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Old 02-25-2009, 11:15 AM
 
27 posts, read 163,354 times
Reputation: 15

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Hi All - My husband and I (along with our 5yr old daughter) are contemplating a move from the chicago suburbs to the DFW area. We looked in McKinney for a while, but decided to widen our search. I happened across Lakes of La Cima online. Homes are by Gallery Custom Homes. They seem to have a lot to offer for the money. We are in the $220-$300k price range.

Anyone know anything about this development? Good lot size? Nice area? New or mature trees, parks, etc. I hear prosper schools are excellent - true? Anything else you wish to share is greatly appreciated.

We are planning a trip down soon and are trying to identify 3-4 communities worth looking at.

Thanks!
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Old 02-25-2009, 12:52 PM
 
5 posts, read 35,725 times
Reputation: 16
We recently moved into Celina, about 5 miles north of Prosper. We like it a lot. Both have very good schools as does Frisco to the south. From a school standpoint, I'd stay away from McKinney as they tend to bus kids around too much. Celina and Prosper are fairly rural whereas Frisco is very developed but very nice. The development in Prosper that you mentioned is very nice... there are several nice ones within a few miles of that. It really depends on where you/your husband work and how far you want to commute. I live in Celina and work in Plano with a 25 minute commute.
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Old 02-25-2009, 01:07 PM
 
Location: North Dallas
583 posts, read 2,624,846 times
Reputation: 190
The neighborhood is nice. (I live just a few miles away from it.) I think they may actually even have cows that back up to that neighborhood. I guess that could be a plus or minus depending on how you look at it. I don't have any info. regarding Prosper schools. Shopping wise the neighborhood is close to a Super Walmart (it is actually nice), about 8 miles to a Super Target located Hwy 380. The neighborhood is close to the North Dallas Toll which is a plus. IMO the only negative part is there is no decent grocery store on 380. There are also other neighborhoods in the northern section of Stonebridge Ranch that are also in your price range: Wren Creek, Mayberry, Liberty, and Ridgecrest (not actually in SBR but is attached). Happy house hunting! You will have tons of options when you get here.
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Old 02-25-2009, 02:15 PM
 
22 posts, read 118,216 times
Reputation: 49
Take a look at this info about Gallery Custom Homes that has been posted on this forum in the past. GCH sounds like a lot of flash for a price that would buy you a multitude of heartburn and heartache.
Caveat emptor !


Click on this site and enter Gallery Custom Homes in the search window. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the thread page(s) to see other people's responses to their experience with GCH.
Ripoff Report: By Consumers, For Consumers


City-Data.com/Dallas thread
http://www.city-data.com/forum/dalla...s-homes-2.html


Lakes of La Cima web site: Homes from the $290s. GCH is not listed as a builder on the web site. In light today's of credit crunch, etc., GCH could have acquired a toe-hold in the development for whatever reason.
Lakes of La Cima (http://www.lakesoflacima.com/LoLC02.html - broken link)


Plat map (phase three) of Lakes of La Cima. See lot sizes here.
http://maps.taxnetusa.com/collin_maps_pdf/8766.pdf


Yahoo overhead map of LoLC
Yahoo! Maps, Driving Directions, and Traffic


Good Luck.
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Old 02-25-2009, 10:22 PM
 
Location: Georgia native in McKinney, TX
8,057 posts, read 12,776,034 times
Reputation: 6318
I have a close friend in this neighborhood and they are very happy. I have been in the home and it is beautiful. Prosper schools are good, building a new High School that will rival anything in all of Dallas.

Many of the new developments in this part of Collin County are on what used to be wide opened fields so don't be surprised at the lack of mature trees. In this regard, Stonebridge Ranch in McKinney is one of the nicest developments in all of Collin County as they put a lot of effort into green space, saving trees and planting trees. It has been around long enough for many of the trees to have reached a level of maturity. It doesn't feel like a prairie with mile after mile of nothing but rooftops like you see in much of the rest of this part of Collin.

Please take the previous slight on McKinney ISD with a grain of salt. My kids are in McKinney schools and they are receiving an excellent education. Most elementary schools are within walking distance of homes, my son takes a short bus ride to middle school but still is close enough to bike or walk. Just look at the school maps in relationship to the homes you are considering. Most of the busing is to bring economically disadvantaged kids from the far east side of McKinney to the nicer areas on the west side, not the reverse.

www.mckinneyisd.net
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Old 02-26-2009, 12:17 AM
 
Location: SE Michigan
198 posts, read 505,558 times
Reputation: 247
I think Lakes of Lacima is very nice. We almost bought in Lakes of Lacima but ended up in Lakes of Prosper. Lacima is closer to being built out . Lakes of Prosper is still in phase one and has far less homes in it although for an economy slowing down I still saw 3 sold signs go up just this week in Lakes of Prosper. Since Lakes of Prosper is new and they are trying to establish it we found the builders were more willing to deal which is why we ended up there. We bought in summer of 07. Both have a community pool, both have ponds. (I can't call them lakes coming from Michigan). Lacima has more mature trees. Lakes of Prosper is closer to the tollway, and to the high school. Not any mature trees in Lakes of Prosper, some in Lacima. A new park is planned for the empty field directly behind Lakes of Prosper, as is a new football stadium. They are both expected to be excellent facilities. The new school will be unbelievable in terms of size and quality of the facility. I think it will rival any school on those terms anywhere (Texas or elsewhere). I believe they are spending about 220 mill. They are also adding many educational tracks including more advanced AP classes (needed compared to what is available now) and a vocational track (also needed). As far as the quality of education? That’s up for debate. I'd say it’s a good school but from what I've seen maybe not as academically rigorous as some of the schools I was exposed to where we came from or from say a place like Plano (where a kid can come out with a Cisco certification if they want to). Although having said that I see that many go on to college and must do well. This is anecdotal but I also wonder about grade inflation. My son is a junior and carries a 3.78 GPA he is in physics and pre calc. He's the only junior in his pre calc class and one of only a few juniors in his physics class. His class ranking is about 80th out of about 150 which means more than half the kids have a higher GPA but not too many of them are in the same classes he is. In my day when there was an honest 4.0 grading scale a 3.78 was an excellent achievement, but when more than half the kids score higher it makes me wonder. Personally I think the Pre AP classes which grade on a 4.5 basis are responsible for skewing the GPAs. I don't believe from what I've seen the Pre AP classes are distinguishably different than the non AP versions of the class, maybe a bit more homework. Based on this I think a lot of grade padding was done from 9th grade on with these pre AP classes. Since my kid started here in the 10th grade he missed a whole year of Pre AP classes. Prosper also has AP classes which grade on a 5.0 basis. However I will say I had exposure to the Pre AP history class and it was very challenging and the teacher excellent. Sports are big here as well. That’s good and bad (again just my opinion) good because there is high participation rates and a fair amount of success, but bad because frankly I think athletes are a bit coddled in the school, and given a bit hero status (which is just a personal nit of mine). Again just my opinion, and not unique to Prosper. All things considered I don’t want to paint a negative picture of the schools, because as I've said I think they are good, but I don't want to fall in lock step and just blurt out (like the real estate agents will) "they're excellent" without trying to give some type of balanced feedback. I hardly think what I've said is unique to Prosper schools. Also being somewhat new to Texas I'm not sure what the gold standard of excellence is to compare our school to.


Two more anecdotes to leave you with regarding education:
#1
The generation that put us on the moon was mostly poor and educated in small or one room school houses without computer labs. Today we spend millions upon millions. Are the results commensurately better?

#2
I met a nice lady from India while taking a Novell CNA class about 10 years ago. We got to talking and I found out her husband was the chair of the math department at "The" Ohio State University (sarcasm intended for all the buckeye readers). Her daughter was a PhD student at Princeton in Math and Physics. I told her I knew of many other folks from India as well who were high achievers in math and science and so I finally asked her what the secret was. She told me that in India we are a poor country but we have pencil and paper to do math with, and that's how we learned. That comment always stuck with me and I remember it whenever I hear of any school asking for more money.

Anyhow, I digress.
Come to Prosper you'll love it!
Regards
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Old 10-05-2009, 02:47 PM
 
1 posts, read 7,181 times
Reputation: 10
My husband and I are being transferred to the Dallas area before the end of the year. We visited several subdivisions while in the Prosper, Frisco, and Plano area over the weekend. We are interested in one of the Gallery Homes in Lakes of La Cima which will be completed by the end of the month. I would really like to speak to anyone that has a Gallery home in the Lake La Cima subdivision in regards to feedback. What is your experience and what is your opinion of the workmanship? Please help, we are running out of time!

Last edited by Tenn2Texas; 10-05-2009 at 03:20 PM..
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Old 10-07-2009, 02:40 AM
 
Location: Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
4,207 posts, read 15,192,529 times
Reputation: 2719
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenn2Texas View Post
My husband and I are being transferred to the Dallas area before the end of the year. We visited several subdivisions while in the Prosper, Frisco, and Plano area over the weekend. We are interested in one of the Gallery Homes in Lakes of La Cima which will be completed by the end of the month. I would really like to speak to anyone that has a Gallery home in the Lake La Cima subdivision in regards to feedback. What is your experience and what is your opinion of the workmanship? Please help, we are running out of time!
You need to drive around the neighborhood and knock on doors.

Gallery is a custom product of First Texas Homes. They build really nice homes although they used to have a really bad salesperson. I hope he's not there anymore.

Make sure you have a buyer's agent represent you. It doesn't cost you anything.

Naima
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