Cobblestone Landing/Mt. Juliet/Fox Ridge Homes (Nolensville: hardwood floors, for sale)

[OKtoTN]

Help! My family and I are relocating from Tulsa Oklahoma. We've been on a few house hunting trips and it looks like we've finally picked a location and a house! Yeah! I just wanted to see if there's anyone out there that has experience (or has heard anything through the grapevine) about the builder we chose to go with and the subdivision. We have chosen to build a home in the Cobblestone Landing subdivision in Mt. Juliet and are building a Fox Ridge Homes home. We first looked at this builder in Nolensville, but in Mt. Juliet you can get more home for your money and it's still a really nice area with nice schools.
Any information anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated. This will be the first home we've built (our second home period) and it's making us a little nervous. Thanks so much!!!

[denawilliams]

If you're working with a realtor, they can help you navigate through some of the challenges in working with a builder, in general. For a lot of builders, especially Fox Ridge, you have to be very careful with getting nickeled and dimed to death. I haven't heard anything negative about the quality of homes they build, but I do know that EVERYTHING is an upgrade. I went through a model with an agent there a few months ago and had her tell me every single upgrade in the model and the round costs. It was disappointing to me the items they considered upgrades considering the standards for that particular neighborhood. I jokingly asked if having stairs to the second floor was considered an upgrade. I believe that particular model had over $250,000 in "upgrades". So be careful as you look at their model in comparison to what you will be having built, unless you are prepared to tack on quite a bit extra in the price. I do think they have some beautiful homes...just be careful with the nickel and dime thing and make sure you have a very good understanding of their "Standards" of everything...and I do mean, everything! Also, I strongly recommend if you do have a home built that you STILL get a home inspection performed. Many people assume because it's new that there's nothing wrong with the house. Thinking it had to pass code, etc. so it should be fine...That could end up being a huge mistake. There are other things worth mentioning, but those are two of the big ones.

Before I was in the industry, I had a home built using the agent representing the builder. While it went fine as far as I thought, knowing the industry now...I wish I would have had my own representation back then. If you choose to not go that route, just do your research and continue to get advice along the way throughout the process.

[Nashter]

They have 2 builders there. Fox Ridge and the other one is Drees. As denawilliams mentioned, Fox Ridge starts the price lower but comes out higher always. For example, a $240k house comes out in the $275k-$300k final range based on basic upgrades (I'm not talking hardwood floors here, maybe stairs haha). Drees starts higher ($270k as an example) but ends up with just a few more at $275K-$300K.

So I say they are about the same in the end - just different in pricing strategy. Ultimately, it will have to be based on which design you would prefer because they have totally different designs. Just to give one example, Fox Ridge is based on slab foundation, while Drees is based on crawlspace foundation. Both have their pros and cons so they just cancel each other out again, so it's just a matter of your preference.

[OKtoTN]

Thanks for your help. I think we're just really nervous because it's something we haven't done before and it's such a big purchase.
Now here's something interesting, I was looking at all the homes listed for sale in Cobblestone on realtracs the other day and I noticed that some of the existing homes that are for sale are listed as being in Davidson County, with Davidson County schools. I've read enough of these threads to know that zoning is an issue and they redo it all the time. I thought we were far enough inside the county line where this wouldn't be an issue, but apparently I was wrong.
Anyone have any useful information for me there?
Thanks!

[Nashter]

That is true. You get zoned to a school depending on where the facade of the house is. So if you like Davidson schools, get a lot left of the demarcation line. If you like Wilson, get a lot to the right of the demarcation line. If you like to be able to tell your friends you can be in 2 places at the same time, get a lot that is in middle of the demarcation line separating the 2 counties. Of course I'm just being humorous here but, come to think of it, it's true. I was told that the rule is where the front of the house is, that's the county you are in.

About re-zoning, that could also be true but that affects everybody here, not just this subdivision.

[Nashter]

I contacted the Transport Department of Stoner Creek and gave them a Wilson house address inside the subdivision and the person confirmed it is zoned to them. Hope that helps.

[OKtoTN]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that!

[Jackie88]

Not to be a downer here, but I know a lady who used to work with Fox Ridge Homes and she says they're not that good. Other than that, I have absolutely no personal experience here.... just word of mouth. I do like Cobblestone Landing though. It's in a great spot.

[Nashter]

It's quite vague right now what the person mean by "not that good".

I could surmise that if the person is into crawlspace foundation, then the Fox Ridge slab will not work for her. If she's saying on the premise that they are not a good builder, I could say that the company has been in the industry for a long time and if it is not meeting the building code standards or having too much complaints, then it would have been out of business. The thing is that Fox Ridge even acquired Ryan Homes. Maybe she's stating that there are better builders than Fox Ridge and that may be true.

It's got to be taken in context. I'm sure the higher the price the better the house will be due to the upgrades. What may be a "not good" for Fox Ridge is its pricing strategy as one may initially think that they are less expensive because they start lower than Drees, but find out later that once it becomes comparable to the latter, the price also becomes comparable or even a bit higher. It's psychological and I could see myself getting turned off to the strategy.

I think Drees has the right strategy, they start high but build into their price many of the items you see in the model house. Thus, the shock factor is less. Fox Ridge will shock you! The background music for Fox Ridge upon entering their office should be Queen's "We Will Shock You" or Scorpion's "Shock You Like A Hurricane."

That being said, the counter advantage of the strategy of Fox Ridge is it empowers the buyer to buy a more basic home. This allows those who currently want to budget for a lower-priced home the ability to own a house now and then do the upgrades later on.

[Doridelay]

The company I am dealing with now has been in business over 100 years. They are proof you can break all the rules, laws, codes and vilate tax requirements and stay in business. They use assumed names all the time and are well known as slumlords, yet they are going strong.