Struck out in Southlake looking for options (Dallas, Fort Worth: insurance, loan)

[hereticiam]

We attempted to purchase a home in Southlake.
Schools, bigger yard size and greenery was the main draw.
Schools in Carroll ISD also have 20% asians.
There were 3 homes that came out in the past week. All of them were recently modeled and had modern interior with nice backyard.
All of them were around 1.4. All of them sold for 50-100K above asking with no inspection or appraisal gap.
Our current home will close in late June so we do need a loan. We do have pre-approval and a down payment to buy a new home without selling our current home but buying a 20-year home without inspection is stressful.

Our jobs are currently remote. I am in IT and my wife is in clinical research.
I want to start looking at other places.
I am considering Colleyville and Flower Mound.

Flower Mound looks great. It has many homes with large lots. Flower Mound High School has 20% Asians.
But I have heard that it is far from everywhere. Can someone share good communities in Flower Mound?

We have found some nice-looking homes in Colleyville. However many of them fall under Grapevine High School. Grapevine HS has less than 7% Asians.
Colleyville Heritage has 15% Asians.

For folks who have experience in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD what are your impressions about the quality of education?
How does Grapevine-Colleyville ISD compare with Southlake ISD for quality of education.
Is there is difference between the quality of Education between Grapevine HS vs Colleyville Heritage HS?
We will live in our new home for at least 10 years or more.
Would Southlake homes appreciate more over the long term than Colleyville homes?

I found a beautiful home in Colleyville. It is 1.425 million. It feeds into Grapevine HS.
If my choices were:
1. Overcome my fears drop inspection pay 1.5 million for a nice home in Southlake
2. Get a home in Colleyville for around 1.3-1.4 where I can get the home inspected.

I have no idea if Colleyville housing market is as competitive as Southlakes so perhaps this is a silly exercise as even Colleyville will also require waived contingencies.

[ChristieP]

GCISD is also an excellent school district. The biggest difference between the two is that GCISD actually has some low-income and ESL students, while Southlake Carroll does not. That makes GCISD's test scores a little lower than CISD. GCISD also truly has diversity in their schools, not just "white with some Asian" like CISD has. No, there is no difference between CHHS and GHS.

Southlake, Colleyville, and Grapevine are all great areas. My husband and I lived in Grapevine for 19 years, and we really enjoyed it. Grapevine's cute downtown, excellent parks and the low property taxes were all a plus for us. As for home appreciation, we nearly doubled our money after 10 years! Colleyville, Grapevine and Southlake are all very competitive markets right now.

I will say that when we sold our house in 2021, we did go with an offer that waived inspection. It wasn't because there were issues with our house, but more because we were happy to be able to skip making small repairs on short notice since we had already done a good amount of work getting the house ready before it was listed. When you're buying homes at your price point, it's safe to say that the homes will all have been properly maintained, and there will not be major repair issues. If you want to have a competitive bid, then waiving the inspection and offering to pay the title insurance can be good bargaining tools. Your realtor should be helping you to come up with competitive offer strategies.

Flower Mound does have traffic/access issues, but since you and your wife both work remotely, that may not be as much of an issue for you as it would be for someone who actually had to commute daily. The schools are excellent.

[hereticiam]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

GCISD is also an excellent school district. The biggest difference between the two is that GCISD actually has some low-income and ESL students, while Southlake Carroll does not. That makes GCISD's test scores a little lower than CISD. GCISD also truly has diversity in their schools, not just "white with some Asian" like CISD has. No, there is no difference between CHHS and GHS.

Southlake, Colleyville, and Grapevine are all great areas. My husband and I lived in Grapevine for 19 years, and we really enjoyed it. Grapevine's cute downtown, excellent parks and the low property taxes were all a plus for us. As for home appreciation, we nearly doubled our money after 10 years! Colleyville, Grapevine and Southlake are all very competitive markets right now.

I will say that when we sold our house in 2021, we did go with an offer that waived inspection. It wasn't because there were issues with our house, but more because we were happy to be able to skip making small repairs on short notice since we had already done a good amount of work getting the house ready before it was listed. When you're buying homes at your price point, it's safe to say that the homes will all have been properly maintained, and there will not be major repair issues. If you want to have a competitive bid, then waiving the inspection and offering to pay the title insurance can be good bargaining tools. Your realtor should be helping you to come up with competitive offer strategies.

Flower Mound does have traffic/access issues, but since you and your wife both work remotely, that may not be as much of an issue for you as it would be for someone who actually had to commute daily. The schools are excellent.

Thanks for your feedback.

We sold our home in 2 days and there were multiple offers. We chose the offer that waived the inspection to avoid smaller repairs as well. I will talk with our realtor to widen the search area and bring up title insurance along with waiving inspection.

[Patrick_Midwest]

Originally Posted by hereticiam

Thanks for your feedback.

We sold our home in 2 days and there were multiple offers. We chose the offer that waived the inspection to avoid smaller repairs as well. I will talk with our realtor to widen the search area and bring up title insurance along with waiving inspection.

I am not an expert but I think even if you are under contract with waived inspection, aren't you still able to get inspection done for your peace of mind before closing? You are risking earnest deposit though.

[hereticiam]

Originally Posted by Patrick_Midwest

I am not an expert but I think even if you are under contract with waived inspection, aren't you still able to get inspection done for your peace of mind before closing? You are risking earnest deposit though.

You do bring up a good point. Inspection without contingency would be helpful.
If we find major issue we walk about and lose 1% earnest money.

[fwsavemoney]

Do not rule out Flower Mound. Great schools and it is very close to the airport. Highway access can be an issue but if you are working from home, it shouldn't be a big deal. You will have greenery, lake, and a beautiful selection of homes there. With that budget, don't rule out West Plano either.

[ThomasCrown]

You might want to consider Prosper as well... 10 years ago it was certainly in the middle of nowhere but it's also one of the few areas where you'll have multiple options for buying homes on large lots on the more established side. There's plenty of retail and restaurants now there and in Frisco which is a short drive away.

[Leonard123]

Your question may make more sense on the Fort Worth forum. Southlake is more Fort Worth than Dallas.

I doubt there is much difference in "quality of education" in any north Texas city. You just have certain areas with a wealthier population and/or more self-motivated students. The only way to know for sure is personal experience of people you know and trust.

It seems like your biggest concerns are how affluent the people there are, what their nationality/race is, and how big and fancy a house and lot you can get. You don't have to deal with these multiple offers and waived contingencies in areas with more normal/median price points, at least by local standards.

[DFW_FTW]

Grapevine if you can’t afford Colleyville. Southlake if you can’t afford University Park. Highland park for when you can afford the nicer things in life without having to compromise.

Frisco, Plano, Allen or McKinney (Frisco isd or Allen isd) for good education with slightly higher Asian population.

Fairview / Lucas / Allen in Lovejoy ISD if you want even better quality education than Plano, Allen isd, Frisco, Grapevine or Colleyville.

Prosper if you want a mediocre education and a new home.

[TeamLynn]

A couple of ideas for you....one is Argyle....#2 is Coppell.
I like inspections, I really do, but in today's market in Southlake you may not get the option.
However you still have a couple of alternatives.....what are you looking for the inspector to tell you? That the windows are fogged or the dishwasher doesn't work or the AC units are shot and on their last leg. In the scheme of things, those minor inconveniences are minor to replace when you are buying $1,5mil.
Even with no inspection period, you still have the right to inspect..and if you find something major like a roof or a foundation issue, well if you're getting a loan, chances are your lender will not lend on it and depending on how you right your contract, you probably can get out of it.
The market is definitely heating up again. We're seeing lots of multiple offers. Plenty going well over list. That's our market.