New Condo Tours

So, exactly what have I been up to since my last post back in December?  That is, almost six months ago?

Waiting and seeing, mostly.  I'd become increasingly interested in Millbrae as my target area, but had also come to realize that there just weren't a lot of options out there in my price range.  There are very few older condos in Millbrae, and the newer ones are darn expensive.  Since I wasn't in a big rush to move, I decided to wait until the Millbrae Paradise units came on to the market; if they were reasonably priced, as seemed likely, then I would proceed.  I was worried that, if I picked something else in the meantime, I'd feel like a dud when Millbrae Paradise came online if it turned out to be a better deal.

So, for the most part, I've been monitoring Redfin and Craigslist - or, rather, reacting to the subscriptions that I have set up on those sites for notices of new listings - but hadn't been actively touring anything.  Finally, Millbrae Paradise started touring, so I got back in touch with Redfin and set up a tour; along the way, I also decided to visit Park Broadway, which had always been a marginal choice for me but seemed like a good basis for comparison since it's the newest nearby construction.

I first discovered that, thanks to the vagaries of Redfin's territory division, the area I was interested in (southern Millbrae and northern Burlingame) was divided between two totally different offices.  Burlingame is covered by the Peninsula team ("Redwood City to San Mateo", though they do handle points north and south as well), while Millbrae is covered by the San Francisco/Marin team.  I didn't just have a new field agent, but a whole new office as well.  I just sort of shrugged it off and went with it, though.  I was happy to see that, even though it had been more than four months since my last Redfin tour, they still had all my approval stuff on file and I didn't need to give them anything more to keep going.

Millbrae Paradise isn't listed on the MLS, so I submitted a tour request for a Park Broadway loft that was listed, and in the tour notes also requested a tour of Millbrae Paradise.  I indicated my flexibility for tour times.  This was towards the end of April, so I was kind of pushing to do it soon; in the best case, I figured, I'd check out Millbrae Paradise, it would be totally awesome and affordable, and I could quickly get in an offer and do a double-dip on the federal and state tax credits as a first-time homebuyer of a new construction condo.

First up was Park Broadway.  It ended up being much nicer than I had thought.  They've dropped the prices of these 1-bedroom loft units substantially, most recently another $50k.  I had never bothered to visit because I was weirded out by the fact that they directly face onto El Camino Real at street level.  I was pleasantly surprised to note that, at least in the model unit, the noise was practically unnoticeable, and with the demo window treatments, you got a lot of light without feeling like you were sitting next to a highway.  It helps that these units are set a bit below street level, behind a railing that separates them from the street and public sidewalk.  Plus, they're just huge; even though they are only one bedroom, they are extremely spacious.  Despite my reservations, I found myself actually considering grabbing one; it fit within my price range, looked great, and was freaking huge.  Ultimately, though, I decided that the siting was just a non-starter for me.  If I'm going to pay Bay Area prices for real estate, I want to be able to enjoy Bay Area weather, and it was depressing to think that I'd need to always keep the windows shut and stay indoors when I was home.

Next up came Millbrae Paradise.  I'd patiently been waiting a long time for them to finish, and was glad to finally get inside, but they clearly have a lot more left to go; even though the model units are ready, there's a lot of construction happening throughout.  After a little initial confusion over exactly where the sales center is (a sign points into an adjacent parking lot, while the actual trailer is farther up the street), I met the very pleasant sales associates.  I was turned off by how unforthcoming they were about the prices on the units; apparently this is fairly typical for new construction, but still, I would have really appreciated a straight answer regarding how much something costs.  I eventually figured out that even their cheapest 1-bedroom unit (a smallish condo on the second floor) would be going for a cool $100k more than my maximum budget.  Yikes!  I felt glum - I'd staked too much on a couple of words on their website, which boasted about "Affordable Elegance"; I guess we have different definitions of "affordable."  As long as I was finally there, though, I went ahead and did the tour.

The models do look really nice.  They are just a little slap-dash - I thought that their cabinets were extremely modern, but it turns out that the contractors just had forgotten to attach the knobs.  On the whole, I could really see myself living there, which just made me more bummed that they were outside my range.  Even though the rational part of my mind realizes that the quality of finishes and appliances are the least important aspects of a home, far behind the importance of location and solid construction, there's still an undeniable visceral reaction that I experience when I walk into a place that just feels really nice and high-quality.

We finished the tour, went back to the sales trailer, I sat down, we chatted just a little longer, I asked about a particular unit, they again wouldn't tell me the price, but said that they could speak with the manager.  I said "No, thanks," and left.

All in all, a bit of a bummer.  I spent the next day moping around; I hadn't realized until then just how thoroughly I had convinced myself that I would end up living there..  Still, what was done was done.  I decided to make a clean break, put Millbrae Paradise (which, inexplicably, has now changed its name back to Belamor again) out of my mind, and decided where to go from there.