Hi L, Go for it. That's what blogs are all about. -- Georgia

Andrew, Here's a bit more info in regard to your question. In Sahuarita Highlands, a buyer must commit to having the developer start building his home, one of 4 possible plans, within three weeks of closing on the purchase of a particular lot. In other cases, one might be able to buy a lot and sit on it rather indefinitely without actually building. There are two stages where the developer might relax some of the rules: 1- when things are just getting underway and he needs the cash flow as well as the appearance of his being a hot development and secondly when he has sold most of the units and wants to get out and move on. The investor really needs to be careful right now. Many investors want rental properties with the expectation that the rent will buy the house for him. Sometimes that works, other times it does not. And lending practices now are almost ridiculously dangerous. Historically, a buyer should not invest more than 25% of his gross annual income in paying for his housing expenses. But that concept went out the window many years ago. Incidentally, the developer controls the rules. He often violates them with impunity, but the individual buyer will be expected to follow the rules and may face severe penalties if he does not. Whenever there is a glut of houses on the market and this may well be the case in this area now, flipping may backfire. To the best of my knowledge flippers are working mostly within HOA type developments and there really isn't much else around. Often they have the sophistication to work out deals with the developer and may actually buy several properties at the same time.

Andrew, The answer to you question is that it all depends on the CC&Rs, the codes, covenants and restrictions of the particular association. For example, in one Sahuarita association, when you resell a property, you may have to pay a fee for common area maintenance. When tacked on to the selling price, you may be at a distinct disadvantage over the developer-seller who does not have to pay this as part of the original sale.

I walked aroung the lake at 2:00. I saw the wrappers of the free fishng poles and I saw a young girl bring in a great cat fish as her brother came running over yelling, "holy mackeral!" However, otherwise it seemed pretty quiet even as I walked all aroung the lake. So, I guess I must have missed the main event??????? - Georgia

Hi Mona, As an activist pacifist, I think constructive investment beats bombs anytime. When working in Latvia, I was particularly impressed with how much Germany was investing in schools and business support activities there. In part they may be motivated with the idea that they don't want too many Latvians moving to Germany for jobs. There is a lot to be learned from how the EU is trying to bring people together and at the same time prevent migration from poorer countries to richer.
On a local level we need to be looking at how we might better integrate our own communities here. Do we really want Sahuarita to be primarily a bedroom community for Tucson? Do we really want most of our service workers at Walmart, and the fast food restaurants to live on the fringes of our HOAs because they can not afford to live inside of them?