A house across the street from an unusually painted home in a small Ahwatukee Foothills neighborhood without a homeowners association has sold at nearly its asking price.

The deal, which closed in late December, seems to support the argument that funky house-paint jobs do not necessarily translate into diminished property values.

The 15-year-old Mountain Crest neighborhood near 44th Street and Chandler Boulevard, however, remains a legal battleground as a lawsuit wends its way through the court system.

The just-sold house at 4509 E. Mountain Sky is across the street from a home painted lime green with purple trim and nicknamed “the Easter egg” house by some neighbors. That home is among three unusually painted homes in the 109-home development that has been the center of a neighborhood feud marked by lawsuits and name-calling.

Rodney Rohrmann, the real estate agent with Realty Experts Inc. who listed the hosue in October, said clients who viewed the conventionally painted house didn’t mention “the Easter egg” house across the street.

“I never heard one word about it,” he said. “It’s a very subdued green. It doesn’t say ‘look at me,’ like the red one.”

Rohrmann was referring to a two-story house around the corner that its homeowners, Patty and Tom Scanlan, painted “Sedona red” more than two years ago in an effort to spruce up their faded paint job.

A year later, a group of neighbors tried to reprise the community’s defunct design review committee and urged the Scanlans to repaint their home a more neutral color that fits with neighborhood. They also filed a “notice of noncompliance” in March with the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office against the Scanlans and their property at 15035 S. 45th Place.

In September, the neighbors filed another document, a “release of notice of noncompliance” to be posted on the site. The second notice can be found by searching under Tom Scanlan’s name but not Patty’s, which was used to file the first notice.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit that the Scanlans filed in Maricopa County Superior Court in October against eight neighbors is pending.

Patty Scanlan said the neighbors filed a counterclaim, demanding that she repaint her house and that the design review committee be reprised as a legal entity with retroactive authority.

The neighbors could not be reached for comment.

Patty said she is not surprised to learn that the house on East Mountain Sky recently sold.

“I never did buy that I was impacting the sale of homes in the area with the color of my house,” she said.

The house sold after being on the market for 72 days.

“That’s somewhat quick,” said Rock Argabright, a real estate agent with Realty Executives in Ahwatukee Foothills.

The home sold for $310,000, about $5,000 below the asking price. The deal closed Dec. 20, a day before coverage of the neighborhood fight in The Arizona Republic dominated its Web site, www.azcentral.com, and generated the most comments from readers for that week.

Argabright said he doesn’t believe the controversy will affect the neighborhood’s resale market, at least in the short run.

“I don’t think it’s affecting them yet at this point,” he said. “It may hurt that pocket of homes over time.

“Most people are against HOAs to begin with, but once they get into them, they realize that they are valuable in protecting your home value.”

That has been the crux of the issue for many homeowners and observers alike. Some believe HOAs are needed so that homeowners will maintain their properties and keep in step with the approved color and architectural schemes; others oppose HOAs because they believe they lead to cookie-cutter developments and limit homeowners’ rights to alter their properties as they wish.

Rohrmann, who lives in the neighborhood, falls into the second camp.

“We moved here eight years ago because it wasn’t in an HOA,” he said. “I know I’m subject to living next to some guy who could paint his house blue, but I’d rather have that and the ability to tinker with cars on my property.”

Rohrmann also said that he believes the Mountain Sky home could have sold for its asking price of $349,000 but it had to compete with a similar house in the neighborhood that was priced too low.

Plus, the 1,742-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom Mountain Sky home had to overcome other problems, he said, including backing up to power lines and being on a main street through the development.

Rohrmann said a neighbor circulating a petition to form an HOA approached him after the house color controversy began. He declined, arguing that he opposes paying dues in a community without a common area to maintain and forming a rule-enforcing group.

“It’s going to pay for someone to sit around and send you a letter when you leave your garbage can out,” he said.

Source: www.azcentral.com

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