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Overall: 3.0 out of 5.0 |
(1 Review) |
"This condo used to be called Water Terrace, a very nice luxury apartment. During the last half of the housing boom, Tom Barrack of Colony Capitals converted this apartment to condo units. Millions and millions of dollars were poured into renovation, and even more millions of dollars were poured into marketing where they hired super hot Brazilian models and flew helicopters on the rooftop and such, and advertised Azzurra as a place where you can live in luxury without having to pay millions for it. They even had a huge art gallery show and got a few actual artists to join the party. Interestingly during one of Barrack's interviews in 2005 he mentioned that he was glad to dump real estate as he predicted a huge housing crash. He thought he could sell all of his units by 2006, but housing crash came sooner than he predicted and only 60% of the units were sold.
As of 2009 there are a bunch pending foreclosures from people who bought the condo with 0 down and 0 interest rate. You can get a pretty good deal now compared to the height of the boom in 2006 because people are desperate to sell. Here's a data point. A one bedroom one bath HOA used to be $690 in 2006. In 2007 that number was $800 minus $50 (the $50 is covered by the builder because they made a "mistake" in assessments). In reality, I think what happened was the builders couldn't sell their units due to high HOAs so they automatically lowered it to try to dump inventory. In 2008 the HOA was $900. Then somewhere down the road they realized that they didn't have enough reserves and insurance, so charged everyone extra $100 "emergency fund" per month for a whole year to cover up xpenses they didn't expect to go up, and to keep up the reserves. If you have to pay over $100 increase per year, imagine how much you need to pay 10 years from now. The worst thing about the HOA is that proportionally, smaller units increase HOA fees much higher than larger units. In the three years I've seen, a 4000 sqft unit HOA increased by almost the same amount of money ($1200 to $1500) and thus proportionally, they're paying a lot less HOA than smaller units when taking square footage into consideration.
The Irvine Management Corporation (Action Property Management) that you give the HOA check to is the worst I've seen in management orporations. Good luck trying to reach anybody on the phone. As for building management, they seem to change every year... last year was Laura, but who knows who will be there next. One thing I have to say is that *most* but not all the people who work there are superb. George the parking manager is very accommodating and nice. Frontdesk quality varies a lot though. Gabriel is probably the best frontdesk guy out there. He's also one of the very few original guys there.
Mail. All the mail is delivered by this USPS lady named "Shari." I've gotten tons of mail from other nearby units every month, and I've gotten mails that are late. I've also lost mail as well. I've complained about mail problems to building management as well as USPS, but they don't seem to have any control over this "Shari" lady. My advice is to get a PO box instead of relying on the mail box.
This is an amazing building with amazing amenities and one visit will convince you that it's possibly one of the best places to live in. Amazing rooftop, pool, gym, you name it. I think you'll get a really great deal renting from one of the desperate sellers. You can get a nice 1bd 1bth for $2000-2500 or so these days (I have no idea how you can get a $500 rent according to "Karen W" of a previous poster). However, I don't think Azzurra (or any other nearby condos) makes any financial sense as a purchase. First of all it makes a very lousy investment because the exorbitant HOA will eat away all of your profit margin, if you actually have any profit margin in the first place. But if living to the proximity of the marina is one of your lifetime aspirations, by all means, you can do any better than to endulge yourself in the Azzurra."
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