House Hunting...need Quick Advice (Dallas, Plano: houses, buyers, school districts)

[calgirlinnc]

Originally Posted by Wise Old Gal

I would suggest you get with a good realtor, someone in the business for say, 10 years or longer. A producer, in other words one who sells a lot of homes. At this point, you are so frustrated, very understandable.

Also, make sure you are pre-approved for a mortgage loan. With the Dallas market so tight, Sellers are blowing off offers from non-preapproved buyers. A high quality agent will be able to refer you to a high quality lender. I read something on candysdirt.com about most sales in the Dallas area become CASH sales as these are beating out people with mortgages. Wow.

The slowest selling market in the DFW area is the higher priced homes, over $600. The fastest selling are $200,000 and under.

I might tell you to reconsider the size and cost of the home. I understand that you have done a lot of looking but a high quality realtor might be able to help you find a price point that is less competitive. Maybe.

My advice from a lifetime of living is make sure you can afford any home on one income. Never assume both incomes will last forever. Lots of people get laid off, get in accidents, kids get too sick to be in daycare or school, or a parent dies or a divorce happens.

And, lastly, be ready to sweeten the deal with the seller. Offer close to asking or higher. Be prepared to submit an offer immediately. Don't wait and dither and dather. Stand up for your rights as a buyer but don't be so demanding your offer is put on the forget it pile.

There is no magic school district that is automatically better than another in the general DFW area. Most cities have good school districts around here. Its all a myth that there is only one way in anything in life. Good parenting is an important consideration to success in school, the school doesn't do it by themselves.

Get on realtor.com and get a good agent and search daily or twice a week. Be ready and quick about seeing new homes the day they show up on realtor.com if you like them. Don't go by the photos, go visit the house and look at the possibilities. Be willing to think outside the box.

Good luck.

We have an agent who has been in the business a long time.

We sold our home in another city.

We are pre-approved. We are pre-approved on my husband's income.

We offered over asking. We were the first offer.

We have looked at many homes in our price range and are not impressed with what high 400s buys in Flower Mound. (So I'm asking if it's worth getting a "worse" house in order to live in FM, but I am not willing to settle for backing up to Long Prairie Road or Kroger).

So we expanded our search area.

In response to other posters:

I've heard good things about Coppell.

I love Grapevine's historic downtown; the rest is just OK to me (sorry).

On Rakin's advice we went out to North Richland Hills and saw some great homes feeding into Keller HS. I liked NRH. Wasn't there just a thread discussing Keller HS?

[WorldKlas]

Yes NRH is better than Keller. Also look at Colleyville and N.Euless in the GCISD zone

[Rakin]

Being first offer means nothing. When I list a home that I think will be hot I want it on the Market around Wednesday and might look at all offers the following Monday. I want to give all Buyers plenty of time to see the house and submit an offer. If we get in several offers we then (usually) email all the agents telling them about the multiple offer situation and give them some time to get in their highest and best.

I like Flower Mound alot but would not rule out Lantana and Keller. My son and family is in North Keller and the schools are every bit as good as FM.

[calgirlinnc]

Originally Posted by WorldKlas

Yes NRH is better than Keller. Also look at Colleyville and N.Euless in the GCISD zone

Thanks...there is not a lot in Colleyville in our budget.

[calgirlinnc]

Originally Posted by Rakin

Being first offer means nothing. When I list a home that I think will be hot I want it on the Market around Wednesday and might look at all offers the following Monday. I want to give all Buyers plenty of time to see the house and submit an offer. If we get in several offers we then (usually) email all the agents telling them about the multiple offer situation and give them some time to get in their highest and best.

I like Flower Mound alot but would not rule out Lantana and Keller. My son and family is in North Keller and the schools are every bit as good as FM.

Right, I expected multiple offers.

I really appreciate your advice...if it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have known to look at NRH.

[kyam11]

Originally Posted by WorldKlas

Yes NRH is better than Keller. Also look at Colleyville and N.Euless in the GCISD zone

I certainly won't tell anyone what they should think and if this is your opinion so be it. I live in Southlake and if I did not live in Southlake and had to live in a city close to Southlake based on schools and city itself my list would be:

2) Colleyville
3) Keller
4) Grapevine
5). North Richland Hills would be last and honestly would not consider it. I would move to Frisco, Coppell, Plano, Flower Mound all over NRH.


In fact I don't know one person out of about 100 or so that would ever move from Keller to NRH. I guarantee that I could find multiple people that would go the other route.

Thinking NRH is better than Keller is laughable to me.

Having said that based on location I would still of Flower Mound if I was OP.

[CMC_TX]

Originally Posted by kyam11

I certainly won't tell anyone what they should think and if this is your opinion so be it. I live in Southlake and if I did not live in Southlake and had to live in a city close to Southlake based on schools and city itself my list would be:

2) Colleyville
3) Keller
4) Grapevine
5). North Richland Hills would be last and honestly would not consider it. I would move to Frisco, Coppell, Plano, Flower Mound all over NRH.


In fact I don't know one person out of about 100 or so that would ever move from Keller to NRH. I guarantee that I could find multiple people that would go the other route.

Thinking NRH is better than Keller is laughable to me.

Having said that based on location I would still of Flower Mound if I was OP.

100% agree! Who in the heck would voluntarily live in NRH over Keller? I don't think the poster who wrote that has ever been to Keller. NRH is just a meh Tarrant County suburb with average schools.

I don't care for the Keller schools located in Ft Worth, but Keller High School and city of Keller proper is excellent and consistently ranked a very desirable place to live. I have never heard of anyone choosing to live in Hurst or NRH if they have the option of living in Keller.

I agree Southlake, Colleyville & Keller are good options, but the challenge with the first two will be your budget. I'd move to Keller, Argyle or Lantana any day before NRH. Parts of NRH seem kind of run down to me. The part along Davis & Tarrant Pkwy is fine but still wouldn't move there.

[calgirlinnc]

Originally Posted by kyam11

I certainly won't tell anyone what they should think and if this is your opinion so be it. I live in Southlake and if I did not live in Southlake and had to live in a city close to Southlake based on schools and city itself my list would be:

2) Colleyville
3) Keller
4) Grapevine
5). North Richland Hills would be last and honestly would not consider it. I would move to Frisco, Coppell, Plano, Flower Mound all over NRH.


In fact I don't know one person out of about 100 or so that would ever move from Keller to NRH. I guarantee that I could find multiple people that would go the other route.

Thinking NRH is better than Keller is laughable to me.

Having said that based on location I would still of Flower Mound if I was OP.

1) Not all of us can be independently wealthy like you were blessed to be.

2) Some of us have JOBS that are located in specific places and cannot randomly choose Plano or Frisco or Timbuktu because they are "better". We have commutes to consider.

[calgirlinnc]

Originally Posted by CMC_TX

100% agree! Who in the heck would voluntarily live in NRH over Keller? I don't think the poster who wrote that has ever been to Keller. NRH is just a meh Tarrant County suburb with average schools.

I don't care for the Keller schools located in Ft Worth, but Keller High School and city of Keller proper is excellent and consistently ranked a very desirable place to live. I have never heard of anyone choosing to live in Hurst or NRH if they have the option of living in Keller.

I agree Southlake, Colleyville & Keller are good options, but the challenge with the first two will be your budget. I'd move to Keller, Argyle or Lantana any day before NRH. Parts of NRH seem kind of run down to me. The part along Davis & Tarrant Pkwy is fine but still wouldn't move there.

Honestly do some of you even THINK before you respond?

Argyle is too far from my husband's job.

Our max budget is $490,000. We cannot afford Southlake. I don't care how wonderful it is and how awesome the schools are and what kinds of t-shirts they wear, unless you want to contribute to a Gofund Me page, we cannot afford it.

We are looking into an area that feeds into Keller ISD schools.

I'm not sure what you mean by "run-down" but where we were looking had BEAUTIFUL homes, mature trees, manicured yards, new shopping. We were a couple of minutes from the line that separates into Carroll ISD.

[kyam11]

Originally Posted by calgirlinnc

1) Not all of us can be independently wealthy like you were blessed to be.

2) Some of us have JOBS that are located in specific places and cannot randomly choose Plano or Frisco or Timbuktu because they are "better". We have commutes to consider.

I think you misunderstood what I said. While I certainly understand that one might not consider Plano and Frisco if they worked around the mid cities area I would never choose NRH over places like Keller, Flower Mound, Coppell, Grapevine, or Colleyville. If I could not for some reason live in one of those cities I would rather live in Frisco and Plano and commute than live in NRH. I certainly understand why someone would still choose NRH because of the commute, but the cities I listed above should take that out of the equation.

I too would rather go to Arglye or Lantana, but understand distance is too far. Based on the budget listed in OP NRH is not the only choice here.

$490,000 gets you into Keller, Flower Mound, and Grapevine. All better choices IMO than NRH. I never suggested Southlake.

ETA: Just saw a house on Pleasant Run in Keller for around $435,000. Beautiful house in a great area. In other words if you can't get into Keller with your budget you are not trying.