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I received this letter today from Club Corp enclosed at the top of this weblog in red.  It seems just like I thought; that they are still leaving a lease of the residence club a possibility in the future.  There are some very valid points for doing it as well as not so valid points depending on who you talk to. 

The golf folks seem pretty much for it and the Arrowcreek Homeowners are still digesting it (the leasing of the HOA residence club).  This should allow some time to sort it all out.

 I heard an interesting strategy today from an Arrowcreek Homeowner; let the Arrowcreek Country Club go bankrupt/dry and the Arrowcreek HOA buys it for pennies on the dollar.  I politely reminded him that that type of logic is a step over a dollar to pick up a dime mentality.  In other words, any benefit gained would be far outweighed by the loss of Arrowcreek real estate values and quality of life if the course drys up. 

It kind of reminds me of the torch bearing witch-hunt the Arrowcreek HOA is on to sue the developers of what at one time was Reno’s most desired master planned community until multiple lawsuits spooked the already paranoid buyers. 

By the way, Terrabrook fricken nailed this community; you will never in your lifetime see a community where the developer left around half of it open for wildlife, open space, undisturbed migration routes (unlike Somersett who has the daily mule deer parade and resulting Hummer/Mule Deer slaughter), huge artwork, sculptures, statues, parks, dog runs, soccer fields, multiple pools, tennis courts, basketball courts, water features  and my own favorite to point out; the street signs all have hoops and rounded sign holders for the birds of prey to land and the solar lighting around the community. 

Terrabrook did as they had planned and then some, they even used to throw parties for the Arrowcreek Homeowners until the HOA decided to sue them and created an us against them mentality.  These cats (Terrabrook) were down with green building and open space before it was a marketing buzzword.  It was a major concern/mission of theirs and is now a great sense of pride in accomplishing their mission.  Our thanks to them; sue sue sue.

The measly little $6,000. or so shortfall per parcel that what some are calling an over-baked reserve study deficit could have just gotten absorbed by a much smaller increase indefinately per month.   This is regardless of whether or not this tree killing Arrowcreek HOAs reserve study is accurate or not.  That will be up to the attorneys and a judge to decide ( I know what you’re thinking).  This has already been extended once in May and seemed to only add more fuel to the loss of equity firestorm of late.  We were hoping for an answer last May and now fall, just in time for the off season if it is at all settled by then.

Instead of a slight increase, the Arrowcreek HOA dues nearly doubled and now has costs the Arrowcreek Homeowners anywhere from $100,000. to $1,000,000.  each and in many cases above and beyond the correction of the nearby homes outside of Arrowcreek. 

This is not a typo (one million) eg; 1015 Taos, it was on last year at around $1,800,000. it is now still on the market at $899,000.  I guess in this case (the HOA/Terrabrook litigation) it is like stepping over a million to pick up $6,000.

One very important thing to remember is that the board that got us into this mess has since moved on, resigned etc.  The current board is working diligently to sort this mess out, there is even a reserve study advisory board.  The current Arrowcreek Homeowners Board seems like they are willing to work things out more and not go picking David and Goliath fights against heavily armored corporations.

The Homeowners really can’t be blamed as many were misinformed of the consequences and similar to the Arrowcreek Residence Club lease, it was a short voting time-line fuse. 

This trend seems to be happening all around town: Fleur De Lis Condos has a mess on their hands with a lawsuit that has brought values down approaching 50%.  Many people respond to the form letters that attorneys send out to Homeowners and file class action lawsuits.  Sometimes after years of fighting the attorneys get paid and the small amount the Homeowners get they generally don’t fix what they were suing for or forgot what it was even about. 

The loss in real estate values is generally much more than the plaintiffs receive.  The funny thing is that many of these builders are LLCs and or are bankrupt.  Even though the turnip doesn’t bleed, it still pays some to try apparently. 

The out of towners who brought us traffic, smog, young foreign brides, water shortages, crime, high real estate/speculation, then low real estate, $5.00 coffee drinks at Starbucks, way to many franchises, token classic cars/token Harley’s, the garage door opening never speak to your neighbor crowd also brought construction defect attorneys, developer/home-builder suing attorneys et al.  And by the way, you don’t have to remind me; my commission checks.  Keep in mind, the out of towners get blamed for everything, even earthquakes and the weather.

To bring this full circle; this is an awesome time to buy real estate, especially in Arrowcreek.  I feel this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and Arrowcreek Homes and the community will recover, like I say, Terrabrook (the developer) nailed it.  I came down from Tahoe and had a tall order for privacy, views, recreation, schools and stars at night, I personally love it in Arrowcreek.

Remember, over 9,000 boomers retiring daily, lots of jobs coming here etc. this is just a pause, when do you say; Arrowcreek is a little tougher to predict, sorry. 

Other areas I nailed to the day calling for a June 14, 2008 stabilization that I called in 2007, it is so far correct and holding steady according to the Greater Reno-Tahoe Real Estate Report a few blogs or so before this one.  My other kind of prediction type of posts are under local market on the left of the blog.  Don’t forget to read my April 2004 top of the market blog.

Pardon any negativity or rambling on, I owe it to the blog world every once in a while to get on a tangent/soap box to create a responce.  Please, be my guest and leave a comment, good, bad or whatever.

Ciao,

Ron

Filed under: ARROWCREEK