Need help picking the right area for area for a young family... (Ridgefield: near)

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by scobun

Your neighbors are doing it wrong. ... I'm sorry they've biased you against us shooters,...

whoops, you have the wrong person. I / we shoot often on our WA, CO, TX properties.

Have a nice encounter with your move and new neighbors.

Cowlitz County / Woodland will be just fine

[scobun]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

whoops, you have the wrong person. I / we shoot often on our WA, CO, TX properties.

Have a nice encounter with your move and new neighbors.

Cowlitz County / Woodland will be just fine

Sorry for misjudging you. You seem like a really great and helpful person and I was worried that some jerks had ruined your impression of shooters. Keep 'em in the 10 ring.

[Disgustedman]

Originally Posted by scobun

What is the opinions on Woodland and the Cowlitz county side of the border? I've found there are a lot of pieces of property for sale up there, either tear downs with a trailer or cleared and ready and at low prices.

Woodland, for all it's charm, is a low youth area. Most kids when grown are moving away. They just competed the high school, moved the middle school kids out the old high school and are doing some reorganizing of other areas.

There's not a lot of good shopping offerings. The usual Walmart, Safeway some small shops and yes a few coffee shops (Black Rock, Starbucks and others) Dollar store right beside hispanic restaurant....

2 banks (Us Bank is one) downtown is old and dying.

I looked at 2 acres up there for $20K.....Not bad offering, but for a night life? Nothing.

State park is nearby, but really trashy and heavily attended on hot days. No boat launch either...

Yes, lived up there in the area for a year and visit weekly...but may cut ties....

[Jane917]

Don't neglect to realize that part of Woodland is in Clark County, and part is in Cowlitz County. This may have an effect on permits to build.

[scobun]

Originally Posted by Disgustedman

Woodland, for all it's charm, is a low youth area. Most kids when grown are moving away. They just competed the high school, moved the middle school kids out the old high school and are doing some reorganizing of other areas.

There's not a lot of good shopping offerings. The usual Walmart, Safeway some small shops and yes a few coffee shops (Black Rock, Starbucks and others) Dollar store right beside hispanic restaurant....

2 banks (Us Bank is one) downtown is old and dying.

I looked at 2 acres up there for $20K.....Not bad offering, but for a night life? Nothing.

State park is nearby, but really trashy and heavily attended on hot days. No boat launch either...

Yes, lived up there in the area for a year and visit weekly...but may cut ties....

Thanks. What other areas would you suggest we take a look at? We're heading up again in March to look around.

I really appreciate the help.

[Lajouels1]

Any opinion on lennar at Breckenridge by grand ridge right by 192nd ave /camas fisher quarry which has started ground work for riversway gateway development. Is it a good investment . I wud imagine the prices wud go up after the development comes in . any disadvantage I shud think about?

[Jane917]

The only comment I can make is to be sure to check out consumer comments on Lennar homes.

[Lajouels1]

I see that lennar have terrible reviews. But varies from.location to location. The camas location seems fine. Im not sure why each location have different quality or different grade of carpet/ wood etc
Jus wondering if it is good investment being g beside 192nd /fisher quarry redevelopment.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Lajouels1

I see that lennar have terrible reviews. But varies from.location to location. The camas location seems fine. Im not sure why each location have different quality or different grade of carpet/ wood etc
Jus wondering if it is good investment being g beside 192nd /fisher quarry redevelopment.

Lennar, like all the big national builders (or any builders for that matter) rely almost entirely on local subcontractors. Essentially they are just big project managers that do the design work, spec out the materials and appliances and utilities, and then hire local subs to do all the actual construction work. Lennar doesn't have thousands of carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc. that are drawing a Lennar paycheck and neither do the other builders.

In addition, Lennar like all the builders is going to build homes to respond to the local market. Camas is more upscale than other parts of Vancouver so the Lennar homes built there are going to be built and marketed to a different price point than homes built in say Orchards. They are not stupid. All real estate is local and Lennar and all the other builders in Camas are building for the local market and competing with all the other builders in nearby subdivisions. When a problem comes up and the builder is cooperative and supportive in getting it dealt with most people are satisfied and don't search out forums to vent. But when people feel screwed by a company that gives them the runaround and doesn't support it's products then they search out places to vent.

So if a house has problems and/or defects in the future is could be due to a whole lot of issues. There could have been design flaws or shortcuts in the siting and site prep that might lead to drainage issues, foundation shifting, etc. There might be flaws in the actual designs (too few studs, rafters too far apart, too thin subfloors, etc.) but that is doubtful with building codes and standards that specify most of that stuff. There might be problems with the installed systems like the heating and cooling that could be due to installation errors or just manufacturing defects. And there could be a bazillion different problems with the actual construction that would be due mainly to the subcontractors cutting corners or using unqualified labor that didn't get caught by the inspectors or Lennar project managers.

Point is, a Lennar home built in say Omaha is likely to be entirely different from a Lennar home built in Vancouver. Lennar might cut more corners than other builders in material and project oversight. I don' know. But ultimately the quality of the house is going to be mainly due to the work of the local subcontractors which are going to be entirely different from subdivision to subdivision much less state to state. And in a place like Vancouver it is probably the same contractors working for different builders. So guys doing the furnace install for a Lennar home in Vancouver might easily be the same guys doing the furnace install for a Pahlisch home in the next subdivision over.

Where builders really seem to differ is in how they deal with inevitable defects that do arise in a new home and how well they stand buy and support their products. That seems to be where there is a lot of disparity in satisfaction between different big builders I haven't gone through the online reviews of the different builders but I'm willing to bet that a lot of comments are due to differences in frustration with dealing with the builders to address defects rather than the actual number of defects between builders.

[B14peeper]

We too are from the Bay Area looking to move north to Vancouver, Camas, Ridgefield, Battle Ground, Brush Prairie. Hope it works out for you guys

I asked similar questions on another thread. StealthRabbit gives awesome answers