Retiring and considering Carmichael, Fair Oaks or Orangevale. Good/Bad Idea? (Sacramento: motel, house)

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by LoriBee62

Honestly, we are pretty much open to anywhere in or around Sacramento. I'd just like an established neighborhood (I'm tired of waiting for trees to grow), single-story with a pool and some sort of charm. I would love to find in the price range of the high 200's, and are willing to do some updating of the home to get it. But really, we could go up to the low 400's if we had to.

It's going to be really hard to find something decent for 200k. Perhaps now that the hot summer buying time is cooling off, perhaps sellers will be willing to negotiate more.

Based on your desires, I think you are looking in the right neighborhoods. You may want to expand your search into the older area of Folsom or even Roseville. In Roseville, it would be the old downtown area near Royer Park. And in Folsom, it would be Willow Creek, or the historic district. Or perhaps even American River Canyon.

It sounds to me that you & 2sleepy are looking for similar neighborhoods/homes.

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

it seems that new homes in the Sacramento area come on postage stamp sized lots and lack privacy with neighbors windows directly across from yours. we have looked at so many houses and really haven't found many we like. So many of the 350K and under older homes with large yards are just nasty inside and have had few or no renovations in the past 60 years or have insanely small master bedrooms.
It certainly has been a learning experience though, I found out that the parts of a house that are not photographed for the listing are usually so gross that if posted pictures no one would look at the house. "Add your own touches" means that the house will require at least as much $ in repairs as it costs, and "perfect for the first time homeowner" means it is either infested with fleas and roaches or it is practically falling off of it's foundation, and same owner for 40 plus years means that it has wallpaper, linoleum and the cupboards are falling off of the walls

I agree with you. I had to compromise on my newer used house. I just could not find anything that I loved 100%. The builders up here stink for the standard track home with really poor use of space. Today I drove by the latest Elliot homes in Folsom, the ones that are supposed to better than mine, but boy are they ugly. Obviously they had to cut costs, so there is less stone work on the front, and the lots have a postage stamp yard. And even worse, this neighborhood has 2 schools nearby with all the associated crazy traffic. I was there mistakenly as school was ending for the day. Ugg.

It's even worse down in Sacramento (Carmichael, Citrus Heights, etc). I do like Roseville & Lincoln, but it's just too far away for me. I do have peers who commute from Lincoln to EDH. I can't even imagine doing that.

[LoriBee62]

Oh, I've got my fingers crossed you get the house. Yes I can imagine how small a motel room can get! I hope your search is over soon.

But LOL on the photographs. You are so right. My favorite is when the realtor photographs the furniture instead of the room. Or they take an "artsy" shot of a rose bush, but never show you the actual back yard.

[LoriBee62]

Caligirlz, I found out today that the three coworkers of mine who just retired to the area moved to Roseville and Lincoln. I keep hearing nice things about the area.

[HDL]

Not sure where your 3 coworkers went, but most of the folks that I know that retired from the Bay Area moved to Sun City Lincoln or Sun City Roseville. Both very nice communities and I like them both myself, personally favoring Roseville due to it's closeness to great shopping and restaurants more so than Lincoln.

Originally Posted by LoriBee62

Caligirlz, I found out today that the three coworkers of mine who just retired to the area moved to Roseville and Lincoln. I keep hearing nice things about the area.

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by HDL

Not sure where your 3 coworkers went, but most of the folks that I know that retired from the Bay Area moved to Sun City Lincoln or Sun City Roseville. Both very nice communities and I like them both myself, personally favoring Roseville due to it's closeness to great shopping and restaurants more so than Lincoln.

A bunch of people I work with live at Sun City Lincoln, and they absolutely love it. They were very active before they moved there, and now they love the organized activities...pickle ball is quite popular, along with country western dancing.

[2sleepy]

I would stay in this motel before I would ever buy in an HOA again, I lived in what was supposedly the very best one in Reno for almost 15 years and the HOA nazis made my life hell ($100 fines for brown spots in your lawn in September in a County that restricts watering to 3 days a week)

HOA's have a tendency to keep expanding their grasp on residents, passing ever more new restrictions and rules - the latest one right before I moved was a restriction on how many hours your garbage can could be in front of your house due to the threat of bears getting in to it- the option was to buy a $250 garbage can and pay the garbage company an additional $7 a week to pick up the bear proof can & there is NO evidence that a bear ever got into a trash can in that community in 30 years It's enough to make a person crazy. A guy who lived down the street from me could not park his RV in front of his house long enough to load his stuff in it to go on vacation and they were considering a new law restricting residents to two pets of any type, so you could have a parakeet and a dog but not two dogs and a hamster.

[hd4me]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I would stay in this motel before I would ever buy in an HOA again, I lived in what was supposedly the very best one in Reno for almost 15 years and the HOA nazis made my life hell ($100 fines for brown spots in your lawn in September in a County that restricts watering to 3 days a week)

HOA's have a tendency to keep expanding their grasp on residents, passing ever more new restrictions and rules - the latest one right before I moved was a restriction on how many hours your garbage can could be in front of your house due to the threat of bears getting in to it- the option was to buy a $250 garbage can and pay the garbage company an additional $7 a week to pick up the bear proof can & there is NO evidence that a bear ever got into a trash can in that community in 30 years It's enough to make a person crazy. A guy who lived down the street from me could not park his RV in front of his house long enough to load his stuff in it to go on vacation and they were considering a new law restricting residents to two pets of any type, so you could have a parakeet and a dog but not two dogs and a hamster.

In contrast, I like our HOA. One drive through much of unincorporated Sac County will provide a reason why HOAs exist. For example, take a drive just north of Highway 50 on Hazel Avenue and see what happens to Fair Oaks and Orangevale...dang... same with Carmichael as you drive further away from the wealthier parts near Watt. Also, you can have some really gnarly looking homes next to homes that exude pride of ownership. It would drive me nuts living next to some dump. Now drive through Gold River, Serrano, Anatolia, Mather which are some HOA communities in the area...not bad at all. But, to each his own.

[2sleepy]

[quote=hd4me;36433092]In contrast, I like our HOA. /QUOTE]

I'm honestly glad that you like your HOA, they serve a purpose that's for sure, but unfortunately too many of them are just out of control

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by hd4me

In contrast, I like our HOA. One drive through much of unincorporated Sac County will provide a reason why HOAs exist. For example, take a drive just north of Highway 50 on Hazel Avenue and see what happens to Fair Oaks and Orangevale...dang... same with Carmichael as you drive further away from the wealthier parts near Watt. Also, you can have some really gnarly looking homes next to homes that exude pride of ownership. It would drive me nuts living next to some dump. Now drive through Gold River, Serrano, Anatolia, Mather which are some HOA communities in the area...not bad at all. But, to each his own.

I wish I had bought into an HOA!
There are slobs in every "location", and for the first time ever, I live in a highly desired location, and the slob lives across the street from me. At least their house isn't purple. I did see a puke brown/baby diarrhea colored house further back in the neighborhood, so I guess, at least, my slob has some style.

[LoriBee62]

We "had" a nice street until the real estate bubble burst, prices got really cheap and it cracked the door open for a couple of lowlifes to move in. They grow pot in their garage, allegedly, and paint "Merry F'cking Christmas" on their windows during the holidays. They're into motorcycles, love to do wheelies up and down the street even though kids play in the court. The guy was replacing the axle on his truck and decided to leave it on the street while he did it. He got ticketed because the city doesn't allow inoperable cars on the streets. So after he moved it to his driveway, he took blue painters tape and wrote "****" in big letters on his windshield, apparently in protest to the cops. In the meantime, the house next door was up for sale. Do you think a nice family bought it with that obscenity next door? No, it was bought by an investor and was turned into a frat house (we're adjacent from Sonoma State).

It seriously only takes one horrible house to destroy an entire street. It's like a domino effect. Our property values have been restored, kids like these couldn't afford to buy here anymore, but the damage is done now. They're one reason we're thinking about paying the house off and getting out as soon as my job doesn't tie me to the area anymore.

I've lived in HOA neighborhoods before, and do understand the Nazi effect. My husband is like you, 2Sleepy, he says never again. But not having one puts the pressure on a person to make sure they buy in a neighborhood upscale enough that it stays nice on it's own. Our last house was only 5 blocks from this one, all the homes were in the $600K range. No HOA and no problems to speak of.

On the lighter side, HDL, yes, one of my coworkers who moved to Lincoln moved to Sun City, I believe. She LOVES it. The other two who bought in Roseville bought new construction but not in a 55+ community. The more we talk to people, the more we keep getting pointed to Lincoln/Roseville/Rocklin. But we've been "walking the neighborhoods" in Carmichael using Google, and everything I've seen so far looks really clean. Last night, we were looking at the Winding Way, Rampart Drive area. Didn't see one junker car sitting on anyone's lawn. What is really important to me is a large lot (7500+) and single story homes. I hated our $600K house because it was on postage stamps, all the homes were 2 story and there was no privacy. What good is a home with 32 windows when all of them stare at the house next door?