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Your gonna need a good realtor.
IMO stay away from Northside school dist. They suck (that's my opinion).
John and I have decided to become adults and purchase a home. It'll be our first, and we're not rich so something lower-mid level starter home. We were thinking along the lines of Ryland and Medallion.
Do you know anything about the home builder's in the area? Can you recommend anyone? Recommendations and those to avoid welcome. We're looking to build north.
Also, at some point in the not too distant future we'll probably pop out a couple of kids too, so what do you know about the school districts.
Thanks for all of your help!
Your gonna need a good realtor.
IMO stay away from Northside school dist. They suck (that's my opinion).
Thanks for responding so quickly!
Excuse my ignorance, but you use a realtor to buy a new house? I thought they looked at existing houses and took you around to see them.
Carie - there are a couple people in the forum who are the midst of having a house built (or just had one built). So I'm sure that they will respond to you in the morning.
Good luck.
Thanks!
Don't buy a KB home.
That is all.
I would echo that... KB gives you lots of space for the money, but their quality is sub-par. The Ryland homes are a bit pricey for the size, but they are very energy efficient and well-built. The Wilson homes we looked at are pretty good. We ended up buying a Pulte. The Pulte homes are good quality - they don't rush the building process. But the main factors for our purchase were the house design and the neighborhood. (And the fact that Ruth's cousin bought a home two doors down from us.)
Also- a friend of mine has an Armadillo home and they were very flexible on the supplies & price and sweat equity. My friedns were able to do alot o fthings i nthier home htemselves to cut down on labor costs and when they found supplies for cheaper then Armadillo was charging them - they were able to use those instead. (cabinets, door headers etc.)
Pulte or D.R. Horton are probably tops in my book. I own a KB home because it was affordable for me at the time. Although not every KB home is trash. KB gets a bad rap mostly because of where they choose to build their homes, and not necessarily how they are built. A home with problems is usually due to poor or inadequate engineering and a poor foundation. Building homes where there are high plasticity soils has foiled every builder. Stick to the north side and you should avoid these bad soils.
Pulte doesn't rush the building process? In one subdivision here in metro Detroit, they started and closed 100 homes in 9 months...
I can believe that. I'm under enormous presssure to get paperwork out on a large Pulte subdivision here so that they can get started on construction.Pulte doesn't rush the building process? In one subdivision here in metro Detroit, they started and closed 100 homes in 9 months...
I live in a KB house and we love it - no complaints after a year and change (except for the Star Wars conventions in the community park; that still weirds me out).
Everyone is going to have a different opinion of every builder - I'd worry more about the price and if the super is worth a damn rather than what the company's rep is. Just my two cents.
As for saying that Pulte doesn't rush... that's just the experience I've had so far. We inked a deal at the end of October and they're just pouring the foundation this week. The house is supposed to be done toward the end of June. In the time that it's taken them to get ready to pour our foundation, KB has finished 40 or 50 homes in our current neighborhood.
That makes no sense. So if the super is likable and a good guy(gets done) but the company he works for is known for low quality materials(lumber, windows, etc) and workmanship you'd still buy the house?
Do your homework on the builder before buying. Don't just rely on a home inspector, snake oil salesman IMO, or the RE agent to be the be all end all. And remember, "you get what you pay for" applies to homes as well...
Did I mention anywhere that I didn't research the materials and the cost of the build? It's just easier when you have a super you can call and ask questions rather than deal with a salesman, especially if you've never bought a home before (like me). For my 120K, KB offered the best available house in the area I wanted to build, from top to bottom, over History Maker, Choice, and Weekley. I bought it and I'm happy with it.
Chill and go rub one out into your new Josh McCown jersey before jumping in my next time.
If you don't have a realtor yet, send me a PM and I'll give you the number to the guy I used. He was great.
A counselor I used to work with at my old job had a KB home. There were problems with the wiring and it half of the house caught fire. Just a heads up on that. But you know, something like that can happen with just about any builder, so it's all really up to you.
Depends on about how much you want to spend. From experience its better to find a lot and buy it. Be your own builder/contractor. My dad has done it that way three times and I am doing that as we speak. Its a lot better. It may take a little longer, but you are getting everything you want. You don't have to chose from this floor plan or that floor plan. Plus its a lot cheaper.
For instance, lets say you want a house that is 2500 sq. ft. Yo might pay like $150-$200 thousand for something like that here in SA in a good location. However, the builder probably paid something like $70-$90 thousand to build it. No joke. My parents new home got appraised at $240K. They spent around $115K to build it. They have marble tubs, granite counter tops, custom interior painting, and a lot of extras.
This is just my opinion though. It may be a little longer, but its worth it.
Oh yeah. If you do decide to build on your own, let me know and I can hook you up with the names of the people we used to do this, that, and the other.
Crazy, that sounds more like procrastination than not rushing the building process to me. The timeline for construction sounds about right though. Encino Ridge?We inked a deal at the end of October and they're just pouring the foundation this week. The house is supposed to be done toward the end of June. In the time that it's taken them to get ready to pour our foundation, KB has finished 40 or 50 homes in our current neighborhood.
That's really fascinating, MoSpur, I've probably got questions for you in the future.
As for Carie -
We're thinking about homes a lot too. I guess one question for us is the value of building your own home if you are only using it as a 'starter'. How long are you planning to live in it? Are you looking at it as an investment? What is the attraction for building vs. buying? If you are not planning on living there for more than five years, then school districts are irrelevant.
We are in a slightly different situation, in that if we buy here in Houston, it's not long term - we will move home to SA area eventually. So that affects our decision. But we are looking at townhomes and condos, and I would urge you to consider that as well. Especially in Houston, you can live in the inner loop with nice square footage, for under $200K. It's impossible in a house. So we know with a TH or Condo that we will be able to sell when we want (which is not always true of actual homes, as trends change, areas expand, and schools go up and down in ratings). In a townhome/condo, we have less responsibility for maintenance (as many of these are ruled by HOAs) etc and more than enough room for an expanding family with the added benefit of convenience inside the loop and resaleability.
For me, I dream of building my own home, but I wouldn't do it until we were established and would not be moving. But that's just me - I am not a big fan of change at all.
Anyway, just alternatives for you to consider. Congrats on such a big step! Owning a home, whatever the format, is such a great thing to do! We are just now beginning to pay off our debt, and will start saving for a downpayment this summer, so unless we win the lottery (of which I live in perpetual hope), it'll be several months more.
Carie, if you run into any problems getting your loan under the terms you want let me know and I can lead you to some good financing sources.
I wasn't trying to jump in your and I agree with everything you said the second time around. Ask as many questions as possible, especially if you have no clue of what's going on. It's your biggest purchase ever so you should feel as comfortable as possible during the process...
It just sounded different in your earlier post. BTW, I rub one out wearing my Bobby Layne jersey...
If you are only planning to stay in this starter home for a few years, then building your own is probably not for you. I'd buy something cheap. I mean buy a good house, but try to find one at a low price. Research a lot of homes in the same area where you are looking to see what the better ones are going for. When you decide which one you want, buy it.
For example, lets say you are shopping in an area where there are homes in 7-10 year old range. Lets say there are several homes in this area going for $75-$100. $75K being low to average looking homes. $100K being the better looking homes. I would try to buy one in that area for about $70K. Why? You can easily fix it up with $10-$15K (probably less $$) and then turn around and sell for $100K or more. Think of it as an investment not just a starter home. The fact that its a starter home makes me think you won't be there longer than five years, which means you'll have a lot of time to do the improvements you'll need to. Don't buy one that has structural damge or mold. That will cost you a lot of money.
Its just a bit of info.
^5 (with the unoccupied hand, of course)
NEISD has very good schools. We live in a Perry Home and have been very pleased with it. I don't know what price range you are looking at but my suggestion would be to check out all the builder's websites and see where they have subdivisions under construction in the areas where you are interested in. Then visit those sites and check out the available lots and floor plans and see what you think about their model homes and then do a lot of research about customer satisfaction.
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