Our Retirement Community Visit, Phoenix-Phase III (Tucson, Sun City: sale, HOA fees, houses)

[gbpakrfan]

Originally Posted by anjcohen

1. How far is Merrill Ranch from a couple of hospitals as my wife would like to continue working part time as a MRI Tech.??

Florence Hospital is right outside of Anthem Merrill Ranch. If you're a decent golfer, you could probably hit it with a tee shot. This was one factor in our decision to buy there.

[AZPam]

Merrill Ranch might give you the "out of the city" feel you are wanting. Providence in Maricopa would be another option for that. Good luck on your search! I've enjoyed reading your comments about your search as I don't work that side of town and know very little about Sun City and the surrounding communities

[anjcohen]

Thank you for the hospital replies. If Florence Hospital is not an option because of no openings as a MRI tech, how long of a drive to south Phoenix hospitals or what ever?

[GeneR]

Since we landed in Phoenix on Thursday we've been on the dead run. STOP! And we have. This has been a day of elimination and decision. Our leg work has come to an end.

We checked into our villa here at Sun City Festival on Thursday after our tour of Sun City which I wrote about above. A detailed description of Friday is outlined in the second blog on this thread. Today, our third day began with a two hour drive to Anthem@Merrill Ranch.

Research via the web led us to take a hard look at Anthem. Pricing of homes is well below other newer Sun Cities and the development features the newer floor plans. We happen to prefer Del Webb floor plans and the amenities over other 55+ community developers. When it became apparent that Anthem@Merrill Ranch (from now on referred to only as Anthem) the homes were anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 less than the same home at Festival we had to take notice. We visited the community one year ago. If interested you can revisit that thread titled "Our Retirement Community Visit" written in June, 2014. This visit we arranged to meet a local realtor.

We scheduled to stay at Anthem for 3 nights starting this coming Wednesday. Problem was the realtor we were referred to was leaving on vacation. We decided it would be worthwhile to take the 2 hour drive over there so we could receive her expertise and visit a few homes for sale. I won't detail our experience with her but I will say it was not a great. We visited four homes, got back in our car and came back to Festival. We left about 8 in the morning, after the four hour round trip drive we were home in Festival by 1:30. It was a very productive trip but not in the way you might imagine.

Our trip from Festival took us down via I-10 to highway 387/287 to the Hunt Highway to Anthem. It was this drive to Anthem that eliminated the community from our list. Here's why: As I indicated in the blog of June, 2014 while visiting the community we were sitting on the patio one fine morning and had to swat big flies. Also, there was the distinct smell of cow manure in the air. We inquired at the sales center and were told perhaps the golf course was being fertilized, that it's not something they ever noticed. We now know people in the sales center were either ignorant or liars.

As we drove from I-10 toward Coolidge and Merrill Ranch this Saturday we passed two huge cow feed lots with hundreds and hundreds of Angus cattle. The largest of these feed lots was not more than 3 miles from Anthem. We have decided this is something we could not live with and have eliminated this community completely. Flies, cow manure....no thanks, I don't care how much less the houses cost.

[anjcohen]

Gene,
Wow....at least it was good you found the source of the smell finally! Good info and I agree with you about not caring how much less the homes are there.
Sounds like Sun City West was appealing to you and may be the best fit. Am I wrong??
Will you take another look at Quail Creek while you are down there too?

Best and thanks for the detailed report.

[gbpakrfan]

Originally Posted by GeneR

As I indicated in the blog of June, 2014 while visiting the community we were sitting on the patio one fine morning and had to swat big flies. Also, there was the distinct smell of cow manure in the air. We inquired at the sales center and were told perhaps the golf course was being fertilized, that it's not something they ever noticed. We now know people in the sales center were either ignorant or liars.

We have decided this is something we could not live with and have eliminated this community completely. Flies, cow manure....no thanks, I don't care how much less the houses cost.

When we were on our week-long retirement house-hunting trip a couple weeks ago, we also noticed the huge cattle farms on the way to Anthem Merrill Ranch. We also saw that each stall had a fan, presumably to keep the cattle cool. (Maybe they're really there to blow the smell in the direction of Anthem Merrill Ranch ).

Having said that, we made two trips to Anthem and even stayed in one of their homes for two nights...with the windows open. No cattle smell and didn't spot even one fly (at least, not that I can recall. However, I am getting older and my fly radar may not be as accurate as it once was). We also spoke with probably 50 current residents and asked them for their frank and honest opinions on living there. Without fail, they all said they love it and couldn't think of anything negative to say (other than maybe the distance to "real" shopping and restaurants). No mention of cow poop, or anything else remotely negative.

Maybe the wind was blowing just right that day when you were there...or maybe it wasn't blowing the right way the days we were there. I'm sure the possibility exists for some cow aromas to waft towards Anthem and if so, it's something we'll just need to deal with now that we have bought a home there...closing next week. I guess wherever you go, you have to deal with some kind of "BS"

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by gbpakrfan

When we were on our week-long retirement house-hunting trip a couple weeks ago, we also noticed the huge cattle farms on the way to Anthem Merrill Ranch. We also saw that each stall had a fan, presumably to keep the cattle cool. (Maybe they're really there to blow the smell in the direction of Anthem Merrill Ranch ).

Having said that, we made two trips to Anthem and even stayed in one of their homes for two nights...with the windows open. No cattle smell and didn't spot even one fly (at least, not that I can recall. However, I am getting older and my fly radar may not be as accurate as it once was). We also spoke with probably 50 current residents and asked them for their frank and honest opinions on living there. Without fail, they all said they love it and couldn't think of anything negative to say (other than maybe the distance to "real" shopping and restaurants). No mention of cow poop, or anything else remotely negative.

Maybe the wind was blowing just right that day when you were there...or maybe it wasn't blowing the right way the days we were there. I'm sure the possibility exists for some cow aromas to waft towards Anthem and if so, it's something we'll just need to deal with now that we have bought a home there...closing next week. I guess wherever you go, you have to deal with some kind of "BS"

The fans are evaporative coolers. A small nozzle shoots water into the blades which causes it to be blown around and to evaporate cooling the air. I have a similar setup on my patio. It works quite well - better than misters that clog quickly with our hard water.

[anjcohen]

Gene,

So now what? Haven't seen a post after your cow experience.................

[bkypjy]

Are you including Trilogy at Vistancia or Trilogy at Encanterra on this visit??? Would love opinions of those. Thanks for all your info thus far.

[GeneR]

Originally Posted by bkypjy

Are you including Trilogy at Vistancia or Trilogy at Encanterra on this visit??? Would love opinions of those. Thanks for all your info thus far.

I'm sure these are great communities but way too pricey for me. Plus we're not really looking for a "country club" atmosphere. For this reason after a revisit to Corte Bella we crossed that community from our list of possibilities.

Our visit in AZ continues through this Friday. We think we may have made the final decision on which community best fits our needs (and wants). I will detail that in a post soon.