New Home Options (Huntsville, Madison, Harvest: for sale, apartment, mortgage)

[NoleFanHSV]

Hi. New here to the forum. I've been a resident of Huntsville for about 15 years. I have been living in an apartment for all of those 15 years. Its about time I move out into a home.

So, as someone who works in research park and has a limited budget of about 160K, its really hard to find new-ish or updated older homes within reasonable drive time. When I was living in Florida in the mid 90's, most homes already had open floorplans, especially the kitchen open to the family/living room. These are hard to come by unless they have been built in the last 10 years here in Huntsville/Madison county. I've already looked at some Hunter, Breland, and Adams homes. Are there any other entry level builders out there? It seems that Monrovia/Harvest has exploded to the point that it takes coworkers 30+ minutes to get to work and 45 minutes to get home, mainly due all two lane roads getting to harvest and monrovia areas. For us, even Zeirdt isn't an option because of the traffic at prime time.

Anyone have an idea of where to look that is a reasonable drive time from research park?

Right now Research station is at the top of the list, but I can't get over some of the terrible back yards. Then again, we aren't a fan of the subdivisions plopped in the middle of fields, which seems to be the norm for this area except central and south huntsville.

Thanks.

[CoreLysium]

My first thoughts are the Creekwood (north of entrance only) and Potter's Mill subdivisions. Though this is with the assumption that using that road just south of Creekwood lets you into Research Park. I haven't been out there in ages.

[NoleFanHSV]

Potters Mill and Creekwood are both nice subidivisions but most of the houses for sale and in general haven't been updated in a while and don't have open floorplans. We go to creekwood park quite often.

[JakeWilliams]

Agree 100% on Creekwood. I lived there for about 7 years in a home built for me.

MLS 441207, 342582, 649085.

Are those floorplans not open enough for you? I'm very familiar with the first two from when I lived there (second is the same floorplan that we had).

[NoleFanHSV]

Thanks for the MLS #s. Sadly, not really open enough. The last one would be a good option, and close to what I'm looking for, but its only 50 square feet larger than my apartment.
We are also only considering 1 story unless the master is downstairs, mainly because of health issues.

I guess open means different things to different people. I really want a kitchen that is entirely open to the family room with no walls in the way. Almost as if the Kitchen is in the family room. While this does reduce cabinet space, for us its not an issue. I don't think this type of floorplan is terribly popular here.

[needtosellmyhome]

Originally Posted by NoleFanHSV

Hi. New here to the forum. I've been a resident of Huntsville for about 15 years. I have been living in an apartment for all of those 15 years. Its about time I move out into a home.

So, as someone who works in research park and has a limited budget of about 160K, its really hard to find new-ish or updated older homes within reasonable drive time. When I was living in Florida in the mid 90's, most homes already had open floorplans, especially the kitchen open to the family/living room. These are hard to come by unless they have been built in the last 10 years here in Huntsville/Madison county. I've already looked at some Hunter, Breland, and Adams homes. Are there any other entry level builders out there? It seems that Monrovia/Harvest has exploded to the point that it takes coworkers 30+ minutes to get to work and 45 minutes to get home, mainly due all two lane roads getting to harvest and monrovia areas. For us, even Zeirdt isn't an option because of the traffic at prime time.

Anyone have an idea of where to look that is a reasonable drive time from research park?

Right now Research station is at the top of the list, but I can't get over some of the terrible back yards. Then again, we aren't a fan of the subdivisions plopped in the middle of fields, which seems to be the norm for this area except central and south huntsville.

Thanks.

For new homes around 160K I love Breland Homes. Research Station is definitely a great location if you work in Research Park but it currently has limited home sites remaining if you want to buy new.

Also there is a brand neighborhood not too far from Research Station off of Indian Creek Road called "Ashton Springs" where Valor Homes/Valor Communities is building and you can easily buy a home in there for 160K. These are historic style homes with Hardi-Board siding, many of the lots have alley entry garages so they do not have a backyard however they do have one or two streets that have front entry garages so you would have a backyard on those streets. Ashton Springs is just minutes from Research Park Blvd. It's a nice neighborhood for that price range, you should check it out since you mentioned wanting to find other entry level builders in the 160K range. Ashton Springs ranges from $129,900-$224,900 for new homes currently listed in there.

[NoleFanHSV]

I took a look at Ashton springs and the biggest issue there is that they are mostly two story and we want a one story.

Not to hijack my own thread, but does anyone have any experience in dealing with Breland? A few of their homes are close to completion and my understanding is that they won't budge on price. If they won't budge on price, does anyone know if they have any add ons(such as fridge and blinds) included in the price?

[lindy112]

Breland doesn't like to budge on price because of affecting property values/future sales. You might be able to get them to agree to provide a fridge, blinds, fence, etc. but your best bet is probably to get them to agree to cover more of your closing costs. Their standard is to pay 1.75% if you use one of their approved lenders but I just closed a deal where they agreed to pay 3%. Make sure you have your own agent to help you negotiate ... don't rely on the site agent to have your best interests at heart.

[NoleFanHSV]

Thank you.

We have our own agent. We will be looking at two of the homes again and looking at a home in Oak Brook which is a new subdivision off of Old Railroad Bed.

We talked with a lender and what our mortgage would look like but its not one of their lenders. Their lender might not give us as good of a deal even if they pay all of closing costs.

[LCT Dave]

Originally Posted by NoleFanHSV

Thank you.

We have our own agent. We will be looking at two of the homes again and looking at a home in Oak Brook which is a new subdivision off of Old Railroad Bed.

We talked with a lender and what our mortgage would look like but its not one of their lenders. Their lender might not give us as good of a deal even if they pay all of closing costs.

If you want a nice open kitchen in a great neighborhood where price stability in the long term is exceptional, take a look at MLS 935317. Slightly above your price range but you can always offer less and get close to your number. It seems like you are a long way from research park but travel time is 24 minutes because I do it everyday and it is a no stress drive compared to Madison where I lived previously. Best of luck!