May be moving to Dallas area - different sort of question (Riverside: university, law)

[ladysrodgers]

Originally Posted by MurphyPl1

I'm not sure you are going to be able to have a horse on a half acre lot. Surely not on a quarter acre. I'm on a 1/3 acre and I'm still relatively close to my neighbor. No one would a appreciate a horse in that scenario, not my neighbors and not the horse. I've had one and while you might could house the horse, there isn't enough room to exercise one or ride it without going off property.

I totally agree. My lot in northern CA was .5 acres.....my next door neighbor put a horse in his back yard......whew, the stench and flies!

Its' just not good to keep a horse in that small of a confined area.

[nsumner]

Originally Posted by RobertsGirl

I don't want a new house in a development. We really want to buy low, and no more than about a 1,800 sq. ft. house.

What is "low" for you? If you really want to have a horse, you can find many homes within about 40 minutes of Irving, not closer. Sorry

If you give up the horse and want a large lot, you can find a home much closer to Irving.

Naima

[RobertsGirl]

I'm thinkin' that's what we'll have to do. I spent hours on line last night (as I have many nights in the past month). I found a few nice places in Bedford, and the rest that fit the bill in Irving (not horse property, obviously).

As far as buying "low." My husband is very handy (that's an understatement), so doesn't mind getting somewhat of a fixer-upper - he just doesn't want to do a room addition, which is why I'd like four bedrooms, so we'd have room for company. So, we're looking at houses that start at around 95K, up to 150K. However, hubby really wants to stay in the low end of that. We'll see...

The other non-negotiable (which I should have said before) is that we need a house that has vehicle access to the backyard (not necessarily from the back, but so that we can drive back there), because my car-guy hubby will be building a huge garage. I don't want to end up with no backyard, like here. The problem I'm seeing is that many two car garages have been converted to living area, so that's harder to make a drive-thru out of.

So, the properties I've looked at that seem to have "enough" room are about 10,000 sq ft. That leaves plenty of room for a massive garage, and room for my son to play.

[nsumner]

One other thing you may want to watch out for when you're buying close to the city is the ability for your hubby to build a garage. If there is already a garage attached or detached to the house, some cities or HOA will not allow an additional garage. You will likely want to look for homes with NO HOA.

Have you noticed that we have a lot of communities with rear-entry garages too?

All the listings are not posted on Realtor.com too and can be outdated too.

[RobertsGirl]

We have that same problem here, with the garage, I mean. I did notice there are some garages with rear-entrances. Not sure if hubby likes those; I'll have to ask him.

We've been going on Google Earth so we can see a real "picture" of the areas we've been looking at. He'll be there in February, so can drive by some of the places. I'm sure we'll get a realtor there if we FINALLY decide to move.

Does anyone know how to look via subdivision? I really like the Sherwood Forest area of Irving, but have only found one home there, and I can't find any site that has a search set up that way.

[backtotx]

FarNorthDallas mentioned Waxahachie. Any idea what the commute would be like from there to Irving? Also can anyone tell me what Macarthur Blvd in Irving is like. Does it have many traffic lights etc? I might need to travel that route from just south of 183 up to E Royal Lane in Irving, just wondering how long that might take. Mapquest (if you believe them) say it would take about 16 minutes. Not so sure though.

[lpepping]

Yes there are alot of lights on MacArthur.

[backtotx]

Would you say that it is a slow moving road then?

[lpepping]

Originally Posted by backtotx

Would you say that it is a slow moving road then?

I haven't been there in a while but I think it is a 35-40 mph speed limit.

[BstYet2Be]

Originally Posted by lpepping

I haven't been there in a while but I think it is a 35-40 mph speed limit.

It is 35 all the way north on MacArthur. Which direction will you be going when you get to Royal? If you'll be going east (turning right), you can avoid some lights by turning right at Walnut Hill (before crossing 114) and it will take you directly to Royal (and farther east) with less traffic.

I would estimate 20-25 minutes from 183 to Royal, depending on how you catch the lights. I wouldn't say the traffic would be heavy... just steady.