I forgot about this additional property whammy

After my husband's revelation about the possibility of moving to Southern California, I went and checked out homes that are currently on the market.

What did many realtors blast in BRIGHT BOLD RED on their banners? NO HOA! NO MELLO-ROOS!

Now I know that most communities have HOA to help maintain the public areas of a housing area. But the Mello-Roos? I had totally forgotten about. And many areas where my folks live have BOTH types of items attached to homes. The HOA in the area can be several hundred dollars to almost a thousand. The Mello-Roos? It's just another thing to add on TOP of your principal, taxes, HOA, and insurance.

So to these realtors out there who are trying to sell homes in THIS market? Touting that THEIR home has no HOA and/or no Mello-Roos is a huge deal. That can be upwards of $1500 of savings on some purchases. Can you believe it? That's an entire MORTAGE payment!

But I must say that I did see a bunch of homes that peaked my interest. What the Hubsa nd I have to decide is what's important to us. The "best" school district we can afford is something we have to put at the very top. Then we've got to figure out if we want acreage or not. The homes feel like they're stacked on top of each other in the city. If we are out further we could get up to half an acre! THAT would be awesome. Then there's the issue of a buying in one of the newer communities or an older community (which is an issue of home build quality).

Can you tell I'm already in fantasy mode? But I need to get this out of my system now. Do my research and checking online. Then I'll be able to take a step back and let it marinate. Let me excitement seep out a bit now. Away from the Hubs. I don't want to show him my excitement. If things don't work out then I don't want him to feel bad about it not happening. He knows I want to move back closer to my parents. My sisters. He knows how happy it'll make me.

So you people? You get to hear about my joy. My excitement. My hopes.

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Definition: Mello-Roos is actually a region or District where a special tax is imposed on those real property owners within a Community to pay for services. This district has chosen to seek public financing through the sale of bonds for the purpose of financing certain public improvements and services. These services may include streets, water, sewage and drainage, electricity, infrastructure, schools, parks and police protection to newly developing areas. The tax you pay is used to make the payments of principal and interest on the bonds. Its usualy a monthly payment that is on top of your mortgage payment, taxes and insurance. There are some instances where you can pre pay a lump sum in order to get your mello roos withdrawn but you would have to live in the house a long time before it would pay off.