This second installment on the Vantage of Palo Alto “green” community will focus on some of the interior features, issues, and increased expenses new home buyers should be aware of when purchasing a home in a new home community in Palo Alto CA and Santa Clara County CA.

Storage: Other than a relatively generous Master Bedroom Closet, there is a limited amount of closet space and storage in the new Vantage of Palo Alto “green” community. The exception to this is the ABUNDANT storage area under the first floor of the home accessed through the garage. The ceiling is about 5′ tall (don’t bump your head!), and the storage is located under the dining room or living room depending up on floor plan.

The Master bath and closet are generous.

Kitchen/Living Level Bedroom: An excellent feature of some of the floorplans for these mulitlevel townhomes is the living level bedroom. A few of the plans have a small bedroom/office space on the same level and the kitchen, dining and family areas. This is a huge plus especially for joint families where the grandparents are living or enjoing extended visits with the family and assisting with child care and household management. If you have ever had knee surgery you would also appreciate a bedroom on the living level. This is also ideal for a home office.

The bedroom or office is located behind the kitchen on the left.

Small office or bedroom, but beautifully located on the main living level.

The Master Bedroom is small but it has a generous and luxurious bathroom and closet.

Higher Density: One of the issues for all many of the new home developments is that of density. Most new home communities are being built with smaller or no yards, and far more dense. This is due to people desiring more interior square footage, newer homes, at the expense of yards and driveways. Additionally communities are encouraged through regional governance agreements to encourage “infill” building close to transportation and retail corridors. Higher density is the future.

You are not very far from your neighbor’s window in many new home communities in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area. You can see a solar panel on the top of the darker building directly in front. This is the garage alleyway. This was taken from a second (not master) bedroom.

 

What Developers Don’t Want New Buyers to Know: In the Santa Clara Valley, it is customary for the Seller to pay for title and escrow fees, Santa Clara County Transfer Taxes of $1.10 per thousand (or $1100. on a 1M home), Palo Alto City Transfer tax of $3.30/thousand (or $3300.00 for a $1M purchase price). This adds up to about 1% of your closing costs. For most first time buyers CASH is the most challenging hurdle of a new home purchase, and this does bleed your cash to the tune of $8,000-$11,000. for a new home in this price range. However if you were to purchase a home that had already been purchased, the seller would pay for these costs customarily (although it could be countered out in the contract).

Read Your Disclosures….Twice: Just because you are purchasing a home in a New Home Community doesn’t mean that your home is free of all property deficiencies. All properties have defects such as being in a flood plane or near a leaking underground storage tank or near a fault line. Most homebuyers are fine if they know about a deficiency prior to purchase. They are angry or upset if it is not revealed to them in advance. These issues are revealed through disclosures. This is why it is smart to hire a real estate agent to represent you in the purchase of a home in a New Home Community. We read disclosures constantly, and can help you with understanding some of the nitty gritty. The commission is paid by the Builder, so it costs you nothing to have a professional on your team. Better yet, Call me, Anne Arjani 650 400 2986.

Reading Disclosures will protect you from nasty surprises: There are new home communities in the Silicon Valley that are built over areas that were previously military, defense contracting, or semiconductor processing or other industrial sites. Some of these sites have soil contamination. The builders are allowed to put “liquid boot” under the foundations and this supposedly this “seals” the contaminants from percolating up through your foundation. Some of these homes have some sort of “drain” that drains potential fumes out of the basement areas. The only way you will find out about this is to READ THE DISCLOSURES! In one case, a client of mine was only allowed to read the disclosures in the on-site office. The sales representatives tried to intimidate her by telling her that “you are the only person who has ever asked to read the disclosures”.

Relocation and an expensive loan if you don’t use the builder’s “preferred lender”: New Home Communities make a large portion of their profits by making the loans on their properties. They charge a stiff fee usually about 1% of the total loan value as a “commission” (in the case of Vantage $8500.- approx $11,000. ) to “allow” you utilize a loan that is not initiated by their preferred lender. Most relocation packages stipulate that you must use a specified lender in order to qualify for relocation benefits. Once again, the cure is to wait for one of the first homeowners to be transferred or to have a change of heart, and snap up their propety when they put it on the market.

I am familiar with many of the newer home communities in the greater Palo Alto and Silicon Valley area. Call me to put a professional to work for you today!

Anne Arjani 650 400 2986

 

 

 

 



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