Home Buying Texas Style (Richardson: wood floors, homes, tile) - Dallas - (TX) - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

Lakewooder · 06-11-2007, 05:26 PM

"The older 1950's homes across Jackson have been pretty safe from this issue".

Pier and Beam homes usually have no significant foundation problems. Also they usually have hardwood floors. By the mid-1960s most builders had stopped building them - the only area of 1970s and 80s homes I know with them is the former Bob-O-Links golf course in Lakewood.

FarNorthDallas · 06-11-2007, 05:59 PM

We have a pier and beam home - built in 1967 - Far North Dallas.

cmdavis · 06-12-2007, 10:30 PM

Thanks for the all the help
cm

lh_newbie · 06-13-2007, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Pier and Beam homes usually have no significant foundation problems. Also they usually have hardwood floors. By the mid-1960s most builders had stopped building them - the only area of 1970s and 80s homes I know with them is the former Bob-O-Links golf course in Lakewood.

There is a pocket of pier and beam homes built in the 70's between Royal/Forest and Greenville/Abrams - lots of AWESOME mature, old growth trees and rolling hills. We LOVED the neighborhood. We looked at several homes on Locarno, Raeford and Loma Vista that all had pier and beam. One other nice benefit of P&B... it's much easier to relocate drain lines - no need to jackhammer a foundation!!! Although, technically, it does cost a little more to heat/cool a P&B. Many of them aren't insulated from underneath - something that can fixed relatively easy.

We tried to buy two homes in that neighborhood - one needed a new layout for the guest quarters bathroom (it needed to be opened into the hallway, which we were going to do by combining the bathroom and the laundry "closet" to make one much larger room and hiding the washer/dryer under a cabinet will roll-down doors)... but alas, the guy that owned the home was just not serious about selling. It was funny, he said that he didn't think we were serious buyers cause we only offered $1,000 earnest money (which our agent said is relatively standard issue, he said he's prefer to see $5K or more), so we rewrote the offer to include $10K earnest just to ease that concern and told them verbally we'd go to $20K if they still didn't think we were serious, but the ball was in their court to make the next move. He then wanted us to counter our own offer without coming back to us with a counter of his own first. What a dufus. He simply wasn't serious about selling - had his house listed at the high end of the neighborhood and it needed all new flooring throughout, new decking around the pool and a whole host of other fixes (hideous bathroom layout - even had "saloon" doors to the water closet and 70's flower wallpaper). I've seen it up for sale several times since then, different agents, same price. He still has it, and according to public records, he has an ARM which has adjusted up twice since then (gotta love public records). Oh well. The best part of our conversation... was that he was bragging that he was a "banker", so he knows what his house is worth. We kindly let him know my wife works for Fannie Mae, so we did also.

Then we left the offer with a deadline on it. It passed. They called back afterwords, but still didn't want to give us a number. I don't understand some people.

Wow! I feel better, had that pinned up for some time now. Hehe!

Brian

TriumphOfTheSprint · 06-13-2007, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Pier and Beam homes usually have no significant foundation problems. Also they usually have hardwood floors. By the mid-1960s most builders had stopped building them - the only area of 1970s and 80s homes I know with them is the former Bob-O-Links golf course in Lakewood.

Hackberry Creek in Irving has quite a few P & B houses built in the 90s - not sure who the builders are, I assume custom.

momof2dfw · 06-13-2007, 08:37 AM

There are also some nice pier and beams in Farmers Branch on the streets that run east-west between Webbs Chapel and Josey, south of Valley View and north of LBJ. They all end in "Lane" so we always called them the "Lane Family" streets. I've known many people that have lived in there. One did need some minor foundation work but that was it. Some of them might need some updating but you can't beat the location close to Mallard Park, close in to everything and DFW Airport. Large lots w/ LARGE trees.

The older homes across Jackson that I was referring to were built 60-63 and do not have pier and beams but are indeed slab foundations. These are your smaller tract homes that were being built back in that time across the area. Typically they run from about 1100-1500 sq ft, 3 bed and either 1-2 bathrooms and most only had a 1 car garage. Many have added onto the backside w/ large family rooms and such.

momof2dfw · 06-13-2007, 08:44 AM

lh newbie, LMAO!!! I know what you mean. Have you caught the new show on the Fine Living Network called "Real Estate Confidential"? The one last night was a hoot. This young couple in LA have a nice redone 2bed/2bath 1500 sq ft home they wanted to sell since they just had a baby. Want to buy in Pacific Palisades BUT they had not found a house. They did not want to "sell" unless they had a place to move to themselves and NOT rental. The listing price was going to be $1.4M. The agent had a buyer the next day that made an offer of $1.5M and 3 months to let them leaseback the house. The sellers negged it and took the house off the market till they found something for themselves. The update at the end was it was a year later and they STILL had not found something but the buyer w/ cash in his hand moved on. LOL!!!

You have to wonder about some people. There are so many houses in great areas that need some updating that is not that much but the sellers think their house is a DIAMOND and just as good as the other house that sold that WAS updated. People do not want to come into a house that is fairly new and see it needs all new appliances, light fixtures (get rid of the cheap brass crap), faucets (same thing - the gold tone is OUT), dated wallpaper, original lowend carpet matted down, OUTRAGEOUS paint colors and slopply done (sorry a green so dark it looks black is NOT acceptable) and then the LOVELY RED plaid carpet in a bedroom we saw the other day

. And they won't budge on the price.

lh_newbie · 06-13-2007, 08:58 AM

Ah yes, Momof2, the joys of buying a home. I am thoroughly convinced that people live with stuff so long they start to believe it's better than it really is.

In about another month, our master bath will be done (installed the tub yesterday - wife finally took her first real bath in the new house). Oil rubbed bronze faucets, travertine tile on the floor, tumbled marble as the backsplash around the tub and starting half way up the shower wall, rich dark new cabinets and silestone counters. Add to that a lot of little details like automatic lights in the closets, in-line heater in the tub (wife loves hour long baths... now she doesn't have to run more hot water all the time), a gorgeous small chandelier over the new tub and replacing of a regular door to the water close with a pocket door so the room doesn't feel cramped when you're going in/out along with new windows... and I think we have a winner. This will dramatically increase the value of the home, but just as important, allow my wife and I to thoroughly enjoy our experience in that room every time we use it.

I never understood upgrading a house right before you sell it - why not enjoy it while you live there?! We saw a show on HGTV one Saturday morning where the couple renovated the home for sale, then realized the renovation gave them everything they wanted in a new home and decided to stay.

Brian

GoPadge · 06-13-2007, 09:04 AM

That's one thing that worries me a bit about the resell value of our home. We have the gold faucets, all late 80's style and everything. We could easily start changing them out, especially the two sets that have the hot turned off to stop the leaks. But our master bath is a trouble spot. The jacuzzi tub has a garish gold fixture and the only way replace it is to remove the trim around the edge and pull the whole front panel off. It's one of those cultured marble slabs and I haven't figured out how it's attached.

Also how do you change the faucets on the showers? I really don't want to cut holes in the walls.

Synopsis · 06-13-2007, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoPadge

Also how do you change the faucets on the showers? I really don't want to cut holes in the walls.

I'm waiting on an answer to this as well. I have some faucets that need replacing in the shower and wonder how far back you have to go to fix this. I'd hate to have to cut holes in the tile.