Alamo Ranch (San Antonio, West, Anton: foreclosure, renters, buying a home) - Texas (TX) - Page 4 - City-Data Forum

ko1212 · 03-26-2011, 01:19 PM

There are now 17 different Builders in Alamo Ranch-wow! I always suggest everyone do their own 'due dilegence'. There are a handful of 'start up' builders and some with less desirable reputations regarding quality. You have to consider quality and reputation if you want your home to increase in value. I strongly recommend gated neighborhoods too. The Preserve is my vote for highest quality, reputation and resale value. David Weekley has the superior construction quality with the 2x6 framing-no one else builds with 2x6. This is important to you in terms of lower utility bills, resale, etc. Drive the Preserve and talk to home owners outside of their home-they are a great source of information and comparisons. I dont know your budget but Weekley offers homes from $200K on up. Good luck! Alamo is a wonderful neighborhood!!

livedhere5yrs · 03-26-2011, 08:20 PM

great replies and wonderful information everyone.

i'm so impressed with the amount of knowledge on here.

it is funny, but at the end of the day, we picked david weekley in the preserve for pretty much PRECISELY the reasons you listed. great quality, chatting with the neighbors, level of customization, customer satisfaction... blah blah.

i'm curious what the market is going to be like in alamo ranch and san antonio over the course of the next few years... anyone dare put their thoughts out there on that?

my guess is that real estate will stay pretty much flat over the next 5 years with maybe 1% increases over each year meaning you aren't gonna be making any money buying a house.

you will lose if you buy in a neighborhood where every house looks the exact same...

again, just guesses/thoughts. what does everyone else think?

ko1212 · 03-26-2011, 09:38 PM

Congrats on your new home purchase!! Exciting!!

NathanScott · 03-28-2011, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ko1212

There are now 17 different Builders in Alamo Ranch-wow! I always suggest everyone do their own 'due dilegence'. There are a handful of 'start up' builders and some with less desirable reputations regarding quality. You have to consider quality and reputation if you want your home to increase in value. I strongly recommend gated neighborhoods too. The Preserve is my vote for highest quality, reputation and resale value. David Weekley has the superior construction quality with the 2x6 framing-no one else builds with 2x6. This is important to you in terms of lower utility bills, resale, etc. Drive the Preserve and talk to home owners outside of their home-they are a great source of information and comparisons. I dont know your budget but Weekley offers homes from $200K on up. Good luck! Alamo is a wonderful neighborhood!!

Sivage in Alamo Ranch builds with 2x6.

scuba steve · 03-28-2011, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by livedhere5yrs

my guess is that real estate will stay pretty much flat over the next 5 years with maybe 1% increases over each year meaning you aren't gonna be making any money buying a house.

you will lose if you buy in a neighborhood where every house looks the exact same...

again, just guesses/thoughts. what does everyone else think?

Flat to 1% a year is about what I'd guess too for that specific area. Surrounding areas, my guess is won't fare as well. Alamo Ranch may not either, depending largely on how the residential and commercial areas are kept up. If people stay on top of keeping tagging cleaned up maybe not so bad. But I think that people at the mid/upper end of what Alamo Ranch is targeting is a group of people that are a lot more sensitive to things like that than clientele in other neighborhoods.

Stabart47 · 03-28-2011, 11:45 AM

Are you saying that "clientele" in other neighborhoods enjoy graffiti and tagging? The problem is that Alamo Ranch and most other mass subdivisions allow too many builders and price-points. We saw it in Westcreek and there isn't near the price-spread there as you see in AR. As long as you get brokers and builders financing anyone able to sign their name, it's going to hurt re-sale... especially in a down market. If you could afford $400,000 for a home, why would you want to buy anywhere NEAR a $175,000 house? This side of town is slowly turning into the land of rentals... AR included. Because new construction is still going up, it may not be so obvious. We know of three families, all in different neighborhoods in AR, who are becoming landlords this spring because they could not bring so much cash to closing. But, hold on folks... sure to follow will be the "spin" that everything is peachy in the SA housing market.

scuba steve · 03-28-2011, 01:57 PM

No, they're just less tolerant to it and are more likely to settle on a different area.

Here's some SA housing market spin for you. We bought in May 2008 and sold in March 2011 (78248). Between then and now we made about 20% on the place. Like I was saying, it all depends on what part of town you're in.

Stabart47 · 03-28-2011, 02:45 PM

78248 is a zipcode I wish we had checked in 2006. I'm happy for you, even though I have doubts about 20%. I'm not really sure what qualifies you to be so knowledgeable on the far-west side if you didn't live there. As I've stated many times: I wouldn't wish on anyone what happened to us and if I can prevent it from happening to one other person, I can sleep better and swallow the fact I'm an unplanned landlord of a home in SA.

doss1 · 03-28-2011, 03:43 PM

If he would've bought in 2006 then I doubt he would've made the 20%. I think it's between 2006-2007 where the crap hit the fan

scuba steve · 03-28-2011, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stabart47

78248 is a zipcode I wish we had checked in 2006. I'm happy for you, even though I have doubts about 20%. I'm not really sure what qualifies you to be so knowledgeable on the far-west side if you didn't live there. As I've stated many times: I wouldn't wish on anyone what happened to us and if I can prevent it from happening to one other person, I can sleep better and swallow the fact I'm an unplanned landlord of a home in SA.

In laws, friends and coworkers are how I know about the far west end. We were over there all the time and my wife still is until May when she comes out here. I'd share the raw numbers for the sale but there wouldn't be much point to that since it's all words on a computer screen.

And if we bought the place a couple of years earlier when the previous owners did we would've done better (closer to 30%). it took them ages to sell because they overpersonalized it. They probably lost a lot of what they would've made while they waited nearly a year while it was on the market.