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Hi everyone. My husband and I are traveling to NC tomorrow to visit three communities:
St James Plantation
Brunswick Forest
Carolina Colours
We are taking advantage of their Discovery packages which will allow us to stay on or near the property. Two nights per property.
I have browsed through the forums quite a bit (thanks to all who post constructive feedback) but I wanted to post something in case anyone had any thoughts to share about these communities or the areas in general. (restaurant recommendations are very much appreciated - we love to eat)
A little about us: We are DINKS (dual income; no kids) living in northern Virginia. We are not quite ready to retire but would not rule out relocating - especially if we find the right place for us AND my boss allows me to take my job with me (technically, not a problem; politically, not so sure). This is our first visit to the area. I know we are missing quite a few communities.
I'll post my impressions on the three communities as the trip progresses.
Hi everyone. My husband and I are traveling to NC tomorrow to visit three communities:
St James Plantation
Brunswick Forest
Carolina Colours
We are taking advantage of their Discovery packages which will allow us to stay on or near the property. Two nights per property.
I have browsed through the forums quite a bit (thanks to all who post constructive feedback) but I wanted to post something in case anyone had any thoughts to share about these communities or the areas in general. (restaurant recommendations are very much appreciated - we love to eat)
A little about us: We are DINKS (dual income; no kids) living in northern Virginia. We are not quite ready to retire but would not rule out relocating - especially if we find the right place for us AND my boss allows me to take my job with me (technically, not a problem; politically, not so sure). This is our first visit to the area. I know we are missing quite a few communities.
I'll post my impressions on the three communities as the trip progresses.
Thank you in advance.
Lisa
First - you realize that Carolina Colours will be a good what - 1.5 hours away from St. James Plantation? You are now out of Brunswick County with Carolina Colours - Brunswick Forest is in Leland which is a good 30-40 minutes from STJ. Good luck - good place to start! Hope you get good weather - we just got back from Sunset Beach area where we have a lot in Ocean Ridge Plantation.....Feel free to put in posts in this site as this is the BEST resource for everything I have learned myself about this area!!! Have Fun!!
First - you realize that Carolina Colours will be a good what - 1.5 hours away from St. James Plantation? You are now out of Brunswick County with Carolina Colours - Brunswick Forest is in Leland which is a good 30-40 minutes from STJ. Good luck - good place to start! Hope you get good weather - we just got back from Sunset Beach area where we have a lot in Ocean Ridge Plantation.....Feel free to put in posts in this site as this is the BEST resource for everything I have learned myself about this area!!! Have Fun!!
Yes. We are aware of the distances between communities. We chose them intentionally so we could get a feeling for three distinct areas. Ocean Ridge seems to have a lot of fans on this forum. Thanks for the feedback.
St James Plantation serves some really powerful kool-ade! It's a huge community but, as far as I can tell, that is the only major drawback (to us). Minor drawback is the cost if the amenities: $15k. After that, yearly costs depend on level of activity. Overall, it's very appealing to us.
I have browsed through the forums quite a bit (thanks to all who post constructive feedback) but I wanted to post something in case anyone had any thoughts to share about these communities or the areas in general.
I wanted to comment a little about Carolina Colours, as we investigated New Bern briefly. We never did to check Carolina Colours seriously because the prices we saw were very excessive in comparison to price in other developments in New Bern. Further, at the time we looked, no amenities were in place. A further disadvantage is that CC is inside the city limits of New Bern and the property taxes are substantially higher than for properties which are outside the city limits.
Otherwise, I like some of the amenities of Brunswick Forest but did not like the almost treeless landscape. It felt huge and barren.
St James is very attractive, but we never found a house we could afford. Its prices per square foot are the highest in Brunswick County, although you can find some better deals with the resales.
Thanks for offering to provide feedback, and I hope you find something you love.
Last edited by goldenage1; 05-02-2014 at 08:28 PM..
Thanks for offering to provide feedback, and I hope you find something you love.
Thanks for your thoughts. We have been checking out Brunswick Forest for almost a full day. The biggest (obvious) difference is that SJP is a golf community while BF is a community with a golf course. Both communities are lovely and everyone we have met so far has been friendly.
We spent yesterday with a BF salesman, driving around, looking at model homes. Today we are on our own so we spent the day wandering around Wilmington. We went on a river tour (courtesy of BF) and had lunch. We also searches out whole foods and trader joes.
We are able to afford homes in either community and both had one neighborhood in particular that spoke to us (in SJP, we loved Seaside; in BF, it was Shellmore). .
The hardest part of our decision will involve more intangible things.
We are now debating canceling our Carolina Colours visit and trying to squeeze in something else near Wilmington.
Last edited by Lisanevada; 05-04-2014 at 03:47 PM..
Reason: Typo
If you can afford SJP and BF you should give a look at Sea Trail, Winding River and Ocean Ridge. As the late Sy Sims said "an educated consumer is our best customer". In my mind this is a major step and investment and all options should be explored. I am a few years out and plan to rent for 9 - 12 months to make sure I have made the right decision.
Before buying at SJP, we took a long look at Winding River. Both my wife and I really liked it but it was not truly a gated community. That was an important item for us. The only other disadvantage, in our opinion, is that their beach club at Holden beach is 25 minutes away and at the time had limited parking. From where I live in SJP, the beach club is 10 minutes away. I also liked Rivers Edge, but the golf course lots were very pricy. We also looked at Landfall in Wilmington, but found it to be very expensive, and there was no beach club. Also, if the beach is important to you, the summer traffic and parking getting into Wrightsville Beach can be a real bummer.
One other comment is that if you are looking at the cost per square foot by community, you have to do an analysis by builder. SJP may have a higher cost per square foot, but they also have more custom builders, which may explain the difference. At SJP there are also "big box" builders that build at a much lower cost per square foot.
Ocean Ridge Plantation is 'totally custom homes' although the different neighborhoods have different square foot differences in the homes; some are 2000 sq. ft; 1800 sq. ft. over 2500 sq. ft. etc. This is true SJP have 'box builders' but a lot of the box builders also do Custom Homes, so basically you can build whatever you want, if you want cheaper finishes, crown moldings, etc. you can build for under $150 sq. ft with a box builder OR custom builders - or you can go through the roof with over $225 - up to your tastes. I know Shellmore in Brunswick Forest is NOT their custom builder neighborhood; its the Walden Section; Also PS - Brunswick Forest has the smallest lots - houses tend to be very close to each other - including the custom neighborhood. We saw them last week when we went south again for the Wilmington Parade of Homes - which by the way, was NOTHING compared to how Brunswick County Parade of Homes does their program every Fall. It was hard to find the homes, no 'signage' - Brunswick really knows how to through a parade of homes compared to Wilmington.
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