'desireable' towns (Plano, Garland, Orange: buying a house, purchase, construction)

[racehorse]

Originally Posted by Pintea

TurtleCreek, you'd be surprised how walkable my area actually is! Even though we're in the suburbs when I was looking for a house I made sure we can walk to quite a few places.
Yup, Snider Plaza was the most walkable area I could think of.
Seriously, it's pretty funny that you posted those pictures of Dallas homes. Turrets and all!

I made DAMN SURE our new (to us) house did NOT have turrets!

[4moving2dallas]

While looking at houses on Realtor.com we were surprised by the cookie cutters. It seems that bricks, oak trees, steel appliances, neutral colors, turrets, rear entry garages, decor goodies over kitchen cabinets are part of the uniform. Even 'custom' homes have more or less 80% of the same stuff. We prefer stucco, mediterranian architecture, tiled roofs, colums, palms , cypress and orange trees but they seems to be a rare commodity.

[ClarenceBodiker]

Originally Posted by 4moving2dallas

While looking at houses on Realtor.com we were surprised by the cookie cutters. It seems that bricks, oak trees, steel appliances, neutral colors, turrets, rear entry garages, decor goodies over kitchen cabinets are part of the uniform. Even 'custom' homes have more or less 80% of the same stuff. We prefer stucco, mediterranian architecture, tiled roofs, colums, palms , cypress and orange trees but they seems to be a rare commodity.

Yeah, that's going to be pretty difficult, but not impossible, in the D/FW. And you'll experience a hard resale with stucco.

I think you meant to move to California or Florida.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by 4moving2dallas

While looking at houses on Realtor.com we were surprised by the cookie cutters. It seems that bricks, oak trees, steel appliances, neutral colors, turrets, rear entry garages, decor goodies over kitchen cabinets are part of the uniform. Even 'custom' homes have more or less 80% of the same stuff. We prefer stucco, mediterranian architecture, tiled roofs, colums, palms , cypress and orange trees but they seems to be a rare commodity.

Yep, pretty much.

I didn't post it earlier but there is a stucco mediterranian for sale in the gated community of custom homes in The Hills of Breckinridge. Everything you want but no pool. I know pretty much all the neighbors. Nice group of families.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by ClarenceBodiker

Yeah, that's going to be pretty difficult, but not impossible, in the D/FW. And you'll experience a hard resale with stucco.

I think you meant to move to California or Florida.

It's going to depend on the area for resale of stucco homes. Newer developments in the suburbs will be harder to move. Places like the Park Cities and Lakewood and such they are more common and resale is not an issue. They are also more abundant in those areas.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by Pintea

TurtleCreek, you'd be surprised how walkable my area actually is! Even though we're in the suburbs when I was looking for a house I made sure we can walk to quite a few places.
Yup, Snider Plaza was the most walkable area I could think of.
Seriously, it's pretty funny that you posted those pictures of Dallas homes. Turrets and all!

Hey, when you have to go down to $700k, that's what you get...even though only 1 of the homes (out of 8) had a turret....thanks for pointing that out....

We do have some new/newer homes "down here" that are gorgeous architect-designed custom homes. You just need a bit more cash!

Like this Frank Welch-designed contemporary home on 1.5 acres in Volk Estates in University Park - built in 1980, hope that's not too "old"!
$16,000,000


Or this Mediterranean babe on 1.3 rolling acres in Bluffview
$6,395,000



Or this Tudor beauty across from Lockhart Park in the heart of Highland Park.
$3,999,000


Or a Texas Modern custom built by Rusty Goff in Northaven Estates.
$3,750,000


Or you could go hog wild and live it up in a penthouse residence at the W
12,000 square feet designed by Lionel Morrison and previously lived in by Dallas' version of the Kardashians....
$10,000,000


But for only $700k.....all youre going to get is generic turrets on stone & brick homes. Blech. At least the land's worth something though!

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by 4moving2dallas

While looking at houses on Realtor.com we were surprised by the cookie cutters. It seems that bricks, oak trees, steel appliances, neutral colors, turrets, rear entry garages, decor goodies over kitchen cabinets are part of the uniform. Even 'custom' homes have more or less 80% of the same stuff. We prefer stucco, mediterranian architecture, tiled roofs, colums, palms , cypress and orange trees but they seems to be a rare commodity.

Yup, if you read the forums long enough, everyone moving to the burbs wants the exact same thing:
brand new build, or no older than 2005-2000
stainless steel
turrets
rear entry garages
outdoor kitchen/tv area
brick & stone

4+ bedrooms, master down, 3 car garage, media room AND game room

Just like the Jones. So they know where they stand in the suburb "pecking" line.

The neutral colors thing came from HGTV.

[Pintea]

Please! If I had 16 mil I'd get a small coop on Fifth Ave., facing Central Park - of course!

[racehorse]

The neutral colors comes from the desire to provide buyers with colors they can live with while they're picking out the colors they really want.

Most people can only afford something somewhat generic. We got lucky in that in our development, we had a number of builders and rules about how many plans could be built in the development. We just moved here in December. In our old neighborhood, there were several of our same house scattered around the neighborhood--in fact 3 or 4 on the same street! On the other hand, I paid $150K for our old house and wouldn't have been able to touch it in Chicago in a comparable neighborhood for twice that.

One of the things I love about Texas compared to Chicago is how affordable everything is. While our old house was cookie cutter, it was also in a nice, safe neighborhood with nice parks and in close proximity of highways and shopping. There may be one or two more of our plan in the neighborhood but I have yet to run across another. But even if there is another one, so what? There are more than 2,000 homes in the neighborhood and I guess I can live with one of my distant neighbors having the same floor plan when the quality of life here is so good.

[Pintea]

Every neighborhood is different. The ones where they had custom builders will have more variety.
Our house was custom built, there isn't another one like it in the neighborhood. I didn't want a two-story house and there aren't that many single story homes in the area.
I like brick homes, so no problem there. I like stucco as well, but for some reason it's not very popular here. You do see stucco and Mediterranean style homes here and there. I have to say they look a bit out of place, they are more suitable in Florida I'd say. Especially since most palm trees don't do very well here, and I think it's too cold for orange trees. Many plants don't do very well here because of the crazy weather changes and the clay soils.
I don't care for steel appliances, but I think you'll find plenty of homes without those.
You can find homes with tiled roofs, but it's not the norm around here. I wonder if hail storms might be the reason.
I'm mostly bothered by the decor in most homes, but that's something that you can easily change. Those hanging vines in the kitchen are easy to remove, ha, ha! Or the painting wannabes, the metal decor hanging on the walls...