After I started to explore different neighborhoods, I noticed the varying HOA fees. Some were as high as $600, which seemed incredibly ridiculous, so I decided to find more information through Redfin.com. Thankfully, that website had the information I was looking for and I discovered some HOA’s are monthly, quarterly, and semi-annually (the $600 one being in that group). With that issue resolved, the HOA’s range from $76 a month to $228 a month for the neighborhoods we’ve looked into and while there are some neighborhoods with no HOA’s, they are not in the areas of Gilbert that we want to settle down in.
Even though I mentioned to our real estate agent that we weren’t interested in the condos, we went ahead today to look and see if a “home” just over 1,300 sq. ft is a decent size for our small family. We went ahead and left our agent’s card because the condos were nice looking and could potentially stay within our budget. The difficulty that arises in this situation is that the developer isn’t accepting VA loans for the community, so that’s a big negative (besides, little outdoor space) in this option.
I am still eager to look at the Power Ranch home I showed you yesterday, but I’ll try to keep my enthusiasm in check. I know it’s likely that soon enough someone else will see the potential in it that we do (from the photos anyways) and want to take their own look and might be smitten with it as well.
Here are the photos I took from our adventure today: