All right, so this video is all about some of my favorite tips when buying a home here in the city of Temecula, California. These are some things that I think are just good to know. They don't necessarily fit in some of my other videos, but I think it's good information for you guys. So let's go ahead and get into it.

Hey guys, hey again. My name is Justin Short. I'm a realtor and team leader with the Short Real Estate Team here at Keller Williams in Temecula, and this video is all about some of my favorite tips when buying a home here in the city of Temecula. I think there are just some really good things to know, some really good best practices, good general information, and some things that, honestly, I’ve had a hard time working into some of my other videos. So hopefully this will be good information and helpful for you and your family.

Before I get into all the information, if you are liking real estate and videos like this, please do me a favor and hit like and subscribe to the channel. Obviously, it helps me and it helps my channel as we continue to grow it. If you guys have any real estate questions, you can feel free to reach out anytime. You can see my information either down below or at the end of the video. You can call, text, or email me. I’m always happy to answer any questions you may have, help point you in the right direction, or, of course, if myself and my team can help you out with your real estate search, we’d love the opportunity to do that. Obviously, it’s how we earn a living, so we’d love the opportunity to help you and your family. But if anything, I’m always happy to just point you in the right direction, so feel free to reach out.

All right, so let’s go ahead and get into all the information here. Again, we’re going to talk about my favorite tips when buying a home here in the city of Temecula. I have five that I want to mention to you guys, and we’re going to start with number one.

The first thing I want to mention is when you’re buying a home in Temecula, you should 100% absolutely be paying attention to two things that I think most people miss. You should be paying attention to the property tax rate on each home you’re looking at, and you should also be paying attention to the homeowner’s insurance rates on each home you’re looking at.

I’ll give you kind of a long-winded explanation, but in general, the city of Temecula has the same base standard property tax rate across the board, and that’s right around 1.1%. So whether you’re buying a home that was built in 1975 or a home built in 2025, they’re going to have that same base standard tax rate percentage. What changes is that, in addition to the base tax rate, each home and neighborhood—especially tract home neighborhoods—can have additional special assessments on top of that base rate.

A good rule of thumb is the year built. Older homes tend to have little to no special assessments, while newer homes tend to have much higher and sometimes incredibly expensive special assessments. For example, you could look at two homes that are both priced at $800,000. One may be an older home built in 1989 with very little to no special assessments. That home may only have an additional $300 per year in special assessment taxes, which breaks down to roughly $25 per month.

On the other hand, you could look at another $800,000 home that’s a newer build or was built within the last couple of years, and that home may have about $5,000 per year in special assessments. That’s a huge difference. You can literally look at two homes across the street from each other, and the newer home may cost you an additional $5,000 per year in taxes. That’s over $400 per month just because of those special assessments.

Those are two extreme examples, but there are all kinds of variations and shades of gray between different neighborhoods and different years built. It’s definitely something you should be paying attention to, and it’s something your real estate agent should absolutely be helping you understand if you care at all about what your monthly and yearly tax bill is going to look like.

In addition to that, homeowners insurance rates have become a major issue over the last few years and are now a really big concern as well. Homeowners insurance rates can vary dramatically from property to property, neighborhood to neighborhood, and different parts of town. This is something you really should be paying attention to and make sure you have a good understanding of before you purchase a home.

For example, I had clients looking at homes in Temecula, and they received a homeowner’s insurance quote through a great insurance broker I work with. Their policy came out to about $2,200 per year, which is pretty common in this area. I’d say somewhere around $2,000 to $2,500 per year is fairly typical, although some homes are less expensive and others are more expensive.

As we continued searching for homes, we found another property about a month later that was located in a high fire zone. Because of that, they had to carry additional fire insurance through the California FAIR Plan. Instead of paying $2,200 per year, their insurance quote jumped to $5,400 per year. That’s over a $3,000 increase, or an additional $250-plus per month.

When you combine higher property taxes and higher insurance rates, you could realistically end up paying an additional $700 to $800 per month compared to what you originally anticipated. That can mean your monthly expenses are way higher than expected, or it may mean you can no longer afford the home you fell in love with. In some cases, buyers end up canceling their purchase altogether because it’s simply no longer financially feasible.

None of those outcomes are good, which is why it’s something you really need to pay attention to. So in short, pay attention to property tax rates and pay attention to homeowners insurance rates because they can become extremely expensive.

All right, number two. I think this is a really good tip for people paying attention to school districts. If you’re not familiar, the Temecula Valley Unified School District is a very highly rated school district. It’s one of the top districts in the state of California and is highly rated even at the national level. It’s honestly one of the biggest reasons people decide to move here.

Something I wanted to mention is that you can actually purchase a home with a Murrieta address that is still zoned for the Temecula Valley Unified School District. It’s not a huge area, but there’s a small portion of East Murrieta where this applies. I actually used to live in this area myself.

There are parts of Murrieta where you can buy a home and still attend Temecula Valley schools. Some of the school district boundaries in this area are a little unusual, and this also applies in certain areas of Winchester and surrounding communities. But I think it’s a huge plus to know that you can buy a home in Murrieta, still have access to the Temecula Valley Unified School District, and generally save money at the same time. The average home in Murrieta is about $100,000 less expensive than the average home in Temecula, so if you’re trying to save some money while still getting into a top-rated school district, I think it’s a really good pocket to consider.

Number three is something newer that I’ve really noticed over the last year and a half or two years. I would say 95% or more of home buyers today want a home that is completely move-in ready and don’t want to do any renovations at all.

I think there are a lot of reasons for this. The cost of purchasing a home has gone up dramatically, mortgage rates have gone up, affordability has become a challenge, and overall cost of living continues to increase. Because of all these factors, most buyers simply do not want to purchase a project home anymore. They don’t want to buy a property and then immediately put another $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, or even $50,000 into renovations.

Because of that, I actually think there are some really good deals available right now for buyers who are willing to purchase a fixer-upper. If you’re willing to go against the norm and buy something that needs a little love and TLC, I think you can probably find a property that has been sitting on the market longer, negotiate a better deal, and potentially save $10,000 to $40,000 or more off the asking price.

If you’re willing to put in some sweat equity over the next couple of years and slowly make the home your own, I think there are opportunities out there. Since so few buyers are willing to take on projects anymore, I think there’s actually value to be found if you’re open to it.

Tip number four is that building a pool is generally not a good financial investment. Now, obviously, Temecula gets extremely hot. In August and September, average temperatures are around 92 to 93 degrees, and we regularly have heat waves well over 100 degrees. Almost every home here has central AC because you really need it in this climate.

Because it gets so hot, a lot of people love the idea of putting a pool in their backyard. What many people don’t realize is just how expensive pools have become. If you contact a pool contractor today, the starting price for a very basic pool is about $85,000. That’s for something pretty standard—not huge, not super deep, and nothing overly fancy.

In reality, most people are spending closer to $100,000 on a pool, and I’ve seen many homeowners spend $130,000 to $150,000 or more. I know this firsthand because I did exactly what I’m telling you not to do. I put a pool in my backyard for my family, and we spent over $100,000.

Now, do we love it? Absolutely. It’s been great for my family, my wife, my kids, and for hosting friends and family. It’s something we genuinely enjoy and appreciate. But financially, it simply isn’t a great investment.

The reason we decided to do it is because we plan on staying in our home for the next 20-plus years, so we viewed it as a quality-of-life improvement rather than an investment. But if you are not planning to stay in the home long term, you may want to seriously rethink building a pool yourself.

Financially speaking, it’s usually much smarter to buy a home that already has a pool. If you compare two similar homes and one already has a pool, it may only cost you about $50,000 more compared to a home without one. So instead of spending $100,000 building a brand-new pool, you may only be paying about half that amount by purchasing a home that already has one installed.

Obviously, there are variables like the age of the pool, the equipment, and the overall condition, but from a pure math standpoint, it is usually a much better financial decision to buy a home that already has a pool instead of building one yourself.

And then tip number five, which is the last thing I’ll leave you guys with, is about location. If you’re going to be living in Temecula and commuting south, it is a huge advantage to live in South Temecula rather than another part of town.

South Temecula is generally considered the area south of Temecula Parkway off the 15 freeway. If you live in that part of town and commute south toward San Diego, you can realistically save 20 to 25 minutes each way on your commute compared to living farther north in the city.

That means you could potentially save 40 to 50 minutes per day just by choosing the right location. If you’re commuting to San Diego or anywhere south on a regular basis, I highly recommend considering South Temecula, even if it costs you a little bit more. As long as it fits within your budget, I think the improvement in quality of life is absolutely worth it.

Anyways, those are my tips. I hope this is helpful information for you guys. If you have questions, feel free to reach out. You can call, text, or email me, and hopefully I’ll talk to you soon. Thanks.