Relocating to Fort Worth or Surrounding Areas (Arlington: neighborhood, location) - Texas (TX) - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

5stones · 10-16-2007, 10:32 AM

^so true! esp a mother with babies. They are the meanest and fiestiest snakes I know of.

we were at Possum Kingdome lake in college at a cabin and went in the lake to wash our hair etc... well under the dock was a water mocassin "nest". Luckily someone saw one start swimming out toward us and yelled for us to get out quick! must have been about 8 snakes in total...that did it for me no lake swimming the rest of the weekend!

In houston during a bad rain/flood we had one in our backyard our patio was flooded and I thought it was a stick...until it moved! My mom got a shovel and "took care" of it!

Guingirl · 10-16-2007, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loves2read

don't know about building a park on a "cotton-mouth" den--cotton-mouths are water mocassins--water snakes--so there must be some water in that park and pretty good size lake at that--
cotton-mouths get their name from the whiteness of the inside of the mouths that is visible when they are open to strike--a MEAN snake--one of the few that will really attack vs avoid humans who come into their area...and potent...

I thought they were in the creeks. My realtor had mentioned that he had heard the problem too, but I could be mistaking it for copperheads. Either one give me the willies

hildah · 10-17-2007, 03:48 PM

My husband will be working in a Fort Worth hospital and I was looking into Keller, mostly because of schools, we have three young boys. They are in a preschool disabled class for speech here where we live in NJ and I would hope that Keller ISD is up to date on things like that. It seems from what I have read, Keller is a great place for a family. We are planning to go to FTW in Nov. and we would like to look at some houses. How do we do that? SHould we work with a realtor. It would probably be the easiest thing. To tell what we want rather than going totally on our own.

Guingirl · 10-17-2007, 05:52 PM

Well you can certainly do that with a realtor, but you really know what your needs and wants are in terms of a neighborhood and house.

I got onto a national real estate site (pm me if you want it) and put in all my wants and set up a search for houses that met our criteria and then I looked up at areas on the mapping portion of that site and tried to get my bearings.

A lot of people on here were very very helpful when we were researching. You already know that the schools are important and a specific requirement. I would call Keller ISD main office and ask them what are the best schools in the district and then also post a specific post on if anyone knows a school for speech. Then everyone will be able to see it.

I would have an idea of where you are going to be commuting for work, how far away do you want to be from convenience, what is more important to you being 5 mins away from the grocery store or being on some property. What are you trying to get your kids involved in? Do you want to be in a master planned community? What is your budget? How long are you going to be staying in this particular house?

Then what we did when we made our first trip out was drive around areas. The market here has a LOT of inventory so there is a lot to chose from and for us, our expectations totally changed once we were able to see exactly what we could get dollar versus dollar.

hildah · 10-18-2007, 09:22 AM

Thanks for your help Guingirl. My husband will be at University of North Texas Health Science in Fort Worth. We would like a house that is not crowded by the other houses. Here in NJ we are right next to our neighbors. I'm confused with what the neighborhoods are like. In NJ its just a town center and the neighborhood around it. I don't think there are too many "master planned communities." I like the idea of having stores not too far away. Usually I drive 5-10 min. to the supermarket and it takes me that long because of lights and because I go to a particular one. I have others that are closer. I have three boys who will probably be involved in sports and they are very active. We like to do things with them on the weekend. We're not homebodies. My husband would like a pool at the house but a community one seems nice too. We would like to buy a less expensive house at first since I probably will not be working yet (I am a teacher) and my husband's salary will be better plus housing will be cheaper (hopefully). I'm afraid of the taxes. I keep hearing that the taxes are higher in Texas. BUt right now we pay almost $8000 for our home which might be selling for $400k. We want to stay under 250k. I found a website that gives you all the new home models and prices for a particular town so I have looking a lot at that website. Are these models all in a particular area and you just choose one that you want? I guess we just have to see when we go there but I don't want to be going around in circles. We need to have a plan because we will be with our 4 yr. old, 3 yr. old and 2 yr. old. THank you for all your help and for anyone else that can give advice.

Guingirl · 10-18-2007, 10:10 AM

Well, there are no state income taxes, but count on paying about 3.25-3.5% in property taxes. It varies city by city and independent school district as well.

This area is VERY family friendly with all sorts of things to do and generally you can do something different every weekend. The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Friday insert always has a million things to do

.

Because the market is what it is, you might even consider renting a house until you can get pinned down to a neighborhood. You still have time because your boys aren't in school. There are a LOT of stay at home moms as well.

Sending you a link via pm for you to check out.

hildah · 10-19-2007, 09:11 AM

Sorry Guingirl. But I don't know how to access PM and I can only see your replies to my first post from my work computer. I don't what I did wrong. I'm totally new to this site so I'm a little disoriented.

AustinTraveler · 10-19-2007, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hildah

Sorry Guingirl. But I don't know how to access PM and I can only see your replies to my first post from my work computer. I don't what I did wrong. I'm totally new to this site so I'm a little disoriented.

Hildah,

Look in the upper right-hand corner of this screen under Welcome, hildah. Then click on Direct Messages to find your message from Guingirl.

To send a Direct Message (they used to be called Private Message, PM), either reply to one you have already received, or click on a member's screen name and select "Send Direct Message to...".

Since you're new to the site, you may want to check out the About the Forum section:

City-Data Forum

as well as the FAQ subsection within that forum. Lots of good info about the forums.

Willys · 10-22-2007, 03:23 PM

'loves2read' has some good suggestions regarding Mansfield or other 'outside the metro' places. Some areas of Arlington are a good idea as well. My problem with HEB and other mid metro areas is that they're trapped in the big city, commutes are the same hectic trapped in the metro hassle every day and if you want to get out of town, well, you have to cross the metro to get there. I would point to south of I-20.

For the couple with no kids I'd point you to North Richland Hills and north towards Alliance. Ross Perot is developing there and substantial growth is anticipated, over the long term.

Something good about Keller? It was the test bed for Verizon FiOS.

Willys · 10-22-2007, 03:49 PM

5e's, take a look at google maps, maps.google.com, for the DFW metro. You can locate Keller by searching Keller, Tx. From there you can zoom in/out. Arlington is in the center - south, of the metro. Mansfield is south of that. Find hiway '360' at I-30. You may see 'Six Flags Mall' or Gen Motors Assembly Plant. That is the general area of the new Cowboys stadium. I rode through there on Amtrak a couple of weeks ago. The stadium is between those tracks (E Division St) and I-30. It's quite a sight.

You'll see that 'Ballpark' is a str8 shot down '360' from HEB, and other gr8 'burbs. You'll want to solicit info on that commute from others but I've heard a few less than desireable tales. But only a few.

For camping there are some nice lakes, Texoma, Possum Kingdon, and some places in east Texas. There's also nice camping in the Hill Country, towards Austin. For big elevation you'll need to start with New Mexico, a major destination for North Texas residents, or Colorado. In New Mexico, you might start around Ruidoso, west of Roswell, about 550 miles. Yes, Texas is big.