Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
First off new to the forum and from what I have seen looks like a great place for info.
Anyway the wife and I are relocating to Las Vegas, she is there now I will join her in June or so. We are looking into buying a home in the northwest part of town. Mostly half acre sites that are on well water and propane. This is where my questions come in.
First off a little backround. We have been looking at 4500-5000sq ft homes. All have been on propane and well water. We will have 4 of us living in the home, wife, myself, and two older children 18 and 21. The houses are for the most part all propane appliances. Heating, cooking, dryer etc. What is an average use amount in the area? Not looking to get real specific just trying to get a feel for what we will be facing in terms os cost.
Also we have seen a Well Water fee on some of the paperwork but not a dollar amount? have been unable to find anything out there on this. Our agent is looking into it as well but thought I might ask here as well. Any ideas what we are looking at here?
Lastly any words of wisdom on relocating to Las vegas? We have visited frequently both the strip and with friends who live in Henderson. We are excited but also quite anxious about the move, have heard a lot of things that we are concerned about.
First off new to the forum and from what I have seen looks like a great place for info.
Anyway the wife and I are relocating to Las Vegas, she is there now I will join her in June or so. We are looking into buying a home in the northwest part of town. Mostly half acre sites that are on well water and propane. This is where my questions come in.
First off a little background. We have been looking at 4500-5000sq ft homes. All have been on propane and well water. We will have 4 of us living in the home, wife, myself, and two older children 18 and 21. The houses are for the most part all propane appliances. Heating, cooking, dryer etc. What is an average use amount in the area? Not looking to get real specific just trying to get a feel for what we will be facing in terms of cost.
Also we have seen a Well Water fee on some of the paperwork but not a dollar amount? have been unable to find anything out there on this. Our agent is looking into it as well but thought I might ask here as well. Any ideas what we are looking at here?
Lastly any words of wisdom on relocating to Las Vargas? We have visited frequently both the strip and with friends who live in Henderson. We are excited but also quite anxious about the move, have heard a lot of things that we are concerned about.
Thanks in advance for any replies.
It will be interesting to see if you find very many people here that don't have city/county utilities. There are still homes on wells scattered about, but that size home, AND using propane? There was a bit of controversy a while back concerning this. There were some meetings going on about the fees and hooking up the the Vegas Valley Water District lines. As I recall, it was found that it would be cheaper (and probably better water quality) for people to hook up to the water utility than to pay whatever fees there are, and maintain a well, but the people on wells still didn't want to give them up.
So you have heard "a lot of things" that concern you? Well, we locals hear a lot of things too, and 99% of them turn out to be total BS imagined by non residents. What exactly have you heard that maybe we can dispell?
I looked at buying a property using propane and from my research, it looks like it would be very pricey compared to either electric or natural gas, especially in that size range.
Just to give you an idea, our 2000sf house on natural gas costs $60 per month when averaged out over the year. Propane last I checked was running around $3.30 per gallon which is .92 therms per gallon of propane. We pay around .80 per therm of natural gas currently. So if I used exactly the same amount of natural gas our bill would be around $224 a month.
I'd ask the neighbors and get a feel for their bills. Some of the heaters are dual fuel so you can run either propane or electric, but I could easily see a $400 a month propane bill on those size homes unless you simply don't run the heater.
Thanks for the replies so far. $400 a month seems like a very large amount to me. We called around and the consensus was 60-70 gallons a month. But we dont know. As for asking neighbors wish I could. The couple of homes we are interested in have no close neighbors, just forclosed homes. We also tried to find the supplier that was filling the tank at the house and no luck. It has been empty for 8 months, we did not call everyone obviously but tried 5 and no luck.
As for the things we heard. Your typical high crime rates, auto theft, burglary and assaults. The wife has also heard the same from co workers as well. Primary schools are not an issue as our youngest is graduating this year. She will be attending a local community college until she can decide what she wants to do. Our son is coming becuase it's Vegas and he has some pie in the sky ideal of what it will be like. He is 21..
Thanks for the replies so far. $400 a month seems like a very large amount to me. We called around and the consensus was 60-70 gallons a month. But we dont know. As for asking neighbors wish I could. The couple of homes we are interested in have no close neighbors, just forclosed homes. We also tried to find the supplier that was filling the tank at the house and no luck. It has been empty for 8 months, we did not call everyone obviously but tried 5 and no luck.
As for the things we heard. Your typical high crime rates, auto theft, burglary and assaults. The wife has also heard the same from co workers as well. Primary schools are not an issue as our youngest is graduating this year. She will be attending a local community college until she can decide what she wants to do. Our son is coming becuase it's Vegas and he has some pie in the sky ideal of what it will be like. He is 21..
Metro actually announced that all violent crimes as well as auto theft have declined quite a bit. Oddly though, rapes are on the rise according to them. Not much to worry about though as most rapes occur from someone you know not a guy jumping out of the bushes.
Thanks for the replies so far. $400 a month seems like a very large amount to me. We called around and the consensus was 60-70 gallons a month. But we dont know. As for asking neighbors wish I could. The couple of homes we are interested in have no close neighbors, just forclosed homes. We also tried to find the supplier that was filling the tank at the house and no luck. It has been empty for 8 months, we did not call everyone obviously but tried 5 and no luck.
As for the things we heard. Your typical high crime rates, auto theft, burglary and assaults. The wife has also heard the same from co workers as well. Primary schools are not an issue as our youngest is graduating this year. She will be attending a local community college until she can decide what she wants to do. Our son is coming becuase it's Vegas and he has some pie in the sky ideal of what it will be like. He is 21..
Look closely at the tank if it is there. The tanks are mostly owned by the gas distributor...so it is generally marked on the tank around the fill valves.
Propane is expensive. Generally more so than heat pump electric. There is one good use for propane which is pool heating. The rationale is that you can heat the spa in a half hour or so for winter use. Can't do that with electric.
Other than that it 15 or 20% cheaper to go electric. My home is all electric and that is actually more common in the NW half acres. Propane is relatively rare except on pool homes. The insulation of the home is the biggest variable. You want good windows and 2x6 construction with heavy insulation.
Well water is generally cheaper and better than the water purveyors. Particularly on larger properties like half acres and up. Note this is a generality that is true through most of the NW...it is not true everywhere however. A true private well requires over an acre. Most of the half acres are community wells with from 4 to 15 users. General cost is about $50 per month or so which covers both the operating cost and the large repair costs when they need to be worked on. It gets more expensive as you get closer to the mountains as the depth of the well increases as you go up the hill.
Also pay attention to the septic system. It should be pumped and inspected on any purchase. You can get it certified by the Health Dept though they actually don't do much other then look at it after walking through the leech field.
An agent selling these homes should know all this...
The NW has very low crime. Second only to Sun City. You almost always find crime along arterials and commercial areas. Those are rare in the half acres.
60-70 gallons a month is around 60 therms per month. That sounds reasonable (or a bit high) if you using propane water heater, gas stove, and gas dryer. I can't see how you could remotely get there if you're using propane heat. Last month our 2000sf house with all gas appliances, including gas heat, used 168 therms and we keep the house pretty much at 70 degrees all the time during the winter.
I've looked at a homes on propane since I prefer custom home communities and ultimately decided anything with propane would be ruled out unless it was cost effective to switch it out to electric heat. I don't see propane cost going anywhere but up since it's production is related to gasoline.
I don't know if your heart is set on the NW, but Henderson has several non-master planned, non-hoa custom home areas with 1/2+ ac lots with natural gas, sewer, and wired cable tv. Many of the homes in section 9, 27, and 33 meet that criteria.
60-70 gallons a month is around 60 therms per month. That sounds reasonable (or a bit high) if you using propane water heater, gas stove, and gas dryer. I can't see how you could remotely get there if you're using propane heat. Last month our 2000sf house with all gas appliances, including gas heat, used 168 therms and we keep the house pretty much at 70 degrees all the time during the winter.
I've looked at a homes on propane since I prefer custom home communities and ultimately decided anything with propane would be ruled out unless it was cost effective to switch it out to electric heat. I don't see propane cost going anywhere but up since it's production is related to gasoline.
I don't know if your heart is set on the NW, but Henderson has several non-master planned, non-hoa custom home areas with 1/2+ ac lots with natural gas, sewer, and wired cable tv. Many of the homes in section 9, 27, and 33 meet that criteria.
None of the quality of the NW. Nobody else got organized early enough to do a good job protecting the area except Lone Mountain.
There are lots of places with water and sewers in the NW. That generally is considered inferior to a well and septic. It is rare in the higher places...you give up services as you get higher.
Natural gas is nice though. Actually it is across a diagonal from my home and they just won''t extend it across the intersection...damn. Something over 10K to connect which basically becomes free if they cross the intersection. Got sewers in the street next to our property as well. Still insanely expensive to hook up. Cable is pretty standard though there are places in all quadrants where the developer did not let them in. Big bill to add now.
Thanks fpr the replies so far. I really appreciate the input. Our real estate agent has been, well not the best resource of information so far.
I think we have pretty much decided on the northwest part of town at this point. We did call about gas and were told something in the range of $14K at this point. We will look into heat pumps if need be. One of our big goals is to avoid HOA's all together for many reasons. We have a few toys and my hobby sometimes can not set well with neighbors. So staying "rural" and out of HOA's is a big concern. Plus I hate the idea of paying someone money so they can tell me what I can and cannot do on my own property.
Thanks fpr the replies so far. I really appreciate the input. Our real estate agent has been, well not the best resource of information so far.
I think we have pretty much decided on the northwest part of town at this point. We did call about gas and were told something in the range of $14K at this point. We will look into heat pumps if need be. One of our big goals is to avoid HOA's all together for many reasons. We have a few toys and my hobby sometimes can not set well with neighbors. So staying "rural" and out of HOA's is a big concern. Plus I hate the idea of paying someone money so they can tell me what I can and cannot do on my own property.
Make sure you pay attention to the documents recorded against the property. You sometimes find HOAs hidden in well agreements and CC&Rs that are as restrictive as a full blown HOA.
It should however all appear in the initlal title search.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
