Moving into the Quarry at Iron Mountain (home builders, neighborhood)

[940]

Originally Posted by banker

Well yesterday my wife and I completed our selection process spending about $35K in upgrades to our home. We selected primarily structural items to upgrade like the third car garage, bonus room and covered porch. There were some minor cosmetic items we upgraded - but since the homes in the Quarry have so many standard features it wasn't necessary to go crazy on those items in order to get a nice home. We will address many items in time after we move in. The process took about 4 hours (we had done much of the work going through their design/options list in advance) and covered everything from appliances to brick. Our goal was to get into the Quarry on the lot of our chosing for less than $300K after all costs/upgrades. We succeeded comfortably. I believe KB will now work to begin scheduling subs so we can get a construction date/timeline.

Congrats and good for you! I'm enjoying reading about how this process is playing out. Your upgrades sound like mine when the time does come for me to sell and buy a larger home (2-3 years max). 3 car garage, bonus room and a covered front and back patio/porch are high on my list too! That area is beautiful with all the hills and endless views. I've actually seen the KB neighborhood in Boerne and I was quite impressed!

Thanks for taking the time to update this thread...I have seen some KB Homes in my area (DFW) and they're nothing like what I was used to seeing when I lived in SA. Glad to hear that the product is changing there as well.

[banker]

Originally Posted by 940

Congrats and good for you! I'm enjoying reading about how this process is playing out. Your upgrades sound like mine when the time does come for me to sell and buy a larger home (2-3 years max). 3 car garage, bonus room and a covered front and back patio/porch are high on my list too! That area is beautiful with all the hills and endless views. I've actually seen the KB neighborhood in Boerne and I was quite impressed!

Thanks for taking the time to update this thread...I have seen some KB Homes in my area (DFW) and they're nothing like what I was used to seeing when I lived in SA. Glad to hear that the product is changing there as well.

The Quarry at Iron Mountain is nicer than the KB community in Borne - The Trails at Herff Ranch. It has larger homesites (minimum of 1/4 acre), wider footprint homes and a high percentage of large one story homes. It really is a premium community in all regards. Next time you are in SA - you should check it out.

[jams33]

Glad to hear you are enjoying your new place! My partner and I have considered the Quarry at Iron Mountain. We love the neighborhood and the home/homesites. The only thing we could not seem to find was a floorplan that we liked with alot of closet space in the master. The largest floorplan had great closets but we are not crazy about the detatched garage

Ruth, at the Quarry, recently told us about a new KB community going in...The Woods of Alon. Heard anything about it yet in terms of comparison to the Quarry? I drove by the other day and they are moving along on the models. Went on the website and the pics were not so attractive. Strange looking exteriors, almost like big barns?? But the actual site models look better than the ones online.

We should find out in the next week or two if my job will keep us in SA for a few more years. If so, we will strongly consider one of the KB sites. Any advice as to which one now that you've moved in the Quarry??

Thanks!

[firstclassflyer]

I don't think he's moved in yet. He hasn't even started building.

[jams33]

Oh, I see that now...sorry. Well hopefully you guys will still have some advice/input to give

[banker]

Originally Posted by jams33

Glad to hear you are enjoying your new place! My partner and I have considered the Quarry at Iron Mountain. We love the neighborhood and the home/homesites. The only thing we could not seem to find was a floorplan that we liked with alot of closet space in the master. The largest floorplan had great closets but we are not crazy about the detatched garage

Ruth, at the Quarry, recently told us about a new KB community going in...The Woods of Alon. Heard anything about it yet in terms of comparison to the Quarry? I drove by the other day and they are moving along on the models. Went on the website and the pics were not so attractive. Strange looking exteriors, almost like big barns?? But the actual site models look better than the ones online.

We should find out in the next week or two if my job will keep us in SA for a few more years. If so, we will strongly consider one of the KB sites. Any advice as to which one now that you've moved in the Quarry??

Thanks!

We have not moved in. In fact we signed paper work on the 15th of December and all they have done is re marked the boundaries on our lot. We hope to have foundation work begin before the end of the month.

How much closet space do you need? The master closets are all pretty huge?! Anyway...

The Woods of Alon was originally going to be very similar to The Quarry at Iron Mountain. But with the change in the housing market KB has elected to have a lower end product - I believe priced between $200K to $350K - where as the Quarry is priced between $280K and $450K+. They will still be nice - but the lots won't be as big and the houses will not be as wide. The neighborhood will have more of a Saddle Mountain feel rather than a Quarry feel. If you can afford the Quarry I would go with the Quarry as the lots are larger and the average price of the homes is more desireable for long term neighborhood value.

[jams33]

There are 2 women in my household....need I say more about the closets?

Thanks for the info on Alon. I just went by the Quarry today to pick up a packet on the floorplans. They only have 1 series out as of now...should be another 7 plans coming soon. I'm still hearing from them that the Alon houses are comparable (price/space/etc) with the Quarry as well as the lots...guess the proof will be in the pudding on that one huh? We'll attend a sneak preview around the 1st of next month and I'll make sure and ask those questions.

[banker]

Originally Posted by jams33

There are 2 women in my household....need I say more about the closets?

Thanks for the info on Alon. I just went by the Quarry today to pick up a packet on the floorplans. They only have 1 series out as of now...should be another 7 plans coming soon. I'm still hearing from them that the Alon houses are comparable (price/space/etc) with the Quarry as well as the lots...guess the proof will be in the pudding on that one huh? We'll attend a sneak preview around the 1st of next month and I'll make sure and ask those questions.

The seven plans that are coming to the Quarry are similar to the high end in the Woods of Alon. The Woods of Alon will not be like the Quarry is today. By the way - what series are they currently building? We are building a Liberty series house. One way to tell the difference in the series of homes is the width of the basic house (before adding a third car garage option). The Estate line in the Quarry is 60' wide, the Liberty line is 50' wide and the new Empire collection that will be built in the Quarry and the Woods of Alon will be 40' wide. Obviously - if you add a third garage it widens the house. Our Lincoln floor plan with the third bay is 59'6" wide. But in my opinion - the width of the house says alot about the house. Narrow homes just don't look as established and expensive as wider homes. If I were you I would build a wider home in the Quarry rather than hold out for The Woods of Alon.

But that is just me. Good luck. By the way - Saddle Mountain and Coblestone are 40' wide products. Go check those neighborhoods out to get a feel for what the Woods of Alon will look like in terms of home width and spacing on the lots. The Quarry has KB's largest standard lot size in San Antonio which also helps the nieghborhood avoid the tall skinny box look of so many tract communities.

[SoCal transplant]

When my wife and I were looking at communities, we looked at both the Pulte and KB developments in the Quarry. I was much more impressed with the KB homes. Having worked for a law firm in SoCal that did lots of work for KB, I can tell you that I had absolutely no issues with their homes. Reason we didn't buy in early 2006 was the there was no stop light at Hardy Oak & Sonterra, and we wanted to stay under $350k. We moved into a semi-custom in the Glen of Stone Oak, also with a 1/4 acre lot.

It's a lot easier now to get in & out of the Quary, even during peak times. What we noticed recently, was that the prices came down SIGNIFICANTLY from what they were priced in 2006 (if I remember correctly, homes started at $410+; now you can get into a home in the low $300k).

Good luck.

[banker]

Originally Posted by SoCal transplant

When my wife and I were looking at communities, we looked at both the Pulte and KB developments in the Quarry. I was much more impressed with the KB homes. Having worked for a law firm in SoCal that did lots of work for KB, I can tell you that I had absolutely no issues with their homes. Reason we didn't buy in early 2006 was the there was no stop light at Hardy Oak & Sonterra, and we wanted to stay under $350k. We moved into a semi-custom in the Glen of Stone Oak, also with a 1/4 acre lot.

It's a lot easier now to get in & out of the Quary, even during peak times. What we noticed recently, was that the prices came down SIGNIFICANTLY from what they were priced in 2006 (if I remember correctly, homes started at $410+; now you can get into a home in the low $300k).

Good luck.

Sounds like you had many of the same thoughts that my wife and I did. We looked at the Quarry a year and a half ago and found it to be too expensive. They have lowered the over all price plus have introduced the "Liberty" line of houses which have a base price of $280K (they advertise $256K but the contract requires minimum studio options of 10% of the base price...so the real base is $280K). The average transaction price is right around $375K - so the overall demographics are great. We are on the cheap end of the price range at just a hair under $300K. As you noted there didn't use to be a light at Hardy Oak - now there is which makes getting in and out very easy.

To your other point that the KB houses in the Quarry neighborhoods are nicer than the Pulte offerings...after five months of house hunting I found that to be true across the board. Pulte is riding on a reputation of superior product - but the reality is that they have really come down market at all levels. They build just as many boxes as KB does in the lower end and do not offer some of the premium features that KB does at the mid and high end like KB does - like luxury and gourmet kitchens, real four sides brick not the half up stuff that Pulte does and passes off as four sides brick, leave trees in their developments - believe it or not KB leaves more trees now than Pulte does and offers better community features (the Pulte Quarry neighborhood does not have a play area or pool but the KB community does).

Saddly many people do not look at KB because ten years ago they weren't at the top of their game and had purchased RAYCO which was arguably a terrible cheap builder (much like fieldston and centex today in terms of style, features and cheap interior touches). Our society tends to be very narrow minded sometimes closed minded to the reality that companies change. KB builds an incredible product in the Quarry with a location to rival any in north central SA. For people to not even give them a serious look is sad.