Live Oak Reserve by Engle - advice needed (Brandon, Oviedo: HOA fees, buying a home)

[oldstarfish]

We're hunting for a new home around UCF area. By far we've pinned on Live Oak Reserve by Engle in Oviedo. The community is nice and it's close to work. The price is steep, but hopefully we can bargain on that.

I'm just wondering if somebody here can provide info on Engle's building quality, customer service, or anything related to the living experience in Live Oak Reserve.

Thank you so very much for your input. I really appreciate it.

[Hiawassee Heaven]

I live across the street in the Sanctuary, I have no expierence with Engle but the community is nice and I have heard of no complaints from anyone living there and no bad press. Hopefully someone who lives there will chime in.

[Mike409]

We were looking in there back in 2003/04. Prices were very reasonable, great in fact. We had to put a hold on buying a home for a year. Prices went through the roof and we were priced out of the community. However, I'm a bit of a research nut and back in 2003/04 I'd have absolutely no problem buying an Engle home. I found VERY little complaints about Engle homes. We really loved Live Oak Reserve. In fact, I persuaded a friend and his family to make the purchase back in 2003. They still love the house and community today!

We ended up buying in Kingsbridge West. I would also highly recommend that community. However, they don't have a pool. But Kingsbridges' HOA fees were A LOT less then Live Oak Reserve. Anyhow, we ended up moving from Florida to NC on another job transfer.

Good luck to you.

[pianogal]

We, too, looked in that community but found the prices a little high at the time and the area a little remote for us - I work downtown.

I have one other problem with the Engle homes and it's just a personal thing with me. They use the same floorplans in all their communities all over Central Florida and they use them for years! Sometimes they change the name but the elevation and floor plan give it away. One of my friends built their Palm Beach (6 bedroom 4 bath) model years ago. The last I check (last year) they were still building the exact same elevation/floor plan only calling it something different. My friend has been in her home at least 8 -10 years!

The problem is that you see your home all over town. Perhaps that doesn't bother some people, but it bothers me. The home we ended up with was built 7 times by the builder (in Lake Hart and Stoneybrook West) and then the plan discontinued So, I don't see it everywhere.

However, Live Oak is a lovely community and I would have no problems buying there without the above restrictions/issues.

[oldstarfish]

Thank you so much for all your comments and offers. We've made up our minds. We'll go reserve the lot this weekend and build from scratch. Hope we'd be able to bargain with them. It is said it the builder will be vey stiff with the price if we are not buying an inventory home. May good luck be in favor of us.

[GregTraub]

On occasion you'll get a builder in a neighborhood that won't budge on "custom" homes. But it is still possible. In either case they still offer Agents commissions....commissions I use as my guarantee that you get discounts

Good luck and enjoy the new home!

[rholborn]

You can definately get a deal, but with a realtor which is free to represent the buyers, most of the time you can get more for your money. Congratulations on your decision, and i hope you enjoy your new home for years to come!

[kmgoodwin50]

Hi...this is the first time I've read this board, buy my hubby and I signed a purchase agreement in Live Oak ourselves the last weekend in August. We might be neighboors! We are going to be in Hawthorne Reserve. Picked the Monterey model.

We really hate the idea of moving as we love the community where we are now (south of Brandon), but hubby has WAY too far to drive to work everyday. It would be nice to "know" a neighboor before we get there.

[oldstarfish]

Hey, nice to meet you neighbor.

We've just finished our final rewrite for our Providence, which is a floor plan available only since last month. Engle Homes will phase out the old plans and replace them with so called "value engineered plans". Compare to the old ones, the new ones have lower prices, better layouts, but with lower ceiling heights (9'4) and floating slab foundations. I'd rather use the term "cost-reduction versions".

[backtofla]

"You Should Of Bought In The Sanctuary At Least Theres 800 Thousand Dollar Homes There The Most Expensive In Live Oak Is 5 And Change"


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