Even God Loves Montreux

If you lead a kind and moral life, you just may be rewarded and guided to your very own Montreux Chalet.    I really can’t comment on 6300 Fleur Court.   It was purchased in July 2002 for $758,471, and has been improved with an $80,000 home theater system, pool and spa, and a water feature you could probably kayak down.  The current list price of $980,000 is probably about what the owner has invested in the home.  The first mortgage of $500,000 is still in place, and there hasn’t been any HELOC activity.  What do you Montreux watchers think?

I have a sneaking suspicion that in the autumn of my years, God will show to me a double wide in Sun Valley.

32 comments

  1. promus1

    Listed by Congress Realty-for real?
    If this is the case, I should get in line for the pending $800,000 tax credit, and get an interest free loan for the remainder.
    Maybe I’m thinking of Barack Realty?

  2. Worried Guy

    Actually, it turns out it is 9 cents on each $100 assessed, not 4 cents..Wow….Guess I should start looking outside Washoe County….Thoughts?

  3. Tom

    From my viewpoint, that community is an example of nicely-landscaped but fairly dense suburban living, comprised of attractive houses which generally seem to feature a large number of small rooms, focused around the golf course. We have found nothing in there that appeals to us. But I admit, we are not golfers, so maybe my opinion should be discarded for this type of a community.

    After God helps Mike find that double-wide in Sun Valley, maybe he can steer us toward a large old ranch house on 2 acres in the woods, with a small number of large rooms, and with no close neigbors.
    I doubt it would be in Galena Forest or St. James, those houses don’t seem to us to have much side yard spacing either.

    We are soon going to give up looking in the Reno-Tahoe area; however, the comments of the blog contributors are educational and useful, and we have enjoyed them.

  4. billddrummer

    Mike,

    I too will be in Sun Valley. But mine will be a single wide.

  5. 3niner

    Tom… Try the other side of the valley, up in the Virginia Highlands. There are some large lots up that way, which are quite afforable. Many are forested (with smaller trees).

    If you look southeast of Reno, you will see a section of the hillside that has a lot more trees than the rest of the Virginia Range. That section has more trees, because it gets more precipitation. Of course, we’re still on the edge of a high desert, so it’s not exactly wet.

    That area might be a bit too rustic for you, but you would have a lot more control over your own property.

  6. Reno Ignoramus

    Tom, if you are looking for something that is two acres away from the closest neighbors, is in the woods, and is a large ranch house, I don’t think that what you are looking for exists here. There are large ranch houses, some of them old, and houses in the woods, and houses on two acres, but to find the trifecta is going to be very difficult.
    But I’ll keep my eyes open for you….:)

  7. Tom

    Thanks guys. I meant the house should be centered in a large lot, it doesn’t need to be that much side spacing. Desert-type pines ub the Virginia foothills might work, we will look over there. A friend said the Tahoe One departure path goes over those hills, so we would want to check that out.
    I have a big lot in LA but still the backyard neighbors (200 feet between houses) complained about the horn section in the band…just wait until Memorial Day!

    If I can listen to their *&#@ middle-eastern folk music, they can listen to our Motown.

    And if we move to Reno-Tahoe, we aim to play it LOUD.

  8. marvins garden

    yes, the virginia city highlands. such a beautiful and safe road to travel during the winter months. NO THANKS!

  9. marvins garden

    The road to virginia city has DEATH written all over it

  10. MikeZ

    I have a big lot in LA but still the backyard neighbors (200 feet between houses) complained about the horn section in the band…just wait until Memorial Day! … And if we move to Reno-Tahoe, we aim to play it LOUD.

    With all due respect, if I can hear YOUR music, next door, from 200 feet away, it’s too damn loud.

    And if you move next to ME, you can expect visits from the PD, nightly. Learn some consideration for your neighbors, this isn’t LA.

    Sorry, everyone, but people who blast their music is one of my pet peeves.

  11. Tom

    Not even once a Year, Mike?
    We are talking about annual social functions, not nightly amplified CD or radio music.

    The band plays for no more than 1 hour, in the afternoon only, and quits by 5 PM.

    We do invite the neighbors. Mike, you will be welcome, neighbor or not.

    The local P.D. guys stop by for barbeque.

    No city or county laws are violated.

  12. Reno Ignoramus

    Uh, the horn section, Tom?”

    “And a crowd of young boys theyr’e fooling around in the corner
    Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform solos
    They don’t give a damn about any trumpet playin’ band
    It aint’ what they call rock and Roll
    And the Sultans played creole.”

    Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits
    “Sultans of Swing”

  13. marvins garden

    “HELP PROTECT NEVADA-KEEP CALIFORNIANS OUT”

  14. EdBear

    Hey, lay off CA. If it weren’t for our $$$$$, what would happen to Northern NV?

  15. Tom

    RI, I like the Sultans of Swing, too. But this horn section I’m talking about isn’t a bunch of kids in baggy pants like the group in the song. It is a small group of age 60-ish soulful Detroiters who grew up playing Temptations and Lou Rawls songs. They know how those songs are supposed to sound, very mellow…these guys used to play in Nevada clubs, in fact, Back in the Day.

    Marv, when most retiring Californians migrate to other states, they take accumulated resources and assets with them, unlike younger new resident arrivals in `receiving states.’ Semi-Retirees moving to Nevada will reinvest in housing, buy goods and services, sometimes will hire employees, or buy cars. For example, we would bring two small businesses with us, creating at least five new jobs; buy a nouse (which would at least create another “sale” in your market statistics); and we are waiting to buy a needed new truck in order to buy from a Reno dealer. We would be contributing by employing outside vendors, a landscape contractor, probably adding a room addition, utilizing local restaurants and stores, i.e., spending money among local Reno area businesses. The employees I would need must have at least a college degree, so that would help some to fill-in the middle job market. I have read on this blog and others comments that there aren’t enough jobs for that group, so they leave the area. Creating positions for them is a good thing for Nevada–you don’t want your kids forced to leave after finishing college due to shortages of jobs fitting their educational level.

    Statistics will show a reader that retiree age group inbound migration generally does not add to social services costs for the receiving state compared to costs for adding younger familes: primarily, no new kids to educate, just more taxpayers to help pay for those already living there. This group is statistically not comprised of people prone to criminal conduct, either.

    If you do the homework, I think you will find that Ed is right. Besides, with the inbound migration Nevada will inevitably share with other receiving states, of new arrivals who are foreign nationals, legal or not, you will need more supporting local property tax contributors and a stimulated local economy to cover the costs of growing social services needs Nevada will incur. The newly-arriving foreign nationals are a sympathetic group and I wish they could all be helped, but the truth of the matter is that they largely come with nothing but the clothes they are wearing, and they bring social service needs with them–children to educate and support, increased demands upon police and social services, and added local hospital burdens.

    This emotional cry to `keep Californians out’ may be trendy and seem stylish, but in fact it is short-sighted; you may want to be careful, or you may get what you wish for. And then the small group of pre-existing local Nevadans playing that tune would be paying alone for the inevitable increased social services costs facing Nevada and other receiving states over the next ten years.

    Probably the last thing Nevadans should hope for is to deter people with assets and whose families are grown and educated from moving into your state — unless your group alone wants to become the life-support system for all those new arrivals who will be coming in without assets but with young children and needs. Those new foreign national arrivals will be coming to Nevada whether wanted or not, it is already happening.
    The federal government does not seem too interested in stopping this trend, or in helping to pay for state government deficits. Ask Arnold.

  16. MikeZ

    Not even once a Year, Mike?

    “Once a year” is not what I assumed. And certainly not during the daylight hours. My limited exposure to people from LA and their music/noise – especially blasting from cars – is all bad and I assumed the worst.

    Sorry, my apologies.

  17. marvins garden

    Maybe you can bring that crappy californian road rage driving with you as well?

    or how about that snobby im better than you californian attitude also?

    FYI both of those don’t fly here in Reno. I moved to reno because of all the places I have lived NY,FL,PA,NO,CA- people in reno were much nicer and had better attitudes. Infact of all the place I have lived california stands as being the WORST in respect to neighborly friendliness, and over all politeness.

  18. marvins garden

    more often than not californians move to nevada (reno) with a chip on their shoulder. however, it is soon knocked the ***** off.

  19. Tom

    Yo, Marv, you seem so critical and so ready to pick a quarrel, that it appears to me that you are more like the guy with the chip on his shoulder than the hypothetical Californian you have in your mind. And if your responses and attitude reflect your idea of Nevada politeness and neighborliness, I wouldn’t boast about it, if I were you.

    With over thirty-five million people in California, sure you will run into some you prefer not to be around. But that can happen anywhere, including those several other states you mention you have lived in where you also criticize the attitudes of the people.

    Add up the population of those states you think were the “bad attitude” population states where you have lived previously, and you will see what a significant percentage of the nation’s population they represent.

    You can find neighborly people in any state–including California–not just primarily in Nevada. Much of your experience I suggest to you may be influenced by the way you interact with people, which impacts the way they respond to you.

    Lighten up, Marv, and I bet you will find there weren’t so many hostile people around you in all those states as you thought.

  20. Sully

    I agree with Tom. I have encountered more idiot drivers here in Nevada (in two years) than I ever did in the decades I lived in California. I suspect Marvin has run into other out of staters that make for the “road rage” in California. BTW, Calif isn’t the only state with road rage.

    One incident that I clearly remember is a driver with Indiana plates that stopped dead in the middle lane of 101 so that he could watch the Blue Angels at Moffett Field! I happened to be the guy behind him when he stopped. I showed him his IQ when I went around him! 🙂

  21. BanteringBear

    marvins garden = marcus = diablo = apple = derrick. It’s obvious, and sure says a lot about this kids lack of confidence and insecurities to have to distance himself from his previous comments by making up new nicknames on a regular basis.

    The troll posted:

    “FYI both of those don’t fly here in Reno. I moved to reno because of all the places I have lived NY,FL,PA,NO,CA- people in reno were much nicer and had better attitudes”

    Then you OBVIOUSLY do not fit in in Reno. Ithaca called, they want their trash back…

  22. CommercialLender

    Tom,
    You articulated quite well in your posts (and in previous posts over the last months or so). You are exactly the type of buyer and new ‘immigrant’ that Reno or other municipalities should desire to see transplanted. But this common sense approach (your posted comments) is lost on most politicians and certainly by most NIMBYs.

    Reno did a good job, at least for a while in the past 5 years, in promoting itself to its neighbor to entice their jobs and higher-dollar immigrants to come. Those efforts worked for a while, and perhaps they are working now, as Smarten seems to attest in Incline.

    Tom, you sound like a neighbor I would not mind having, a positive for the community, one with some culture and social graces and who knows how to throw a party in a respectful, neighborly way. And for his detractors, read between the lines: anyone in ‘LA’ with 200 feet between homes in the rear yards certainly has the money and ability to bring to bring with him a positive economic impact to the neighborhood. I would suggest Reno double up on its efforts to attract similar newcomers.

  23. Mark

    I agree. We need more Californians like Tom. Lighten up on him.

  24. billddrummer

    I as well. I’m a drummer, and it would be nice to have a place to play that has people like Tom as residents.

  25. john

    Four new sales pending in Montreux this week, all with askings over $1.5mil. I guess there really is some love for Montreux out there. I’ll keep you appraised on the outcomes.

  26. billddrummer

    To john,

    Let us know when those pendings close, and at what prices.

    I’d also be interested in knowing whether any of the current pendings have already had price ‘adjustments.’

    A further data point: How many of the buyers were able to get jumbo loans, and how many will pay cash for their Montreux mansions?

    I’m an interested bystander, as I’m sure many who contribute to this blog have become.

  27. john

    Sorry, there are three new pending sales this week over 1.5, not four. I included an older pending by mistake.

    Bill,

    5885 Chambery was reduced from 2.1 to 1.55 several months ago. It is now listed as a short sale.

    20525 Latour was reduced from 1.9 to 1.65 2 months ago. It was built and is owned by the Montreux developer.

    6616 Jung was reduced from 2.5 to 2.1 several months ago. It was built by Pierce Construction, builder of several homes in Montreux.

  28. billddrummer

    Thanks. Keep us posted.

  29. smarten

    John –

    Since you appear to be our “Montreux Man,” what ever happened to that Delacroix [REO] pending that was listed for $619K? It was supposed to have closed this week.

    And yesterday I received notice that there is another Renaissance REO [on Cartier] listed in the higher $600Ks.

    To me, these REOs represent some of the best SFR values in Reno. Thanks for keeping the group up to date.

  30. john

    Smarten – 16865 DELACROIX closed on the 15th for 605k. It was the smallest of the Renaissance floor plans at 3100 sq ft. Still a decent buy at 195 per sq foot, but not a smokin deal in my opinion given the tract home nature of this subdivision within Montreux.

  31. smarten

    Thanks John –

    I thought it would close in the high $500Ks.

    Is it a smokin’ deal at $195/square foot when you’re comparing other homes’ prices/square foot? Probably not. But IMO, Montreux is a community within itself [not saying that’s either a good or bad thing]. And at $195/square foot INCLUDING the land, it’s a smokin’ deal.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *