Ok My Turn Should I Stay Or Go
 

Did not want to leave this post up for very long. It contained some information that was fairly sensitive.

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the 909 is calling you....collect.

what is wrong with the house? with the geo tech mention is it slab on grade issues? doors and windows not opening, cracks in the walls and other issues cause by a heaving or settling foundation slab?

Re: Ok My Turn Should I Stay Or Go
 

The problem is Expansive soil....which causes the slab to move , which causes dry wall cracking....LV has a lot of soil related issues. Anyone moving here should know of the problems before they purchase.

You have friends?:D

:D :D :D Did you know they changed it to 951 because everyone was making fun of people because they live in the 909?

Nothing wrong with the 909...Try the La Creusta area....or parts of Redlands, or Upland, Alta Loma....

I missed your initial post: you can PM me what it was if you want.

From my point of view, I'd only be able to live in Vegas a handful of years at the most - and only if I had to. I was surprised you moved there in the first place. If you're thinking of heading out of LV, you probably will.

If you come back to Cali, you better get Mother to sign some big checks. As you know, it's tremendously expensive.

With that said, one place I'd look that might still be affordable is Riverside County. I really like it there, particularly the old Victorian houses just west of the Mission Inn hotel. Otherwise, I can't think of anywhere that's affordable around here. San Diego's nice - I was just there. But it is growing very fast and I assume becoming very expensive. There's four high rises going up in downtown SD right now.

it amazes me how builders continue to build slab on grade homes in area with expansive soils. are you neighbors experiencing the same problems? or is it a case of your building pad not being hydrated enough before the slab was poured?

that sucks, builders are your friend until escrow closes eh?

Tabs, as long as you have a high-speed connection and your KingKong espresso machine, you could live just about anywhere.

Me? If I were completely mobile I'd probably be living in Santa Barbara. If I were mobile and had the trust fund thing working I'd split my time between California, Hawaii and Montana. It's all good.

Vegas getting you down? Time for Tabby to make tracks.

expansive soils, are a civil engineer's krytonite.

move west tabs!

move to the city with the best low carb buffets

I think most people can only take so much of LV before calling it quits... I know my limit is about 60 minutes. Too much heat, too much food, too much light, too much people, too much lost money. I say get out while the gettins good, Tabby. I hear you can still get a new SFD home in Apple Valley for $120k.

Here is what I would move back to CA for ....warm days but COOL NIGHTS. in LV at midnight it's still 95*. Also island fever, your isolated out in the middle of the desert with the next town of consequence being 100 miles away or so. Now not to be rude if I could aford Santa Barbara I would never have left CA.

I just want a little room between houses...here in LV you'd think that there was no such thing as land. They pile one on top of another...actually a depressing thought is that LV reminds me alot of LA. Sprawling subrubia with strip malls everywhere and a Wallmart on every corner. However out wher I live it is quiet, and no differnet than any anothe suburban community...


BTW I would NEVER live in LA County again....it's just a monste r, crowed, congested I don't miss any of that.

The main thrust of the orgianl post was should I take the litigation to Arbitration or Settle before hand. August 22 is Arbiotration and the Builder wants to settle. I have made a great return in one year 57% if I settle. But thats almost meaningless everything has become expensive as well. With a settlement I would not even be able to buy a similar house in a nerby development, as they are more expensive....near 1M.

I never got a chanch to like or dislike LV...3 weeks after I moved in to my house, my neighbors told me that there were problems with the house eg expansive soil. Right now in this neighborhood my neighbor and I are the only ones brave enough to sue. They had previously settled on 13 houses...buy back. I know of at least another 15 houses in my development that are having the same problem. I estimate that 20 to 30% of the 172 houses are defective. To be fair my Builder is not the only one having this problem...the Toll Brothers...a nationaly recognized luxury home builder is having the same problems in his nearby development...his homes are going for 1M. Their sales rep told me that the development was a diaster for them. That they had to scrap off 4 feet of soil and replace it with a non expansive soil. That even then they had one patio sink 3 feet.....

Oh one of the prime areas I would look in CA at is the greater Temcula area....it probably is the last frontier in So CA.

Other Choichs are:

Reno,NV
Arcata, CA
Squim, WA
Cambria, CA...or surrounding area
Prescotte, AZ

You have some good choices. Sequim is beautiful and not as wet as Seattle. Cambria is real nice. Prescott is too hot for me.

Do you like the mountains? Nevada City, California is nice. So is Mammoth Lakes.

"Expansive soil" is an excuse for either *****ty engineering, lousy workmanship , improper materials or perhaps a combination of the three. You can build on permafrost, you can build on swamp, you can build in a tree if you know what you are doing. If you paid for something, you should have it. If some contractor wasn't experienced enough to build for the conditions or tried to make themselves a few extra bucks at your expense, go after them.
Les

I agree with oldE 100%. Money can fix anything, and with the prices of those trailers ($1M+), you can do a lot of voodoo mojo. I'm not saying your shack is repairable, but it should have been done right the first time. Scraping 4 feet of soil away and backfilling isn't exactly rocket science or ridiculously expensive.

I would love to find either some land or a small house on a decent lot anywhere within a hundred miles or so of Cambria. Anyone know a good way to find land/properties in central CA? Gotta be relatively cheap though...