DO NOT buy a condominium in the Newport Cove community of Henderson. I live here, and why am I telling you this? Because I was a first time home buyer and I got ripped off, and I don't want what happened to me to happen to anyone else. Many of these condos are selling at or below 40K, cash only. There is a reason for the cash only. The banks simply will not finance a buyer in these units. They know about all the construction defects that were glazed over by the original flipper RMI. They know about all the major safety issues related to these units. If you are considering buying a unit here, walk away, and walk away quickly. You'll get a better return from a slot machine.
In the past 6 years that I have lived here, here is what has happened to me and to many of my neighbors, who simply walked away and threw their hands up in the air. Many units are sitting empty, which has caused an increase in both crime as well as homeless. The units were build in 1983 as apartments and flipped in 2005. The people who bought them were not even informed the units were in a flood zone! In 2009 they were declared officially out of the flood zone, and the residents finally stopped having to pay the annual flood insurance premium.
1. Original HVAC are on the second story roofs. Many over 20 years old, requiring retrofits at the very least or replacement which requires a crane! You can count on laying out at least 10 grand for one these puppies.
2. Construction Defects Lawsuit — 2007. The board tried, however a friend of the flipper owned a unit in the edition. He sent out a TON of propaganda warning people not to sue or they would see their property values drop. He even threatened to sue the board if they didn't drop the lawsuit. The owners fell for it hook line and sinker. More than 50% voted not to sue, then when the bottom dropped out of the market they lost their money anyway. It was estimated that there at least 25K of major construction defects per unit, which is certainly true.
3. Electrical Wiring — If you are ever in the community you will probably notice an electrician's vehicle. Why? The wiring is old and shoddy. The breaker boxes are circa early 80s. Fuses blow, lights blow out, and wiring is not hooked up properly. Recently, I had a small electrical fire in my unit when the main feed line heated up when the breaker wouldn't flip off. Why? The contractor who flipped the unit hooked a 12 and a 14 wire into a 15 amp breaker, because they didn't want to spend 12 bucks for a separate breaker. This poor breaker was running half my lights and my refrigerator. The wire feeding it melted down from the front to the back. Naturally requiring all the drywall to be removed.
4. Flooding / Plumbing — There is a pipe in the ceiling of the upper units. When it gets cold the pipe breaks. If no-one is living in the upper units (half of them are empty) the upper unit floods and leaks into the other units. This is the second year it happened. Actually it happened to 7 units on New Years Day 2011. All of Serve Pro was out. They had to bring out dumpsters for all the flooring and drywall which had to be removed out of each unit. The HOA is finding that getting insurance for the units is becoming a challenge.in addition, the upstairs showers that were installed in 2005 are not sealed correctly. They leak grey water into the units below.in fact, half of the back of my unit was torn apart when this happened to me in 2009.
5. Mold in the walls — The contractor who flipped the unit installed granite in the showers. Rather than remove the original shower tiling which was moldy or even check for mold, the contractor simply slapped the granite over the top. Granite is heavy and expensive to move. Any time you move it to correct this or any other plumbing issue you can expect to fork out the cash.
6. Many "special" assessments. With all that goes wrong throughout the year. You can count on them. They are in addition to the $200 a month assessment you have to pay out each month.
7. Roofing — A major roofing job is also needed.
8. Rotten Wood on exterior. If you happen to look at the exterior of each unit. You will see the rotton wood trim that the contractor painted over. Eventually there will be some serious carpentry work to do.
There are many more things that I am not listing here — if you don't believe me, just talk to anyone else who lives here, except maybe a board member. They may or may not tell you everything.
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