My 3 years in wichita KS (Derby, Sedgwick: rent, HOA, insurance)

[dguz]

READ THIS ONLY IF YOU ARE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING TO MOVE TO WICHITA OR BUILD A NEW HOME THERE


I lived in wichita KS for a little over 3 years i just moved back to California.

Im doing this just for those who are thinking of moveing to wichita since i been there done that ill tell you my honest opinion.

It all started with the increase price of homes in california moveing to wichita was easy since i had a sister out there i knew houseing was cheap.So off we went first thing to hit me was the winter of course being from cali i was shocked it gets cold very cold but this could depend where your moveing from. The ice on the roads at times could be scary but it comes with the whole winter thing out there.Summers arent easy either humidity is nasty along with mosquito's everywhere but we were fine with all that.Now came time to home search yes wichita has low price on homes but what do you get? I looked every where alot of nice homes i wasnt to sure about the construction out there i felt it to be pretty cheap being wichita would go threw some harsh winters could they even keep up threw years and years.I ended up buying a new home in south east wichita in a community called Woodland Lake estates very nice neighborhood and of course it had high Hoa prices 440.00 a year. so we move into our new home the builder was don mertens the house model name was the capri very nice home very poor craftsmanship. i already had my fears when we moved in, the new homes have no landscaping so i instantly had to spend well over 5k for sod and sprinkler system. First year new home i had 3 water leaks in the basement from the foundation, and i had a window leak water it was defected, alot of the out side caulking quickly cracked and the floors made alot of squeak, to make this short or at least try my opinion is that new construction in wichita sucks i lived it i learned the house are by far the worst built homes and i thought that by buying a home in that area i would get good quality.Threw out the 3 years i later had alot of squeak in the kitchen floor and 2 leaks on the roof aside from cualking just falling apart everywhere.On top of all that i had to pay 4k in taxes regular and special taxes and 600 insurance so my total was about 5k a year which includes hoa,insurance,taxes and special taxes on a 173k home.i would also get assessment taxes i got 2 of these in 3 years one for 871.00 one for 280.00 so i was getting screwed left and right.What was i paying for? Who the hell knows i guess i was paying for some big shot in downtown to sit on his butt all day cause the city looked mediocre at best.So the whole new home dream was pretty much a nightmare our first year in the home we were already making plans to sell as soon as we had a chance and just for the record Don merten the homes builder did fix most of the problems we had although some happen after the 1st year warranty and he didnt fix those in my opinion he is a nice man but the whole thing with new homes is chop chop quantity over quality they sugar coat these homes but on the inside its just cheap construction.As far as work yes there was plenty work and in my opinion it paid good for being in wichita.People are very nice in wichita, the city it self is very boreing if you are a younger crowed its more of a retiree town.there is not much to do we tried it all and ended up with usual, whats the usual what everyone else does go to the theater the mall or super walmart.I dont have kids that go to school yet although i would hear alot of bad things about schools and of course like every where in the world wihicta has horrible areas i never dealt with that but im sure alot have.


Over all i think people see wichita homes as being cheap in price and get excited like i did but when you buy one you will understand why there cheap. Once you add your taxes and your bills since you will have to use your ac/heater year round you will see that the cost of liveing ends up being close to other places you would think are expensive.


In the end i sold the home lost about 20k it did not go up much and the lil it did didnt nearly cover Realtor fees.

Why i left wichita,

Weather it sucks no other way to put it! cold winter humid summers 24/7

Taxes i have no clue what they do with tax money but some one should investigate no reason why that little city should charge that much there is no justice to the amount.

Not much to do we kind of got tired of being bored.

Price of food is very high if you like to cook.

Thats pretty much it wichita is nice we liked it but in the end there wasnt enough good to stay there.

The good

jobs were good

people are nice

homes are cheap in price also in quality

My opinion is think about it go out and rent something before you move you only live once no reason to live in wichita but of course to each his own. i was happy there although i always knew it was temporary thing i knew i had to move as soon as i could and i did.

[drjones96]

I'm sorry you had a rough time with your builder. Sounds like he did pretty shoddy work. I'm familiar with the practices of some builders. They build a crap product and after that first year they bail out.

But were you not informed up front about HOA dues and property taxes? I am going through the build process at the moment and can honestly say that I've been well informed from the very begining -even before I signed a single form- of what my taxes and dues will be. I don't particularly like paying taxes but it's just a fact of life. Property and specials taxes here are actually less as a percentage than what they were for me in Fort Worth by a good margin. My home here is about $90k more and my taxes are about the same as what they were before. Do you not have property taxes in CA?

[dguz]

Originally Posted by drjones96

I'm sorry you had a rough time with your builder. Sounds like he did pretty shoddy work. I'm familiar with the practices of some builders. They build a crap product and after that first year they bail out.

But were you not informed up front about HOA dues and property taxes? I am going through the build process at the moment and can honestly say that I've been well informed from the very begining -even before I signed a single form- of what my taxes and dues will be. I don't particularly like paying taxes but it's just a fact of life. Property and specials taxes here are actually less as a percentage than what they were for me in Fort Worth by a good margin. My home here is about $90k more and my taxes are about the same as what they were before. Do you not have property taxes in CA?

Yes i was informed about the taxes hoa and special taxes, of course once you start paying them thats when it really hurts lol, i did get 2 assessment taxes i was not informed about that totaled over 1100 within the 1st year.

The way i seen it in the end i was paying a bit over 5k a year not including mortgage, at that rate i will be well over 25k in the can just with taxes special taxes hoa and insurance within 5 years and the home would never appreciate in such a rate so i would never break out even unless i stood in that home til i died, i took a good size loss money wise in the end im just glad it sold which wasnt easy homes like that could sit on the market forever some times not even sell.

Im currently looking for a home in Cali which is sort of easy since things are nasty out here right now houses are like half price, but ill give you my childhood friends example 200k home 2,300 taxes.. thats it no special taxes insurance is 500 and no hoa and comparing KS to Cali i mean come one wichita shouldnt even charge half the tax they do but oh well who knows all i know some city big shot in wichita enjoyed my money more then i ever have.

Good luck with your build i dont really know if theres even any good builders out there i seen alot of most builders work and it all looked pretty cheap once i had already pulled the trigger, in the end i think its just quantity over quality cheap caulking cheap siding throw in some strong storms equals trouble.

[drjones96]

Originally Posted by dguz

Yes i was informed about the taxes hoa and special taxes, of course once you start paying them thats when it really hurts lol, i did get 2 assessment taxes i was not informed about that totaled over 1100 within the 1st year.

I'm confused about this one. So far there has been no mention of this. I'm building in Derby so hopefully it's just a Wichita thing.

Originally Posted by dguz

Good luck with your build i dont really know if theres even any good builders out there i seen alot of most builders work and it all looked pretty cheap once i had already pulled the trigger, in the end i think its just quantity over quality cheap caulking cheap siding throw in some strong storms equals trouble.

I don't know what sort of home you purchased so I can't speak for the quality in comparison to the home I'm building. But I've actually been impressed with what I've seen so far. It's better quality than what I saw for the same money in Fort Worth by a long shot. My builder does custom homes (like mine) and then has some lower end stuff (homes that are considered more of a cookie cutter starter home).

What sort of siding did they use on your house? Masonite? Masonite is a sub-par product that doesn't stand the test of time usually. My parent's built their house in Missouri in 1975 and they used masonite. They've had to replace nearly all of it in the last few years. So it's good for about 25 years at best. The weather in Missouri isn't so different from Kansas. They have tornados there also.

A lot of builders are going to the 50 year concrete composite siding which is a superior product that will stand up to the elements. So don't think that just because it's siding that it's cheap and won't last. Will it eventually have to be replaced? Possibly. But it's likely not going to happen while you are living there if you bought the house new. Not too many people stay in the same house for 50 years these days like they did before.

Obviously siding is not as expensive as brick. Brick just isn't as common here as it is in someplace like Fort Worth. There all the homes are about 80% or more masonry. Our home there was brick from the ground to the roof all the way around. But there is a down side to it. The sun heats the brick up and the bricks hold the heat for a lot longer. This drives up energy costs. My electric bills in the summer months were almost $600 sometimes. Also the quality in general suffers as a result of placing more emphasis on things like brick. Basements are a rarity there also. Where here nearly all homes have them. Basements are a huge expense in comparison. You're automatically going to have to tack on $25k because of having to build a basement instead of building the home on a slab. With basements sometimes comes complications that you wouldn't have had otherwise (leaks). Sure nobody wants this to happen but it will happen to some.

As for calking? I'm not sure how else you expect to seal off your house. Even my brick home in Fort Worth had calking to seal the soffits.

[dguz]

Every builder in wichita claims to make custom homes mine was a custom home more like NOT.

Whats your builders name chances are ive seen his work and for what i hear derby has insane water bills or so they told me, thats why i didnt go to derby cause i belive homes are cheaper in price out there some at least.

Caulking shouldnt go out within a year on a new home.they claimed 30 years i was expecting at least 5 nope 1 year.

Im not saying every new home in wichita is trash i guess some will be fine your were i was almost 4 years ago i would think the best of the home i was building give it a few years then post back.

Texas vs wichita i have no clue never even been to texas as far as cali vs wichita its like day and night, i personally like the tile roof and stucco feel and the concrete slab homes. It just feels like it will keep up better . Its just preference thats all i met many happy new home owners in wichita and some not so happy stay away from the builders who build in Woodland lake Estates i could vouch and say there homes are horrible.I just cant even imagine those homes staying up 100 years like homes in los angeles.

Man im just glad to be out of that house such a relief if i would of purchased another home maybe another builder my thoughts might or might not have been different all i can say is thank god it sold, there was homes on the market for 8 months + mines was on the masrket for 3 months of course i priced it to sell and lost a chunk but anything to get out.

[athfo]

Originally Posted by dguz

Every builder in wichita claims to make custom homes mine was a custom home more like NOT.

Whats your builders name chances are ive seen his work and for what i hear derby has insane water bills or so they told me, thats why i didnt go to derby cause i belive homes are cheaper in price out there some at least.

Caulking shouldnt go out within a year on a new home.they claimed 30 years i was expecting at least 5 nope 1 year.

Im not saying every new home in wichita is trash i guess some will be fine your were i was almost 4 years ago i would think the best of the home i was building give it a few years then post back.

Texas vs wichita i have no clue never even been to texas as far as cali vs wichita its like day and night, i personally like the tile roof and stucco feel and the concrete slab homes. It just feels like it will keep up better . Its just preference thats all i met many happy new home owners in wichita and some not so happy stay away from the builders who build in Woodland lake Estates i could vouch and say there homes are horrible.I just cant even imagine those homes staying up 100 years like homes in los angeles.

Man im just glad to be out of that house such a relief if i would of purchased another home maybe another builder my thoughts might or might not have been different all i can say is thank god it sold, there was homes on the market for 8 months + mines was on the masrket for 3 months of course i priced it to sell and lost a chunk but anything to get out.

.. so you lived in one house out of 204,529 housing units in Sedgwick County?

[dguz]

Originally Posted by athfo

.. so you lived in one house out of 204,529 housing units in Sedgwick County?

No i lived in all 204k, what do you think? Its not hard to drive to models and see quality of all builders once you know more or less what to look for you will instantly find defects....Who ever has purchased a new home and lived in it for 2 years and up will know what i mean, why do you think alot of new areas have tons of homes on the market, and as for 204k homes 75% are probably old homes and those dont fall in the status that we are talking about, were talking about 200k priced homes in decent communities Custom Homes not all those 50k priced homes.

[drjones96]

I think what I'm hearing is that you don't like the quality that you're getting for $200k in Kansas. You know you can always pay more and get more if you should choose. I could have easily spend $750k just down the road and gotten a perfect house on the lake (ya right!). You could get that perfect stucco home with tiled roof here if you wanted to pay to have it done. Instead you chose to spend $200k on a sided (and calked) home.

May I ask what you'd expect for the same money in California? Could you get ANY house for that price out there? Before I moved here I was offered a job out west in southern cali. A house similar to the one I had in FTW was going to be almost triple the price I paid for it....with similar quality. And for a stucco house with tile roof with equal square footage? Forgetaboutit! I couldn't even begin to justify the move because the salary increase wouldn't come close to offsetting the increase in my mortgage.

But I suspect that with the way the market is right now you could get that house in CA for significantly less than you could before. So if you're going it's a great time.

"Its not hard to drive to models and see quality of all builders once you know more or less what to look for you will instantly find defects"

And you say you saw a model home and yet you still bought it? You saw the finished product with 'defects' and all and yet you still signed up for it? My friend this is a case of you making your bed for yourself...and instead of lying in it you've sold the bed.

This will make the second house I've had built. So maybe I've got a better handle on the way builders do buisiness than someone who's never had it done. I've also got a good eye for details and at one point or another in my life I've done improvement projects involving all the elements that compose a house from foundation to sheetrock. I would never sign the papers on a house unless I was satisfied with the job they did and they had repaired all outstanding issues noted in a walk-through. Typically you're going to have some things that need to be remedied. Whether that's a corner of the sheetrock being cracked, a cracked tile, poor calking in the bathroom, kitchen drawer doesn't close properly, etc etc etc (these are all examples of things that were wrong with my last home). But after they fix all that stuff and you still signed off on it then that home is yours for better or worse. And they will come out and fix these and similar items for a year. After that year it's yours to maintain. It seems very bizzare that your calk job only lasted a year. That was the only thing that was still good on my parent's house when they replaced the siding.

[dguz]

jones i was never expecting things to go bad period, am i familiar with homes yes i am, basement siding having homes nope west coast dont have none of those. As far as million dollar homes in wichita having superior quality !BS! believe that if you want Don Merden told me himself he would take me to some million dollar houses with more defects then mine when i got into it with him about repairs.Right now in Cali of course you get something pretty good for 200k so im pretty coo with that out here houses actually go up in value so thats a plus. I know your defending the KS homes cause thats the boat your in right now and hey hopefully you have a great home i didnt so obviously i have nothing but bad things to say about it. I know you said you done handy work here and there we all have i know the basics of construction we just get sold a nice looking product that pretty much melts down in a a few years but of course they conveniently give you 1 year warranty cause they know after the year is when all there cheap work that some no high school diploma(at least) immigrant did while the home builder takes our money we get cheap labor and thats the bottom line and the same contractors that work for one home builder work for another and on and on go to the job sites what are you gonna see some un professional immigrants building your house and whos building the million dollar house that same guys building the 100k house same crappy labor same crappy product.Why do you think big companies such as KB homes beazer Richmond homes dont even bother with wichita.

[drjones96]

Originally Posted by dguz

...immigrant did while the home builder takes our money we get cheap labor and thats the bottom line and the same contractors that work for one home builder work for another and on and on go to the job sites what are you gonna see some un professional immigrants building your house and whos building the million dollar house that same guys building the 100k house same crappy labor same crappy product.Why do you think big companies such as KB homes beazer Richmond homes dont even bother with wichita.

The sad thing is, man, that some of those immigrants work a hell of a lot harder and do a better job than some of their domestic counterparts (this is coming from a red blooded american). They'll do the worst grunt work and not complain. They'll do the jobs that most of us wouldn't bother doing....because the pay sucks (some of us could do better working at McDonalds...or earning unemployment). I'm sure living in CA you're familar with 'guest' labor. Having just lived in Texas I sure am.

KB builds in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas btw...where you're highly unlikely to find an english speaker on the jobsite. And to be honest I looked at their product and did not care for it in comparison to what I ended up buying. For the money I liked several other builders better (at least around FTW). Why they choose not to build in Kansas? I don't know. Why do they choose not to build in Missouri? Or Oklahoma? Or Arkansas? Or Alabama? Or Mississippi? I don't know man. They just don't. Why can't you find a Steak N Shake in New York?

But why should I defend the product because it's what I'm buying? True I've decided to buy here....but I own no stock in my builder's company. I'll be quick to drag their name through the mud if they do not give me the service as advertised....however I've seen several of their homes in various ages in this area (from brand new up to about 5 years old). They seem to be holding up fairly well.

I understand you've had your problems with YOUR builder. It sounds like from what you've said he's blowing you off on his quality saying "everybody does it". I can tell you that not everybody does things the exact same way. Some builders demand better from their labor. It may sound like an off topic observation but most brands of bicycles have their carbon fiber frames built in china. Even some competitive brands are built under the same roof. But even though that's true it doesn't mean that the processes to build the two frames are the same. In fact if the two companies own proprietary manufacturing processes and layup schedules they WILL be made differently and with different quality.

I can tell you I would expect and demand much better quality out of a $1mil home regardless of what nationality the labor was. I'm not saying there would be zero defects...it's really impossible when you're talking about building something the size of a house. It's not like building something easy like a cardboard box. There are so many elements to a house that can and will go wrong. It's how your builder chooses to remedy the situations as they arise....sounds like yours didn't do squat for you....which is why you're on here draging his name through the mud.