New homes versus existing homes (San Antonio, Cinco Ranch: renters, HOA, custom home)

[descovy]

I would say, under $150k go with an established house in an established neighborhood. So many new subdivions in N Katy just aren't faring well, and you never know what you are going to get until it is too late.

In our experience, we were looking into Cinco Ranch last Jan/ Feb. For *what we wanted in a home* resale homes ended up being *more* expensive than the new... and we were willing to overlook outdated paint/fixtures.

We ended up with a new build in Cinco Ranch for less than a resale home in Cinco. I felt okay buying new because I knew the neighborhood was established

So for us, we fared better going new. We would have spent 10% more for a resale home in Cinco and still would need to update. Who knew?

[ayannaaaliyah]

Originally Posted by stopaction

Nanner, thanks for your insights to housing in the Katy area even if you are not an expert. Any idea why the north side of I-10 hasn't done so well? My wife and I may be moving to Houston this spring, and I was looking at the area just west of 6 and north of I-10 as the ideal commuting area for my new job.

The other thing I was wondering about is no one seems to talk about any houses but those in planned communities. What about the older homes in Katy immediately north of the downtown area? I took a very brief drive through there and while there was a mixed bag of houses, some quite small, it looked nice enough. Anything I'm not seeing or understanding?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the homes on the North side of Katy. I just wouldn't buy anything North of Morton Ranch Road. The newer subdivisions, I wouldn't buy either simply put, as the previous poster stated: "I also know exactly what I'm getting, as far as the neighborhood is concerned. I know what kind of retail is around, whether any apartment complexes are nearby, etc". There are many existing neighborhoods North of I-10 which are established, nice, safe, mature landscaping with well manicured lawns, and kid friendly. When people who aren't familiar with Katy, the first thing they think of is Cinco Ranch simply because it's a large master planned community and it's the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Katy.

I would recommend you take a look around - spend some time both on the North and South side of I-10. For your budget I would DEFINITELY recommend buying an existing home in an established neighborhood. I can think of 4 neighborhoods off the top of my head that have maintained and/or increased somewhat over the past 6 years. Besides, you get an inspection which will point out any major flaws in the property and second, you should get the seller to throw in the 1 year home warranty to cover EVERYTHING (including the A.C.). We purchased a 20 year old home in Katy just 2 years ago. The home inspection uncovered no major defects and the property came with the 1 year warranty. I have had no issues other than the A.C. which was replaced (with a brand new unit) by the home warranty company last year, at a cost of only $100 to me. There are some cosmetic updates that we've done and still continue to do, but that's just because I'm a home improvement geek

Any more questions, I'm more than happy to offer my insight.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by descovy

I would say, under $150k go with an established house in an established neighborhood.

2 of the 'diversity' fillers in my neighborhood are just renting 200k homes and they are the most problematic.

[ayannaaaliyah]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

2 of the 'diversity' fillers in my neighborhood are just renting 200k homes and they are the most problematic.

What is a "diversity" filler

[banker]

Originally Posted by wills

Houses being built now tend to be low quality, combined with 100%+ financing they are almost certainly destined to become instant slums.

This is the generalization of the day. At some price points I would agree - but not at all price points. The "nice, established" neighborhoods that people desire to move into (even those built by national builders) were once new. It has more to do with price point and location than new versus old.

Location, location, location. Many builders built crap 20 years ago and many still build crap. But at certain price points - you are insulated from this.

[tstone]

Something else you should remember -- if you buy a slightly used home in a more desirable upper-middle neighborhood, there's a good chance that no maintenance was ever done at all. This was the case with our home. The plus side was that there were no botched upgrades put on (in) after the house was built. The down side to that is that we have to replace a strip of wood around the back door (rot) and the a/c possibly died a couple years early (It was 13, never maintained once). The mentality with many is "when a problem arises, throw it away and buy a new one with my Visa." We live in a disposable society, and at times it can stare you in the face (many times from the curbsides) in the $160-220k neighborhoods like ours.

[banker]

Originally Posted by tstone

Something else you should remember -- if you buy a slightly used home in a more desirable upper-middle neighborhood, there's a good chance that no maintenance was ever done at all. This was the case with our home. The plus side was that there were no botched upgrades put on (in) after the house was built. The down side to that is that we have to replace a strip of wood around the back door (rot) and the a/c possibly died a couple years early (It was 13, never maintained once). The mentality with many is "when a problem arises, throw it away and buy a new one with my Visa." We live in a disposable society, and at times it can stare you in the face (many times from the curbsides) in the $160-220k neighborhoods like ours.

Sad but true. That is one of the reasons that I didn't want a slightly used house that appears to have no maintenance needs. Every house needs to be maintained. Sadly - many people do not do the minimum to keep things in good working order. Either buy an old home that has known problems with a plan to have it redone or remodel your self or buy a new one. A barely used one could have tons of problems waiting under the surface simply due to lack of maintenance.

[tstone]

Of course this is why you hire an inspector, preferably a structural engineer -- expensive but worth it! We were fortunate that it was only an A/C system and a strip of wood. That said, I sometimes call our part of Clear Lake "fake rich." There's a small amount of flashiness ('02ish BMW 3 series are VERY popular), and an almost extreme amount of waste. I super-upgraded my computer with someone's trash, and made $75 on eBay after I was done! However when our neighbors saw us get a brand new A/C installed they nervously asked us some details because their systems were all crapping out on them at the same time! Deep down, all of us are just middle class folks, most with families, who have to get up every day to go to work to pay the banks we allowed to hang us by our junk. Many times there is no money left over for maintenance and these homes suffer!!

[banker]

Originally Posted by tstone

Of course this is why you hire an inspector, preferably a structural engineer -- expensive but worth it! We were fortunate that it was only an A/C system and a strip of wood. That said, I sometimes call our part of Clear Lake "fake rich." There's a small amount of flashiness ('02ish BMW 3 series are VERY popular), and an almost extreme amount of waste. I super-upgraded my computer with someone's trash, and made $75 on eBay after I was done! However when our neighbors saw us get a brand new A/C installed they nervously asked us some details because their systems were all crapping out on them at the same time! Deep down, all of us are just middle class folks, most with families, who have to get up every day to go to work to pay the banks we allowed to hang us by our junk. Many times there is no money left over for maintenance and these homes suffer!!

True...but when buying a house there should be a certain amount of maintenance money set asside in your budget. If not - then maybe you are buying too much house.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by ayannaaaliyah

What is a "diversity" filler

Diversity is used in marketing, of course it sounds appealing but for different reasons for different people. I have observed that there are places where diversity is sort of fabricated. This is true for my community. Everyone knows the typical builder will try(enforce) to build houses that no 2 houses will be a like (thats good). there are communities where builders mix the topend models with bottomend ones (kinda good/kinda bad).
there are apparently 2 sales reps for my mostly young couples neighborhood. one for (diverse) walk-ins and then there is a row of houses reserved for the street-internet salesman. the latter is african-american and all his customers are southern african-american (NOLA) and for a long time his houses are not available for the walk-ins and werent selling as fast. this is a small neighborhood and i believe they totally f'd since we now have a row of the NOLA-only renter types*, complete with non-running ghetto cars, screaming brawling badmouth teenagers, noisy disrepectful visitors from the ghettos daily, shirtless street football, bicyling on lawns... anyway, thats not my point. my point is the builders reachout program, closeout pricing, weakened (builder)HOA and overall tolerance to other peoples nature promotes the bad thing about diversity which is there is no limit to how low things could go. from what I have observed we would have done better if all the homeowners came thru the walk-ins salesperson and let diversity come naturally.

*I'll fix this issue shortly