Housing...just curious?

It's fascinating how much i learn from this type of medium; forums and message boards. Beyond learning though, are the questions triggered by comments and thoughts from posters. Different perspectives that make me pause and consider where someone else might be coming from.

That said, it does force me to ooen my mind and me eyes to things i see every day and pay little or no attention to. Let me be more specific less you think i've flipped my lid and its time for the funny farm.

In another thread Cynthia mentioned her favorite home in Sun City so far was the Cordova. It is an attractive flat roofed double arched brick faced home that is found in Phase 2. So you aren't guessing, here's the picture from the marketing brochure from 1972:



Those comments caused me to go searching and the Museum prvided me with information that i kind of knew but paid little attention to. As i found where each model series premiered, it dawned on me there would then be only certain areas within Sun City a particular model or style of home could be found.

Knowing that would reduce a persons search, if in fact they had to have that model of home. Which ultimately peaked my curiosity and is the point behind this thread. So here's the question: As a potential buyer (or even one that has bought here) would you like to know where certain models of homes are located (the area) or would you rather just go see 25 or 50 homes across the community till you find the right one for you?

I suspect it might be a right brain/left brain kind of deal, but who knows? I love the idea of identifying where each style of home is, but i love even more going in dozens of models. Just as an example, we would not have looked at the Castille we bought, because we didn't know it even existed.

I guess it's why a housing sight specifically for Sun City makes sense, at least for me.

One more question: There's been a number of Sun City homes that have sold in the last year: As a potential buyer would it be of interest to know about them or would you rather not? (You know recently sold homes are posted on some sites, do you look at them?).

 

Does the museum have the marketing brochures for all floor models? I would love to see mine.

 

They so but are closed for the summer. Which model is it, I can post it online here.

 

My wife really likes the H55, don't know the model name.
Here is the floor plan.


I'm kind of partial to the Stanford model.
Would be interesting the know what phases these can be found in.

 

Hey Bruce: The model your wife liked, the H55, opened in 1965/66 just across from the Fairway Rec Center on Peoria. Those homes are primarily located between Peoria and Olive and were some of the largest models in Phase1 and really cool inside as well as out. Here's the 3 elevations:





The Stanford premiered in the "It's Showtime" series, 1972-1974. They are located east and above the Sun Dial Rec Center all the way to Bell Road. They were one of the more popular styles and the 3 bedroom plans are all over that mile + stretch South of Bell Road.

Here's the floor plan and the front elevation:



Hope that helps.

 

Thanks Bill.
Works for me, but my wife won't be happy.
She loves the H55, but wants to live in Phase II, looks like that can't happen.
We rented a H55 in March for spring training, it backed up to Olive so was noisy traffic, but she really loved the layout.
Personally I think there are so many models to choose from you just have to look and find what appeals to you. I saw a nice looking flat top in phase 1 that was $105K, I tried to get us to jump on it, but my better half didn't care for it. I figured for that price you could change pretty much anything you wanted.

 

Va402r. Thanks.

 

You've thrown me S. Is that a duplex from the 40 series? Are you down around the Lakeview Rec Center?

 

It is a patio home in Phase 3.

 

Thanks S, that helps. The closest i could come to it was from the Galleria '74 series. Your's might be from the Heritage 76 models but i didn't see any Patio homes listed. Here is the brochure on the Patio homes in Galleria, take a llok and see if one of them is your floor plan. If not i'll dig a bit and see if i can find Patio homes in the Heritage models.

Patio homes:



As you can see, none of the model numbers are exactly the same as yours.

 

Oh my. Here we are looking at houses in SC from a great distance and you've opened another can of worms. We've sort or perused listings on the internet without really considering specific models. Now here comes this great idea of deciding on the favorability of certain models then focusing on the neighborhoods where they might be available. Wow! This is a great idea and thank you BPearson for starting this thread.

I wasn't able to clearly see the floor plan/model elevations posted above. Where might I get information on the various models built in SC over the years?

I don't know if I can pick a certain model at this early stage of our investigation but it's certainly worth serious consideration. Although, fitting to a post in another thread, I don't know whether to be grateful or mad that you've given me yet another reason to be attracted to this community!

 

That is close but my laundry room is not in the garage and I have a single car garage. The laundry room has a door to the garage. It was built in 1974. Thanks for the picture.

 

Interesting Sus, they must have had variations beyond what was shown, or the owner was willing to pay for modifications. I am kind of blown away by how many "modes" of living DEVCO had. By the time they got to the Heritage series, they were showing 6 "modes" of living. One of these days i will do a thread on all of the variations.

One of the things we did Rusco was tell the Realtor we only wanted to see homes with a minimum square footage. That ruled out lots of models. Of course all kinds of Sun City homes have had add-ons but the listings should show that.

As you saw from Bruce, his wife likes a certain model and that is only in Phase 1. The good news is most Sun City homes premiers had some continuity on floor plans from grand opening to grand opening. While the outside/elevation is different, there are similarities that mirror what has been done in the past.

The Del Webb Sun City Museum has some brochures on-line, and you can access them through the search engine. Unfortunately they are sometimes challenging to find and even tougher to read. It's why a site specific to where floor plan models are avaiable and where the models of each style are in the community would be so much better than what is out there now.

The other things you need sort through are: Housing style (single family or attached) and what part of the community you want to live in help narrow your search. Here''s a summary of what's where:

Phase 1 (south of Grand ave) is the oldest but has the softball field, the new Fairway Rec Center, the Sun Bowl where concerts are held, two golf courses and will be home to the Moutainview Theater (where perfomances and plays will be held. Fairway Rec Center also has the music practice room where all of the musical groups are and the artifical lawn bowls green. It also has our first Rec Center, Oakmont with the only salt water pool and the water volleyball club calls home.

Phase 2 (Grand Ave to Bell Road) is the largest of the three Phases. The hospital is there, 3 Rec Centers, 3 golf courses, and our 2 man-made lakes. It is at the center of the community and access to either end of Sun City is most convenient from there. The Bell Center is massive and is the hub for tennis lovers.

Phase 3 is North of Bell Road, has the newest homes and 2 golf courses. It also has the remodeled Marinette Center which has become pickleball heaven. 20 courts, with 8 under roof. There probably more renovated properties there than anywhere.

Not to confuse you, but there's also Phase 4 (Quail Run golf course) and Rancho Estates to consider. The best thing you can do when trying to aclimate to Sun City is get a good grip on the layout of the community. The Visitor Center has a large map that will help you, complete with light ups.

If that isn't enough for you, when you come in, i have copies of all of the model home booklets and would be happy to show them to you.

One last thing is you can click on pictures to enlarge them on this website.

 

Great info. This is our second day in the area and after seeing a number of adult communities, I believe we've decided on Sun City! Now to start narrowing our focus. We'll be on the tour this afternoon and would love to meet any of you locals that see the tour group. It's great to be here.

 

I personally believe that looking at "paper" models is of very little value.

You have to actually walk in to a home to know whether or not you like it.
After looking at many places I knew immediately when I walked into the condo I bought that it was what I wanted - D35. Grass, 2 br 2 ba, enclosed lanai plus enclosed back patio, 2 car garage with oodles of storage, tile in just the right places, wonderful laundry room.

At the time, however, I was not aware of what a great location it was. I am within a mile of 2 rec centers , my church, and 2 grocery stores. 3 other rec centers, 2 libraries, and the visitor center are within 2-3 miles.

I rarely leave Sun City.

 

I've seen Phase 3 homes in Phase 2 and Phase 2 floor plans in Phase 3. From what I understand buyers could request a phase 2 floor plan be used in phase 3 homes. And there were still a some empty lots in phase 2 when phase 3 begun. My extremely knowledgeable Realtor told me Quail Run is actually phase 2 homes and the homes furthermost South (I forget the street they start on) are also phase 2 houses. I think I got that right? Those areas were not in the original Phase 1 plan and by the time they decided to build there the home style plans had changed.

 

There is some crossover C, but for the most part the consistency of certain models within a given area is pretty much spot on. Phase 4 (Quail Run is an oddity and I haven't been through there in years) and the very end of Phase 1 has some variations, but the bulk of the homes in around Fairway and beyond Peoria are from 63, 64, 65 and 66.

As far as floor plans, I would never use them to replace looking at homes for sale, but more as a blueprint for the kinds of layout I would want in a home I bought Peg. In fact it would be more a guide for me in ruling out whether I was interested in a certain style of home. When I pick up a home listing attached to a for sale sign, I look at 3 things first: The price, the square footage and the floor plan (that is if the agent wasn't too lazy to put it on the back of the sheet). Just saying.

Finally, the most important question is for our latest visitor/shopper/soon to be Sun City resident (?) Mullet: What did you think of Sun City? Are we blowing smoke or is it everything we said it was?

 

BP - thanks for inquiring. After a long day of viewing homes and the bus tour, we've reached some conclusions. We really like Sun City - a lot. The community just suits us. We also liked Sun City West but all things considered, we think Sun City is the place for us. Going into this trip, we thought if we could narrow our search to a single community the trip was successful. So far, so good.

Now, we're trying to further narrow or search to preferred model(s)/phase(s)/locations. We've made some headway on those fronts. Gaining some familiarity by being here has helped us narrow our focus as our preferences become more apparent.

One decision we reached this afternoon - we need a new realtor. We need someone that exhibits more familiarity with the area and whose judgment we can trust when we return home. Our current realtor does not inspire confidence.

Lastly, I think we're resigned to doing a rehab, to some degree or other. We toured several professionally done rehabs and were not all that impressed. I think we'd rather do it the way we want it the first time.

Start tuned.

 

Good to hear you like what you see so far. We shopped other senior communities and always felt Sun City was the most comfortable; like a good pair of old shoes. It's almost overwhelming, when you start looking. And you are spot on about your choices; find a Realtor you trust and like. Get a good sense of the community, the lay of the land and what you are looking for in a property.

The last thing is don't be afraid of a fixer upper. One heck of a lot of us have done the remodel thing and it's part of the journey. As you noted, Sun City is notorious for shoddy DIY's. It's another part of the joy about living here; laughing about what others have done before you as they "fixed it up."

Good luck tomorrow and enjoy the ride; it will only get better as you work through all the cool options and choices.

 

Emily - The tour was quite helpful and pointed out the things you mentioned. The centers are outstanding. If you can't find activities that interest you, you're just not trying. That's for sure. Not to mention the resale shops. That really got my wife's attention. :friendly_wink: