Housing Search (Atlanta, Roswell, North Atlanta: purchasing, school districts, inspections)

[beach43ofus]

I thought I'd offer an out of the box solution. Buy or lease a large house boat on Lake Lanier. I think some marina's allow live aboads. Your kids will love it.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I thought I'd offer an out of the box solution. Buy or lease a large house boat on Lake Lanier. I think some marina's allow live aboads. Your kids will love it.

Buying or leasing a large house boat is a good out-of-the-box solution.

But seeing as though the OP appears to really want and has expressed a very strong desire to live in an area of the highest-rated public schools, it is not known if the OP might would fully like the ratings, quality and/or local cultures of the school clusters (Lanier HS, Forsyth Central HS, East Forsyth HS, Dawson County HS, Lumpkin County HS, Chestatee HS, North Hall HS, Gainesville HS, West Hall HS and Flowery Branch HS) that serve the shoreline area around Lake Lanier.

[VJP]

I know you and I have communicated in the past about trying to find a house around here. Nothing much has changed in your target area. Many out of state buyers are submitting offers over asking, sight unseen (Tho no longer waiving inspections and contingencies), in east cobb/north fulton/south forsyth. Anything worth buying from 600-1M in this area in a good location, especially in a swim/tennis subdivision is under contract within a few days with multiple offers right now - as this is the primary home search season in the metro. Good luck.

[Go Blue 99]

I know you are looking in Alpharetta/Milton also. Here is a listing for $1.3M in the Milton HS zone. It is a newer build and has a finished basement like you had in your MN home.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...71601856_zpid/

[hereticiam]

Originally Posted by Go Blue 99

I know you are looking in Alpharetta/Milton also. Here is a listing for $1.3M in the Milton HS zone. It is a newer build and has a finished basement like you had in your MN home.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...71601856_zpid/

Yes we like this home's interior.
Two problems we have are lot size of 0.33. If I am in Milton I would like a bigger yard size.
Second problem is lack of any shared amenities. Perhaps it is a mistake to want all these things.

We were hoping to live in an active swim/tennis community, with good schools and at least 0.40 or higher yard size. Initially, we wanted a home with a modern interior but now we accept that we may have to remodel. We have found a remodeling contractor.

In Milton we like:
Crooked Creek and White Columns.
I like White Columns more as it has homes with larger lot sizes.
We have looked at Crooked Creek homes but they came with smallish yard sizes.

We have set a deadline to make a strong offer at the end of this month.
We are within 5 weeks of losing our current home to the buyer so we will have to accept that we may not get everything we want and pick something that is available vs this perpetual home search we have endured.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by hereticiam

Yes we like this home's interior.
Two problems we have are lot size of 0.33. If I am in Milton I would like a bigger yard size.
Second problem is lack of any shared amenities. Perhaps it is a mistake to want all these things.

We were hoping to live in an active swim/tennis community, with good schools and at least 0.40 or higher yard size. Initially, we wanted a home with a modern interior but now we accept that we may have to remodel. We have found a remodeling contractor.

In Milton we like:
Crooked Creek and White Columns.
I like White Columns more as it has homes with larger lot sizes.
We have looked at Crooked Creek homes but they came with smallish yard sizes.

We have set a deadline to make a strong offer at the end of this month.
We are within 5 weeks of losing our current home to the buyer so we will have to accept that we may not get everything we want and pick something that is available vs this perpetual home search we have endured.

Is new construction (potentially in the form of a custom-built home or even a spec-built home on a satisfactory sized lot in a North metro Atlanta outer-suburban location that is most desirable to you and your family) an option for you at all at this point?

Even with the supply chain issues that have been happening since the start of the pandemic, it seems that new construction potentially might be the only surest way for you and your family to secure the type of home that you want in what continues to be a highly competitive real estate market in the aforementioned North metro Atlanta outer suburbs in North Fulton, South Forsyth and North Gwinnett counties.

Particularly in this time of post-pandemic supply chain issues, you very likely would have to wait for an extended period for the construction on a new home to be completed. But at least you would know where you would be living long-term and would only have to worry about where you will be living over a shorter-term period while construction on your new home is being completed.

[Born 2 Roll]

Should it come in handy to you during your continuing home search, here is a link to the map search feature on the Georgia MLS website:

https://www.georgiamls.com/real-esta...&gtyp=map&typ=

There’s not much (if any) speculative new home construction inventory currently available that seems to fit your criteria in the most desired Milton HS, Cambridge HS, Denmark HS, Alpharetta HS, Chattahoochee HS, Johns Creek HS, Northview HS, South Forsyth HS and Lambert HS clusters in North Fulton and South Forsyth counties and in the North Gwinnett HS cluster in North Gwinnett County.

Heck, there’s not much (if any) speculative new home construction inventory currently available that seems to fit your criteria in a comparatively slightly less desirable but still well above-average area like the Forsyth Central HS cluster.

There did appear to be a couple of spec construction homes fitting your criteria on the market in the cluster/zone for East Forsyth HS (which is a brand new high school that just opened in August 2021).

There also appeared to be multiple spec construction homes fitting your criteria on the market in the far northwestern part of the North Forsyth HS cluster near the Cherokee and Dawson county lines.

And there appeared to be multiple spec construction homes fitting at least some of your criteria on the market in the attendance zone for Buford HS/Buford City Schools district, which is a really good and very highly rated independent small city school district.

[hereticiam]

For the past few months, I have used newhomesource.com to go through any new construction to find potential homes.
We like the look of Toll Bros homes. I saw a model home in person last month. The home's interior was wonderful. However, the lot was poorly situated. It was sitting at the bottom of a hill and there was a home at the top of the hill that was looking down on the model home. It was 1.45. A smallish yard with no trees. It was zoned to Denmark High School. I did consider buying it and passed on the home as I hoped another home with a better lot will appear. Just this week I saw another new home by Toll Bros in Brookmeade and the price was $1.65 million. This price is so high because there is not enough supply. At this price, I would rather be in Laurel Springs, Edinburgh, White Columns, St. Marlo, St. Ives etc.
We have seen 4-5 homes in Laurel Springs. They were reasonably priced but had no yard at all. We can update the interior but cannot add a yard.

We have seen some wonderful homes in Buford. I was not sure how good the communities were.
While the schools were highly rated they did not appear to have Asians. Buford High School has only 5% Asians.
What are some good communities in Buford?
I will look at the other suggestion you made above and expand our search zones.

Thanks

[hereticiam]

We love the look of this home
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...65472205_zpid/

We would be willing to give up on a strong swim-tennis community for a home like this.
However, this home is located right on Birmingham Hwy. I have heard it is busy.
I fear safety issues for my dog and road noise for the rest of us.

If this home was not located on the highway we would do our best to buy it.

We also like the interior of this home
https://www.zillow.com/homes/58-Timb...14828543_zpid/

However, we fear it is too isolated. My 11-year-old wants to live in a community where he can see his neighbors and ride his bike to them. He did not like how isolated this home looks.

Sharing these examples because it shows that homes we like do exist but we don't find them too often and they all have some fatal flaw for us.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by hereticiam

For the past few months, I have used newhomesource.com to go through any new construction to find potential homes.
We like the look of Toll Bros homes. I saw a model home in person last month. The home's interior was wonderful. However, the lot was poorly situated. It was sitting at the bottom of a hill and there was a home at the top of the hill that was looking down on the model home. It was 1.45. A smallish yard with no trees. It was zoned to Denmark High School. I did consider buying it and passed on the home as I hoped another home with a better lot will appear. Just this week I saw another new home by Toll Bros in Brookmeade and the price was $1.65 million. This price is so high because there is not enough supply. At this price, I would rather be in Laurel Springs, Edinburgh, White Columns, St. Marlo, St. Ives etc.
We have seen 4-5 homes in Laurel Springs. They were reasonably priced but had no yard at all. We can update the interior but cannot add a yard.

We have seen some wonderful homes in Buford. I was not sure how good the communities were.
While the schools were highly rated they did not appear to have Asians. Buford High School has only 5% Asians.
What are some good communities in Buford?
I will look at the other suggestion you made above and expand our search zones.

Thanks

Unfortunately, the real estate market in the area that you are interested in buying a home in is in such a highly competitive state right now that you likely may continue to experience much difficulty finding a home that fits all of your stated criteria in desirable upscale residential communities like Laurel Springs, Edinburgh, White Columns, St. Marlo, St. Ives, etc. in an extremely high-demand area like the aforementioned swath of the North/Northeast metro Atlanta outer suburbs.

If you’re going to purchase a home in the upscale residential communities you named and/or in the most-desired and highest-rated school districts like the Milton HS, Cambridge HS, Chattahoochee HS, Alpharetta HS, Johns Creek HS, Lambert HS, South Forsyth HS and Denmark HS clusters, you likely are going to have to settle for purchasing a home that is not going to fit all of your criteria… That includes likely settling for a home which may not necessarily be on the exact kind of lot which you may desire.

That’s because the real estate market in that area has been and in many ways continues to be so hotly competitive in that area that people are buying whatever houses may be available to purchase, even if those houses may not fit the exact criteria they seek in a home.

The housing market in that area is just entirely too competitive for buyers to be able to be as particular or picky about home criteria as they very understandably might would like to be.

If you see a home that fits all or almost all of your criteria except for having the exact kind of lot that you might desire (even if the lot may be noticeably smaller than you might prefer), you likely may have to be prepared to accept the imperfect dimensions of that home if you want to live in one of the aforementioned most desired North/Northeast metro Atlanta outer-suburban school districts by way of a fairly quick home purchase in those highly-desirable high-demand upscale areas.

Right now, there are just too many buyers, too much demand and too little housing inventory for a homebuyer to be able to be the most particular if they want to live in that area of the North/Northeast metro Atlanta outer suburbs with the highest rated and most highly regarded schools.