New homes versus existing homes (Houston, Katy: neighborhood, new construction, good schools)

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by tstone

('02ish BMW 3 series are VERY popular),

they just came out of the warranty period. I got my wife a 330ci since we both need cars to drive in houston

[banker]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

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

What price point is your neighborhood? This doesn't sound good at all.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by banker

What price point is your neighborhood? This doesn't sound good at all.

which part? i forgot to mention the 2-3 times per week party in the garage up to 12midnight. were at 165k to 200k. i've been warned to stay in the 180s up, I guess they didnt factor in the NOLA renters trying to find a peaceful place ... when they want it peaceful. a place so diverse people wont unite to file a complaint. well i havent completely converted into a houstonian yet, its up to me (and firkin HOA) now to straighten these folks out

[tstone]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

they just came out of the warranty period. I got my wife a 330ci since we both need cars to drive in houston

It's only aggravating to me because on a small section of our street you can't count on one hand how many five-year-old 3 series there are. It's bad enough ~40% of the houses on the street are the same model, just with different colors and some are mirrored.

But it's not as if these (and other Euro) cars are a penchant for reliability and efficiency either... considering the average BMW owner does not maintain their car with the proper fluids. (I used to manage a maintenance/repair shop for a few years.) There are smarter ways to spend that money if all you're gonna do to the car is run it into the ground.

[banker]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

which part? i forgot to mention the 2-3 times per week party in the garage up to 12midnight. were at 165k to 200k. i've been warned to stay in the 180s up, I guess they didnt factor in the NOLA renters trying to find a peaceful place ... when they want it peaceful. a place so diverse people wont unite to file a complaint. well i havent completely converted into a houstonian yet, its up to me (and firkin HOA) now to straighten these folks out

In San Antonio the breaking point is $200K and up - to avoid stuff like this. My wife and I are looking for specifically a neighborhood with a high cost of entry to avoid the instand rental market.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by tstone

It's only aggravating to me because on a small section of our street you can't count on one hand how many five-year-old 3 series there are. It's bad enough ~40% of the houses on the street are the same model, just with different colors and some are mirrored.

But it's not as if these (and other Euro) cars are a penchant for reliability and efficiency either... considering the average BMW owner does not maintain their car with the proper fluids. (I used to manage a maintenance/repair shop for a few years.) There are smarter ways to spend that money if all you're gonna do to the car is run it into the ground.

haha so true. unless youre buying the cream of the crop 5 years ago, i dont get just buying the BMW brand (btw original owners love and get the dealership to maintain their bimmers), unless you consider the safety features of upscale level cars of course but i dont think the regular 3-series has the traction control stuff
I owed 2 brand new cars before but after spending a lot of time with cars i realize I'm paying too much especially for options you rarely use or can do better with aftermarket upgrades. my gutted astrovan has way better sound system than my wifes bimmer! i'm never buying a new car again unless i win the lottery or something. my wifes 330ci has a sticker price of 40K which we bought for 15k at 90kmiles and a broken washerpump(fixed). those regular 318, 325s, 328s are 8-12k which are probably the safest cars out there for that price range, theyre still trying to get by like average folks but maybe a little smarter that the folks who buy brand new racer-boy-look cars.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by banker

In San Antonio the breaking point is $200K and up - to avoid stuff like this. My wife and I are looking for specifically a neighborhood with a high cost of entry to avoid the instand rental market.

yup 200K absolute minimum for all units and a strong 'heartless' by the book HOA - they were specifically created to wave a stick at 'diversity'

[banker]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

yup 200K absolute minimum for all units and a strong 'heartless' by the book HOA - they were specifically created to wave a stick at 'diversity'

LOL. I love the heartless HOA comment - wish my current neighborhood had one of these...

[Supermac34]

Here's the real trick. Find quality custom homes that are built new in or around well established neighborhoods. Hard to find...but they do exist.

[ayannaaaliyah]

Okay, I don't mean to seem argumentative, but I still have to disagree with buying new, unless you're going high end and can ACTUALLY afford it. I am doing some work for a commercial builder and have since learned a lot about the building materials being used on many of these homes being thrown up and it's not good.

To judge established communities and say that the homes haven't been maintained is outright false. While I might agree that some of the homes may not have had regular maintenance but the same could be true on a home in a $300k neighborhood. It's all about knowing the history of the home (i.e. how many owners has the property had) and having YOUR OWN inspector come in. I'll give you an example. When I was looking to buy, I looked at a home in Cinco Ranch asking price was $280k (not that I had any intention on buying because it was wayyyyyyy out of my budget). Anyway, my inspector (which happens to be a good friend of my brothers) came along with me. Well needless to say, I thought the home was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. He pointed out flaws from outside and inside that I would have never notice (i.e. shifting foundation-nothing signficant but in 2 years it would be; exposed metal beams from the foundation to the outside of the house-which over time would cause the structure to weaken; previous leak, which would indicate possible mold problems behind the sheet rock Anyway, I wish I could find my notes that I made, but nevertheless, I found problems in some older homes as well.

Needless to say I think I lucked up because my home only had 2 owners (one that passed and the second was a general contractor). There is NO wood on my home at all. It's all about taking your time to look and RESEARCH and find what is right for you. I don't think new is better than old or vice versa, it's all about who owned it before you did and who is actually building your home. Many of these builders are utilizing un-skilled/non-certified workers - believe me I know and many existing homes have had owners who didn't care about maintenance. At the end of the day, it's a gamble!

Diversity - we need to start a thread on renters in your neighborhood and what we can do to rid ourselves of their unwanted behaviour. I however don't want to stereotype all diversity as bad - because I'm a black female, but I know that I have some renters in my neighborhood that are about to drive me to commit MURDER! And the HOA - what a joke - I'm actually running for one of the available Board seats come November