[BBMW]

I tend to agree. But lots of people don't. My mother's neighbor, who was a professional mechanic and had his own shop, had a collector car sitting out in his driveway, while his garage was full of stuff.

Originally Posted by cre8lite

as the wife of a mechanic, i always find this type of behavior odd. if you have THAT much stuff (non car stuff) that you need to store it in the garage.....either you need a bigger house or you need less stuff.

garages are for all-things-cars in my world

[08grad]

Originally Posted by AdamSelene

So 2 in the garage, 2 in the driveway, 1 on the street. Not a nuisance yet.
More than one car in front of one house = multiple families = poverty; or hoarders.

Out of the four owner-occupied units on my street, there's one car parked in the street. For the two rentals, there's 6 cars parked in the street.

The rentals have 4+ people living in them, while the owner-occupants are all 3 or less.

[Camaro5]

Here's another one of the 1,000 questions I have (and I think I know the answer) -- a lot of the listings I see have pending offers which appear to be contingencies. Can someone still come in and make a cash offer and get the house?

What about foreclosures and short sales? I've read that those should be avoided, especially if the buyer needs to close in a reasonable amount of time, say 30 to 45 days.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by cre8lite

as the wife of a mechanic, i always find this type of behavior odd. if you have THAT much stuff (non car stuff) that you need to store it in the garage.....either you need a bigger house or you need less stuff.

garages are for all-things-cars in my world

I need a bigger garage. I have several partially-used 5 gallon buckets of paint, lots of power tools, two rolling tool chests, lots and lots of power tools and woodworking tools, storage boxes, central vac, water softener, RO cistern, lots of ladders, garden hoses on reels, landscaping tools such as shovels, pick, rakes, air compressor, bicycles (attached to a hoist that stores the up near the ceiling), winter storage of patio furniture, etc etc etc.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by Camaro5

Here's another one of the 1,000 questions I have (and I think I know the answer) -- a lot of the listings I see have pending offers which appear to be contingencies. Can someone still come in and make a cash offer and get the house?

What about foreclosures and short sales? I've read that those should be avoided, especially if the buyer needs to close in a reasonable amount of time, say 30 to 45 days.

You can always put in a backup offer, but I don't think that is the best strategy if you would like to close in 30 to 45 days from *today*. Of course, it also depends on the contingency. Perhaps the buyer can't get financing or perhaps they don't like the inspection report and back out, in which case you've certainly got a shot, but it isn't high probability.

Short sales take a long time.

I was able to get in contract on a forclosure in a few days on an all-cash offer, but Bank of America had issues actually closing. They agreed to a two week close but it took them a month (including Thanksgiving week).

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by Camaro5

Here's another one of the 1,000 questions I have (and I think I know the answer) -- a lot of the listings I see have pending offers which appear to be contingencies. Can someone still come in and make a cash offer and get the house?

What about foreclosures and short sales? I've read that those should be avoided, especially if the buyer needs to close in a reasonable amount of time, say 30 to 45 days.

Contingencies generally cannot be overridden by any outside offer cash or otherwise. There is an unusual situation where a contingency exists but is not shown...but there will be no contingency showing in the listing. You find out about it on a counter offer.

Foreclosures are generally just a normal transaction. The seller is often a little weird but mostly they go down properly.

Short sales are, of their nature, a three way transaction and therefore very uncertain as to timing. Better than they used to be but still not precisely predictable. Avoid on a fix schedule buy.

[Camaro5]

Hmm. I see a lot of mixed messages and it's confusing. Do you get a smaller house in a nicer area or more house in an area that some of you think is questionable? We really wanted to pay cash for a place but having a small short term mortgage might be worth it to get what we really want. I'm familiar with these areas, but not familiar enough, I guess, to know the little details.

Everyone wants a place that is safe. Who doesn't? The problem is that realtors will not come out and say not to buy a place because the location might not be so good. They can't, really. And I don't think that stats tell the whole story. All I can say at this point is I'm glad we have the time to weed out all this stuff.

[ny2lv]

We actually LIVE in Silverado Ranch and never felt as a minority or unsafe. There might be pockets that are questionable, but in all I don't think the area is going down. Not as fancy as Seven Hills for sure, but there are so many communities that are pretty close!
We purchased 2 years ago, looked other areas, Centennial, Lone Mountain and Mountain's Edge. Our property appreciated 2X as much (in some cases even more) than the similar houses in those areas.

[SportyandMisty]

I've lived in Seven Hills (gated), in The Club at Madeira Canyon (guard-gated), and now back in Seven Hills (gated). I've never felt unsafe. I'll shop at Sam's, Walmart & Home Depot at Eastern & Serene (Silverado Ranch), and I've never felt unsafe. Just regular people. Same thing along Silverado Ranch.

Personally, I view a gated community as giving the illusion of safety. Invariably, lots of people have access codes that get passed around. For example, gardeners and pool maintenance workers, US Postal employees, package delivery employees etc will usually have an access code that opens the gates. My guess is sometimes those codes are shared, or perhaps former employees of maintenance companies have them as well. If a bad guy wants in, he can usually just "tailgate" through the gate, as these gates operate slowly enough for a couple cars to go through.

Guard gated is much more secure. Residents typically have a transponder or RFID sticker on their windshield that automatically opens a gate. Guests, including maintenance workers, must be admitted by the guards, who only give admittance to authorized visitors. Guards record both license plate and driver's license information. When I lived in The Club, guards on patrol would even call me if I accidentally left my garage door open at night.

Anthem Country Club takes it one step further - they have armed guards at the gate and on patrol. I think that is pretty silly for the HOA to pay for guards who carry sidearms, but what can I say.

Both The Club at Madeira Canyon and also Anthem Country Club are substantially out of your price range, unfortunately.

There are 3 other options you might investigate: Inspirada, Sun City Anthem, and Solera Anthem. Just google them.

Inspirada is a brand new community with quite a bit of construction going on. I would check it out. No gate.

Sun City Anthem is an age-restricted community - at least one resident must be age 55 or over. No gate.

Solera Anthem is also age restricted; again at least one resident must be age 55 or over. No gate.

PM me if you have specific questions.

[08grad]

There's white flight in Silverado Ranch if student demographics are any indicator. Silverado High School has seen white student population go from 2557 students in 2001 to 922 students in 2016. Green Valley HS had a similar decrease (2455 -> 1481).

If you cross St. Rose Pkwy into Coronado HS zone you will have a different story. Coronado had an increase in white student population during that same period (1751 -> 1889). Southeast Henderson zoned for Foothill HS has also had an increase in white student population (1640 -> 1673).

Silverado Ranch is becoming similar demographically to the southwest part of town (Sierra Vista, Desert Oasis, Liberty HS areas). You'll have around 30% white, 40% hispanic, 10% black, 10-15% asian, 5-10% multiracial in the schools.