Moving to Marshall TX (Longview, Victoria: for sale by owner, lofts, houses)

[lenox_stuart]

Anyone know the "good" area's of Marshall to live in?

We can't spend a lot of money (over 60-70K) and still want to find something safe, i have two, almost three children, and in the country somewhat. I would like to stay close to Marshall, but am really unfamiliar with the area.

If anyone could direct us in the right direction of town i would really appreciate it!

Thanks

[TMattox]

Marshall is not my first recommendation, I don't know much about areas like Elysian Fields, Waskom, Hallsville (I hear is VERY nice and growing, close to Longview), or Karnack, but that would be my first selection, Marshall would be my last resort.

[IrishMama]

Hi there. I lived in Marshall as a teenager and my husband and I, trying to find something near his job, moved back to Marshall in 2005. There have been a lot of changes since the late 90s, and I'm not sure that I have good news for you. I don't want to put you off moving to town, but let's just say my family is already considering long-term plans of moving away from Marshall.

On the plus side of Marshall, I can tell you that their police force is dedicated and quick to respond. The bad thing is that I can tell you that from personal experience. Within about 2 weeks of moving in, someone walked into our (fenced) yard and stole our lawnmower. Granted, we bought a "fixer-upper" but I didn't expect robbery as my welcome to town. We've also had difficulties on and off with vandalism, noise, and loose pit bulls (!!) on our street. When we bought a house near the square, this is not what I expected.

Since the festivals have been dying off, the sense of community I had in this town when I lived here before seems to have died as well. If you don't attend one of the bigger churches, don't expect anyone to be friendly when you're out and about. The local paper was bought out by the Longview News Journal, the local radio station is gone, and there are no family practice doctors in town. We currently have to go to Shreveport for medical care, you could go to Longview too, I suppose.

As far as the school system, Elysian Fields, though smaller, has much better ratings and in fact, has wooed several of the better teachers I remember from my time here over to their system.

If you do decide to purchase a house in Marshall, be SURE you get an inspection. The realtors tend to neglect to mention certain city codes, or in fact regulations from the gas company, etcetera, and at least in our case rewrote the contract so that the one we signed did not include the inspection clause we had requested, but given the rush we were in to move we didn't have time to go back and forth to try and fix it. I would not recommend US Title, either, they gave us the impression they didn't like dealing with "small" deals and weren't terribly helpful.

There are also many houses for sale in this area, generally older Victorian or 1920s homes, that are not listed in the MLS because the owners are self-selling them, so it might be worth a drive through just to try and spot "For Sale by Owner" signs.

The area I used to live in during high school, just off Pinecrest Drive, has stayed nice, (I go visit my old neighbors from time to time) and if you have about 60k you can probably get a home around there. They are older, generally built from the late 40s to the early 60s, but it's still pretty central. Our home was just under 30k, and on the other side of the square, hence I suppose the iffy neighborhood.

I hope something here helps you, I don't mean to sound down but sometimes it's nice to get a view from someone not trying to sell you a house.

[crhtransport2012]

Are the lofts in downtown Marshall a good place to live?