Kansas City area options under $200k (Springfield, Lee's Summit: home builders, neighborhoods, to buy)

[scotth501]

Hi,

Our family has lived in the Dallas area for the last 15 years or so. We'd like to move somewhere with some actual seasons. I grew up and have family in the Springfield,MO area. My wife's family is all around Lincoln, NE. So, KC seems right in the middle.

We'd like to find some room for our growing family. So, I'd like to step up from our 3 BR to a 4 BR if possible, but the housing costs look 20% higher in KC than Dallas. Plus I'll have to figure out the income and personal property tax affects as we don't have that here.

My wife currently stays home with the kids (including me, as I primarily work from home). My job is project management and network infrastructure design, so I'm mostly remote anyway. My boss doesn't care where I live, I just need a decent airport and high speed internet. Our company has an office in Overland Park.

My aunt lives in Shawnee, and it sounds pretty nice, but more expensive. It does seem near my office, not too far from the airport, etc. I think it would simplify things since I would move my official office location to KS so I wouldn't have two-state tax issues to resolve.

I've also though Lee's Summit and Liberty both looked nice -- on paper. I don't really have anything else on my radar, so any suggestions would be great.

Top concerns:
1. We'd like a green community (I saw on the Lee's Summit city website that they have a rain-barrel workshop)
2. I have to have high speed internet for work. It doesn't seem that Verizon will be in town anytime soon, so I'm going to have to give up my FIOS service (20Mbps down, 5Mbps up)
3. Good schools would be obvious too
4. We have a German Shepherd Dog, so any place that has ignorant dangerous dog ordinances based on breed is out.
5. I'd like some place to go shooting still, my current range is less than 10 minutes from my house.
6. My aunt has warned that many places flood, she was in the area in 1993 and still worries about that.

Does such a place exist?

In addition to figuring out taxes, I don't understand the different basement configurations mentioned in a lot of home ads. Everything here and in Oklahoma where I previously lived is built on shifting clay soil and we've always just had a solid slab. Only one of my grandmothers in Springfield has a basement and it's not really accessible or usable for more than storage. Is there a secret to tell if the home sq ft's includes or excludes basements? Any special concerns regarding them?

Thanks for taking time to read my still random thoughts and ideas. We're really getting excited to move some place that has seasons even if we have to give up on professional hockey. Maybe the Blues games will be televised regularly. I think there's a pre-season exhibition game in KC that I hope draws a lot of interest.

Thanks,
Scott

[Samantha S]

Hmmm, well, if I were you, I'd look in maybe the Olathe/Gardner area. Olathe schools are very good. Another option is the far west part of Shawnee, the houses are a little lower priced the further West you are willing to go and DeSoto district is a good district too. We just moved from that area and sold our 4 BR house for a little over 200k.

Basements are not usually considered part of the square footage of the house unless they have been made into actual living space and even then they are not typically counted.

It's quite common in the Shawnee/OP area to have a "finished" basement, meaning that it can be accessed from inside the house and has actual living space (maybe a second family room and/or an extra bed, bath, or office.

Our 4 BR had a "finished basement with family room, office, bathroom and storage rooms. But there are MANY 4 BR's around the area of Johnson Drive and Monticello that are priced right around $200k. Those priced under may not have the basement finished off or may need some updating done to them.

That's where I would start if I were you. West Shawnee first, Olathe/Gardner second.

You mentioned Lees Summit and Liberty. These are also fine choices as are other "Northland" suburbs. Living on the MO side is not that big of a deal tax-wise. My husband and I live in KS and both have worked for MO based companies and it's no big deal, just one extra return to file and MO makes it easy.

Personally, I like the Kansas side better. The schools in Johnson County are absolutely top notch. Others will argue that the MO suburban schools (this would not include the more urban KCMO school district which has a not-so-great reputation) are just as good. I still think KS is a better option school-wise, but that is just one person's opinion.

Best of luck to you!! And Welcome!

[Samantha S]

Oh, I forgot the flooding issue. Just be careful. A seller is required to disclose to you if the house has ever been flooded. With all the rain we get sometimes, a poor basement can create water issues.

Another plus for the area of Shawnee I mentioned above is that it sits up pretty high relative to surrounding areas.

We lived there for 11 years and flooding was never an issue.

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

I'm a bit surprised that you list a green community as your #1 concern, but only mention suburbs as possibilities. To me, suburbs and green living are diametrically opposed - especially KC's sprawling burbs. The material and land consumption for new construction and the completely auto-centric life in the suburbs wreak havoc on the environment. Having a rain barrel in Lee's Summit is like turning the AC down a notch in your Hummer. (Sorry, didn't mean to get too preachy)

For more green living (yet still family friendly) check out the Brookside and Waldo neighborhoods in KC - though you would probably be priced out of most of Brookside at 200K. Most families in these neighborhoods choose to send their kids to private/Catholic schools. If this is a problem, then I would recommend the older, closer in suburbs just over the state line, like Westwood.

[kcmo]

Yea, don't overlook Brookside. But I'm not sure it's really feasible in your price range, especially since you would probably have to do private schools too.

I think you can get a home for under 200k in most parts of the metro, even northern OP. But you will get more for your money in Blue Springs. For under 200k, even under 150k, you can get a really nice home in Blue Springs than you can in Lee's Summit, the Northland, JoCo etc. It's one of the reasons we chose the area.

Our home is very nice and updated. It's a 4 bedroom with a massive deck with an arbor. New kitchen with granite tops, spanish tile backsplash, tile floor. Also granite and tile in main bathroom, finished basement, two car garage, all new brushed nickel light fixtures, vaulted ceilings, contemporary ceiling fans with wall remotes, brand new entry doors, brand new garage doors and openers, brand new AC and Furnace, new roof, very well maintained externally, nice corner lot, big trees, near lakes and shopping. All in the top rated Blue Springs school district with one of the top elementary schools in the district. Also the Lake City shooting range is very close and it seems quite popular. I do that, but I do mountain bike and the firing range is near the Landahl Mountain Biking park.

I am about to put it on the market for under 200k. I guarantee you that you will not find a home as nice as ours in this price bracket. It's about a half hour from Overland Park, most of my neighbors work in OP, or further.

If you are interested, PM me .

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by WiseOwlSaysHoot

then I would recommend the older, closer in suburbs just over the state line, like Westwood.

You can't get a cracker box in Westwood for 200k

[Samantha S]

Comparing schools and school districts across state lines is rather tricky. Check them out carefully. Talk to people whose kids go to the schools you are considering.

[scotth501]

Hey All,

Thanks for all of the quick replies. It definitely will give us some thing to think about. My aunt goes on and on about the Kansas side, so it seemed pretty good. I've really only visited her once there since it's about a 10 hour drive from Dallas. But I liked the hills and terrain which is nothing like we have around here. Oh, and trees.

I don't know that "green" is my major driver, but it's something I try to put in the front of my decision making. Since I work from home, I think we put a combined 6,000 miles on two cars last year. We probably don't need but the one. I guess some old habits die hard. Since we can't do some of the things like set the thermostat up or down while we're away at work, we've used the power deregulation in Texas to buy 100% Wind Power from Green Mountain Energy. And I've found that a lot of newer planned communities will have shopping all in one area so there's not a lot of extra driving around over older towns that have grown more organically.

On the green topic, I'm really surprised at the number of homes I see listed with rooms over the garage. My wife's previous job was with an information company that specialized in home builders. They always indicated that was a pretty inefficient design having a room without climate control in contact on three sides with the main structure. But I see it everywhere I've looked in KC.

I'll definitely look closer at Brookside and Blue Springs. I had originally thought out toward Lone Jack might get me some additional land. We've mostly decided against that because that's more of something I'd like to have than something we need to have and/or want for our kids. I'd like to have some more room for the dog to run since my garden has been growing in our yard here.

Thanks again,
Scott