who have posted here have looked at Nobles Pond, among other 55+ communities, but looking is as far as I recall reading about.

As far as the specific things you mentioned, I would suggest you try to get a copy of the current community by-laws from the developer or sales office. This is not an uncommon request, and either party should be forthcoming in providing you the documentation. I for one would recommend this, regardless of the community. My experience has been the by-laws in ANY community are VERY detailed, and specific. You should get a lot of your answers that way. Plus, knowledge is power, and you and your wife will be better informed upfront about ANY neighborhood you consider. Granted, by-laws are always subject to change, but you'll at least know the bulk of the "rules and regs" prior to making a final decision.

I wish you luck; from what I've read, more and more neighborhoods are going toward the association type structure. As with anything, there are good AND bad sides to that... I'm sure you know that! Keep posting, and asking questions, and hopefully, you'll get some other responses from the folks who have actually toured Nobles Pond.

Take care! Mary

[SerenityWriter]

JamesfromVA asked some pointed questions about Nobles Pond and didn't seem to get any specific answers, so I thought I would post similar questions and see if there any answers now.

My wife and I (both mid-fifties) want to move to a 55+ community soon for all the usual reasons: get away from teenagers, loud neighbors, have lawn service and snow removal, etc. We have looked for three years from SC north to MD (where we live) and further north to DE, PA, and NJ. We do not want a golf course, so the majority of SC and NC communities are out. MD communities are too expensive, as are VA communities. PA communities are nice, but tend to be near older run-down towns which do not interest us. We love KHov's 4-Seasons communities, particularly Weatherby in southern NJ and the prices have been great there recently. The taxes are outrageous, though. We have looked at many DE communities, both land-lease and land-owned (for lack of a better term). Champions Club in Magnolia may end up being a great community, but they have only built about 30 homes in the almost three years since we first looked at it. That makes us wonder if it will ever be finished.

We're trying to buy this spring (2009) and would like to close on an existing home while still employed. That limits us to spec-built homes or those homes ordered and then not closed on by the buyers.

Nobles Pond has a couple of such homes. This community never crossed our radar until a couple of weeks ago -- just missed this one somehow. Nobles Pond seems very expensive for a land-lease community. We've looked at other manufactured housing communities in DE that are well below the house prices at Nobles Pond.

Are the homes at Nobles Pond just fancy double and triple-wides or are they modular homes?
What are the monthly land-lease fees and how often do they change? I ask this because we looked at one community in DE that had a mandatory 5% increase per year with one "catch-up" increase of the owner's choice during the 12 year lease.
How much of the community is built out?

And, if you live there, do you enjoy it? I have seen one community in DE that looked nice, but found an alternative homeowner's association website that made it clear the homeowners were virtually at war with the developer. I don't want to get into that kind of a situation.

Thanks and regards, Frank

[SerenityWriter]

For Elizamary: tried to respond to your direct message, but the server said you didn't accept direct messages. Anyway, this is what I said:

Thanks for that information. I did look at Southern Meadows once before, but just at the website. We've been in Magnolia twice to look at Champions Club, so we know a little about the area. I think McKee is a great builder and we've actually looked at three of their communities, but they are moving very slowly with Champions Club and I am concerned if they have to abandon it. Even if they stick with it, we'd be surrounded by building for years on end.

I'm waiting to hear back from Nobles Pond with answers to a number of questions I asked them. After three years of looking, I tend to think we know what to ask. At least, we know what is important for us.



I don't like land-lease, but I realize it is a fact of life in DE, so I have not ruled it out. We've looked at several such communities including Pots-Net and Barclay Farms just to name two whose names I can remember.


Just for the heck of it, we drove into a traditional site-built community called Legacy at Odessa on Sunday while driving back from NJ. Nice homes, but more than we can afford. One glaring problem, though, with that community. The houses are so close to the street that many driveways are as short as 10 feet from the garage door to the sidewalk; some driveways are less than 8 feet. Even short cars were parked so that the front end was up against the door and the back end was over the sidewalk. In a couple of driveways, pickups were parked so that the back end was out in the street.It made it completely impossible to walk on the sidewalks and we want to be able to walk in whatever community we decide on. Some of the pictures of Southern Meadow show some short driveways, too.


I notice the standard features for Southern Meadows include a gas range. Do you know if there is an option for an electric range? We do not want a gas range and actually turned down a community in VA where they would not put in an electric range.

Again, thanks for your information. We may drive back down your way sometime and take a look.


Frank

[from PA]

Have you looked into Hov 's community at Roesville? I know of several couples who have an interest in this community. It is in the area you are looking and you own the ground. They are in Felton, DE.

[maryCh]

Hi Frank,

While we are not in a 55+ community, we have a few friends (as do my parents, who are also here in DE) who do live in various 55+ neighborhoods in the "greater Dover" area. I have heard a lot of positive things about Roesville, both here in City-Data and elsewhere. We have driven past the development several times, and it looks like it is coming along nicely.

I believe there is a website, and Felton is not far south of Dover and all the conveniences located there. I'd have to agree with from PA... this one might well be worth your checking out. Good luck... I am sure this is not an easy venture to undertake!

Mary

[Charley]

Originally Posted by maryCh

Hi Frank,

While we are not in a 55+ community, we have a few friends (as do my parents, who are also here in DE) who do live in various 55+ neighborhoods in the "greater Dover" area. I have heard a lot of positive things about Roesville, both here in City-Data and elsewhere. We have driven past the development several times, and it looks like it is coming along nicely.

I believe there is a website, and Felton is not far south of Dover and all the conveniences located there. I'd have to agree with from PA... this one might well be worth your checking out. Good luck... I am sure this is not an easy venture to undertake!

Mary

I agree with Mary. Roesville has much going for it. The website she mentioned can be found at

The rather long webpage title suggests New Jersey only because there is where the builder is located. Roesville is their first project in Delaware.

[MPBsr]

We looked at Nobles Pond over 2 years ago.

While some of the homes were big, (maybe to big), the land leases started around $400 and could go up 4.5% per year.

[BettyM]

Originally Posted by McMolly

Elizamary, thanks again for being so helpful. I'm sure my friends will look around, but Noble's Pond just seemed a good fit for them and sometimes you just know. Besides, my friend walked into the Gladwynne and fell in love. I'm sure particularly the women know what that's all about!!! She wanted that open feel from kitchen to living area.

Charley, I couldn't leave there without grabbing a brochure so I just took a look at the Berkshire. I love the porch, the one thing missing on the Gladwynne.

One thing I thought was terrific was they let them put a deposit on a future section (not a future phase ... just a section in the current phase). I've never seen that happen before. But my friends won't be ready to move for about a year and a half so the current sections would be built too soon. So they put down a deposit on a lot which will give them first refusal. Hopefully when they're ready to buy they'll have another offer of options (like the $10,000 they have now) as well as the contingency plan they're offering now. That's a protection that's really important especially in these times.

As hard as it would be to have to give up the house you had dreamed of, at least you wouldn't lose your hard earned deposit.

Hi. My husband and I have looked around in the Dover area for awhile and are going down to Nobles Pond next week to for the first time. We do know about the upgrade incentives they offer from time to time, but I was interested to know about the "contingency plan" you mentioned they've offered in the past. It is one of our concerns in this economy about what would happen if the project didn't get completed. We were already told the pool wouldn't be built until 100 homes go in.