GlossyVeneer

I live in a gated community. Many people think that sounds fancy, but it’s really not. If you want fancy, you have to live in a GUARD-gated community. At least, that’s how it is here in The Vegas. It just happened that the house we liked best while searching was in a gated community. But I kind of question whether the gate is a good thing or not.

Point #1
When we closed on our house and got the keys, we were naturally excited. “We get to go to our new home in a new city. So exciting!” We drove to the community, pulled up to the gate, grabbed the gate clicker we were given at closing and pushed the button. Nothing happened. Pushed it again. Nothing happened. People started pulling up behind us and their gate clickers weren’t working either. One neighbor commented, “Damn gate, broken again.” So we were immediately locked out of our neighborhood.

Point #2
When people come to visit me, they are supposed to punch in my code or scroll through to find my last name in the box at the gate. The box then calls my house phone. I can answer the phone and talk to the person at the gate. Once I have verified that it is someone I invited, I push a button on my phone and it triggers the gate to open. But most of the time, people pull up to the gate, whip out their cell phone and call my house. Then they say, “I’m at the gate!” I tell them they need to punch in the code I gave them, but… “Okay, I’m typing it in now. I get a busy signal.” Yeah, that’s what I tried telling you. You need to hang up with me so the phone call can come through to my house. Guests rarely understand the procedure.

Point #3
Whenever we have had delivery or repair people come to the house though, they just wait at the gate and sneak in behind a person that lives here. It’s really easy to just wait for a neighborhood resident to open the gate and then follow them in. Yes, it’s convenient for us in the case of deliveries or repairs, but it also makes it ridiculously easy for the “bad” people to get in as well.

Point #4
There is a pedestrian gate in and out of the community as well. When the gate closes, it locks and you have to punch in a code to re-open the gate. I have no clue what that code is, so I can’t leave my neighborhood on foot out of fear that I will be locked out. Maybe that’s the point, trying to protect the outside world from me.

I don’t think I would purposely search for a home in a gated community. It’s kind of a pain and I don’t see that it adds a lot of security. But if the next house I buy happens to be the home of my dreams and it’s in a gated community, it probably wouldn’t be a deal breaker either.

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