[00:00:00] : owning a home is still the american dream, but it comes with plenty of emotional and financial challenges join real estate broker Ron Evans each week as he shares the latest industry and local real estate market news through interviews with other agents and industry professionals. If you're confused about today's real estate market or just want to understand the home buying and selling process. This show is for you, here's your host, Ron Evans, everybody, this is Ron Evans. I am a real estate broker here in Orange county California and I host this youtube channel as well as the podcast, Real estate 101 and today I'm coming to you with some information based on a lot of questions that I get about different areas here in Orange County and I really think they can relate nationwide. I don't think it's specific just Orange County, but it has to do with living in a gated community and is that option appropriate for you? Um Now I know that we have a lot of gated communities here locally. To me, we have coded a casa, you may have heard of that on like the real housewife shows, we've had some people that have lived in their Kobe Bryant used to live in Coto. Um A lot of uh famous people have lived in there. Um but we have others around and we have some like over 55 senior communities that are gated um and others that are just um non age specific gated, I think one of the misconceptions that always comes about is that if you live in a gated community who your boogie um you must have a lot more money and things like that. I would tell you that around here um while the median house, this point in the side of a gated community might be higher than a non gated community, most of our gated communities do have housing available across multiple price points. You're not going to maybe find a first time Homebuyer homes in a gated community. But definitely if you're looking at a specific price point outside of a gated community, you, you will typically find that inside a gated community as well, but there are some other differences and that's what we're going to go over today. Now, I did write a blog post about it. It's just called living in a gated community and I am going to basically cover that blog post in this video today and if you have any additional questions, please leave them at a comment or email me directly at real estate one oh one at Ron Evans realty dot com. And I'll get back to you. Here we go. So living in a gated community, um a gated community is basically a neighborhood that is enclosed by a fence or a wall um surrounding the entire community. So it's not just partially enclosed, it's fully enclosed and you have a gated entrance, some of them have 24 hour guard or at least 12 to 18 hour guards at the gate, while others just have a security gate and you have like a fob or a key code to get in and out. Many people who live in a gated community in Orange County do so because of lots of different benefits, people who don't think that there's uh there's some drawbacks. Um you know, there's some inconveniences to living in a gated community. So let's find out if living in a gated community is for you. So their perception, the perception of living in a gated community, let's cover that first. Um while you are looking for a house, keep in mind that there are some key advantages of living in a gated community and these advantages will help you determine if life behind the gates is worth it. Although the perception exists that gated communities are expensive, like I talked about in the intro, they actually come in many price brackets and housing styles communities are no longer just for the super rich or wealthy, they are less expensive. There are less expensive gated communities um that might just fit the bill. I've covered that already. Um You can find homes in a gated community in the level price points under a million dollars here in Orange County, but you can also go up to, you know, 2,000,004 million, five million, 10 million depends on what you're looking for. Um you can also find condos as well as single family residences, you can find a state's largest states with lots of land all behind gates. You can find waterfront properties. Security in a gated community. One of the benefits is the security. So if feeling secure in your neighborhood matters most to you, being surrounded by gates might be a priority. However, not all gated communities have the same features in crime statistics do vary by region. So be sure you do your research always look things up. There are usually extra security measures taken to ensure the safety of the residents. It's not unusual to see security cameras in a gated community or neighborhood watch groups. This is very, very, very common data communities typically have lower crime rates than other non gated neighborhoods and communities also because the gates Because of the gates in the walls, homeowners experience a more private and secluded living experience. This is all true, but it's not um, 100% the rule, there are certain gated communities that are very large gated communities within themselves and we'll have lots of different activities, clubhouses and things like that. But they also will have large roads that come through your gated community because you're not just like a small neighborhood, you are a very large area. Um, so it's not unheard of to still have traffic inside a gated community. You can still have crime inside obligated community, but a lot of it is um, incidental. I don't, I don't want to be a little bit, but a lot of it is like basically the kids inside the gates that get a little crazy, get a little rambunctious and, but there are things that do happen with indicates, so you are not immune to the crime. What you might be more immune to is external crime coming into the gated community. So having crime perpetrated against you on from general public lifestyle. Um, if you like to be active or entertaining guests is a priority. Living in a gated community also might be the choice for you. Some of the larger gated communities like we have here with Coto de caza or Dove Canyon offer amenities like golf courses, tennis courts, obviously pools and clubhouses. Some of them have very beautiful clubhouses that will cost you a little extra to join but can be well worth it if that's your lifestyle. Some communities even offer lakes like Canyon Lake with boat docks and you can fish and do all kinds of things. Gated communities regularly coordinates sports activities like golf and tennis tournaments and neighborhood parties to this is completely true. Um, when you live inside a gated community, you suddenly take on a much more typically close knit um, feel and being active within within your role eco friendliness and surroundings of gated communities. Um, so today, many gated communities are green neighborhoods where the focus is on designing homes for energy efficiency, using advanced building science with eco friendly materials to promote things like water conservation, indoor air quality and just healthier living in general. This is true around here as well. We have some gated communities that even though they are older Um have different areas. So there's like, like encode a there's a there's an area of Coto de Caza that goes back to the 70s, totally different style of homes And different things. And then all of a sudden the 90s, they started really building out the other uh south part of Kyoto which is much more typical of like master planned communities. Um lots of different home builders coming in, being more energy efficient um and lots of different things like that, different aesthetics to fit more modern day living. They are able to do this by integrating, integrating natural sources of energy such as solar. We have a lot of solar here in our area, wind or water uh, into the architectural design of the home. So you'll see that a lot of homes today have water features more water conservative using wind energy, solar energy, lots of different things and they make it tie into the architectural features of the home so it doesn't look like it's an add on or that it stands out or that doesn't belong, it kind of just flows within the home as well as in the neighborhood thick and noise are also taken into consideration when planning and building, gated community homes. This is true. I kind of spoke of. Um, most gated communities you'll think of are just like smaller neighborhoods, maybe a few 100 homes, couple 1000 at the most. Occasionally you have areas though like Cody casa where they are very large, several 1000 homes and you actually end up having some thoroughfare type roads that go through. Um, but they are usually on the perimeter, but just something you always have to be on the lookout for typically on all your internal roads and something like kowtow or Dove or most other gated communities, they're going to be uh slower as far as like speed limits are concerned, speed bumps, roundabouts, lots of things that are done to kind of curb traffic and curb speeding to make it feel safer for drivers as well as pedestrians. You also might sea horse properties and horses. So these are all things that kind of coexist. You're enclosed from other outside neighborhoods and areas you generally don't hear a lot of noise from roads and other outside sources. This is true. You're not typically going to see a gated community like backing a freeway um, or backing a football stadium or, or different things that might bring in external noise are usually more tucked away in our neighborhoods. Um, or or nestled up against the mountains or foothills or things like that. So they can typically give you a little more peace and serene feeling gated communities here we have an Orange County. I've mentioned a few, but here in Orange County we have different gated communities. Um There are some links on my blog post which the blog post itself will be linked that kind of go over some different areas but they're different to end suited to all different lifestyles and homeowners. Um Search some specific homes for sale or get more information through my blog post in which is again linked here, but that is no gated community in a nutshell. Again, if you have any questions, please email me direct. Ron. Date 101 at Ron Evans realty dot com. Drop a comment. You can text me 9499 to 9 to 270. And I will see you again soon look below for links to the blog post which itself will have links to information about lots of different gated communities in Orange County um as well as homes and properties available to purchase. See you soon folks, I appreciate your continued support if you haven't already done so. Please don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends, leave your comments and questions below and I'll get back to you when I can have a great day. See you soon