Moving to Dallas: Texas, sell the house, cost of living, insurance, buy a home, wall panel.

rosadelic · 11-07-2007, 10:43 AM

We are moving to Dallas - my husband will go in a week or two, and I will follow when we sell the house. Our house here will sell for around 175-180 (2 years old with an acre) but it doesn't look like we can spend the same there? Here, our property tax is .64 and utilities cost $300 in a bad month - that's trash, water and electric, and about $400 a year for insurance. Knowing the taxes, insurance, and utilities are so much higher in TX, I'm curious about what price range we should look in there to maintain a comparable payment to what we have now. We pay just over $1100 per month now on a 30yr fixed.

I *think* we'll need to move to Plano West or Richardson. I will be driving to Plano and my husband will be driving to Irving. We have 2 kids, one in high school, and that's definitely a factor - we really want good schools.

I see a lot of homes listed at 125K that have pools - are these in bad neighborhoods? Why so cheap?

Finally, we lived in Dallas when I was little, and my parents warned me not to buy any house with wallpaper, paneling, or ceiling tiles - they said those were coverups for cracked foundations, and it was a big problem there. Is it really that prevalent? Now when I look at listings, all I see is wood paneling and I'm starting to panic!! LOL

momof2dfw · 11-07-2007, 12:22 PM

1. Schools - Plano, Richardson, Garland and even a lot of Dallas ISD schools are good. You have to look at each individual school and district to see which one has programs your interested in and class sizes.

2. Foundations - NO, not every house has foundation issues. Wallpaper and paneling are not "coverups" for foundation problems either. Many of the homes w/ these "features" are just fine but not "updated". It always had wallpaper in the kitchen or paneling in the family room. Picture frame paneling is the most common. The REALLY good wood paneling can be very expensive and you will find it in homes well over $500K to millions. I have it in my study and LOVE IT!!! Not hiding any foundation problems either. Good construction and good maintanance take care of usually not having foundation problems. Someone could have a house w/ zilch wallpaper and paneling and mud over the cracks too.

I don't know what neighborhoods your finding homes for $125K w/ a pool to know if it is bad or not. What is the general area you have found these?

rosadelic · 11-07-2007, 04:52 PM

Thanks for the school info - I've just been looking at realtor.com doing searches under richardson, plano, etc. I'm a little overwhelmed - I don't really know what's a good neighborhood and what's not. Some list a neighborhood and some only have a zip code. Right now I'm looking at 125-150, then if that doesn't work out I'll go up from there. I see a lot of info that says stay west of this road or south of that, but it's almost too much to go through. Are there any good neighborhoods or zip codes to aim for?

average_joe · 11-07-2007, 05:28 PM

Well if your hubby is driving to Irving then I really do not think that you'd want to live in Mckinney, but just to let you know about what you'd be paying in that price range: We bought our home in Mckinney about 4 years ago for ~135k. Our mortgage, which includes taxes and insurance is right at 1200/mth. We do not pay PMI as it was a VA loan. So if you do have to pay PMI you'll be looking at about a 1300/mth payment. Our water is 50/mth, that includes garbage. Our electric is anywhere from 150 to 200 on a bad month. HOA, which can be a lot bigger in some areas, is 20/mth or 60/quarter. Hope that some of this info helps you decide on a price range. I would suggest checking out Denton, as there should be a lot of homes in your range. A friend just recently bought a new 4bed/2.5 ba 1800sq ft home in Denton for 106k. The commute to Irving wouldn't be too bad if you go the back way. But stay away from the lake dallas bridge. Tons of traffic there.
Joe

average_joe · 11-07-2007, 05:29 PM

Oh, yeah where in NC? I was stationed at Ft. Bragg and my wifes from Hope Mills. We both went to school in Waynesville (Haywood County/Asheville area), and Boone. We are actually in the process of moving to Richmond, VA.

rosadelic · 11-07-2007, 06:09 PM

Thanks, Joe! We'll be using VA as well. We currently live in Davie County, west of Winston Salem and east of Hickory. My husband was in the Army, but other than training, the whole time was spent in Panama. How long would you say the McKinney to Irving commute is, vs. the Denton to Irving commute?

ChristieP · 11-07-2007, 07:08 PM

McKinney or Denton to Irving will be AWFUL. You're looking at least an hour in the car each way!!

You don't have to live in Plano or Richardson; there are lots of NICE places in Tarrant county within your price range! If hubby will be working in Irving, look at either Grapevine (Grapevine-Colleyville ISD) or Hurst, Euless & Bedford (HEB ISD). Both have excellent schools and are nice places for a family to live.

average_joe · 11-08-2007, 04:01 PM

Denton to Irving would not be that bad. I have a friend that used to work in Allen and lived in Denton. It took him about an hour each way. He now works in Irving and it takes him about 25-30 minutes. He takes I35W, not E. Huge difference in traffic. Another friend lives waaaaaay out in Justin (right behind the Texas motor speedway) and it takes him about an hour and 5 or so minutes. Granted he works midnight til noon and there is no traffic. Anyway rosadelic you probably wouldn't want to live in Mckinney. That commute would be horrible! It takes me 45 minutes from here to the airport on a weekend with no traffic. On a weekday with traffic it would take double that or more. Check out Fox and Jacobs. They have well built homes that are cheap in price. They have some homes close-ish to Irving. Also maybe look into Grand Prairie. I have a couple of friends that live there and commute to TI in Richardson. If you would like to live away from the cities look into Justin. ChristieP also had some good suggestions. Grapevine is nice, Euless and Bedford are too. Although I am not sure of the home prices in those areas. I, too was in the Army. And other than training I spent my whole time at Ft. Bragg. Another suggestion to you is when/if you visit. Check out some areas and then drive from those areas to where he'll be working, at the time that he'll be working so that you can get a more realistic idea of what the commute time will be like at whatever time he needs to be there. Hope some of this helps...
Joe

CMDallas · 11-08-2007, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosadelic

We are moving to Dallas - my husband will go in a week or two, and I will follow when we sell the house. Our house here will sell for around 175-180 (2 years old with an acre) but it doesn't look like we can spend the same there? Here, our property tax is .64 and utilities cost $300 in a bad month - that's trash, water and electric, and about $400 a year for insurance. Knowing the taxes, insurance, and utilities are so much higher in TX, I'm curious about what price range we should look in there to maintain a comparable payment to what we have now. We pay just over $1100 per month now on a 30yr fixed.

I *think* we'll need to move to Plano West or Richardson. I will be driving to Plano and my husband will be driving to Irving. We have 2 kids, one in high school, and that's definitely a factor - we really want good schools.

I see a lot of homes listed at 125K that have pools - are these in bad neighborhoods? Why so cheap?

Finally, we lived in Dallas when I was little, and my parents warned me not to buy any house with wallpaper, paneling, or ceiling tiles - they said those were coverups for cracked foundations, and it was a big problem there. Is it really that prevalent? Now when I look at listings, all I see is wood paneling and I'm starting to panic!! LOL

If I were you I would move to Coppell or Northern Irving.
Coppell is a upper class neighborhood, with good schools, some of Coppell overlaps into CFBISD, which if you'll look around on the Dallas area of the forum might be able to catch some judgment of what we think of it. Northern Irving, is a big housing community just like Coppell (specifically Valley Ranch and Las Collinas) 125K is a little cheap for Coppell and Northern Irving, we have town homes and houses going for 250K. Plano is a good choice, but it would be a PAIN IN THE BUTT to get from there to Irving. I live in Irving and hardly go up to Plano, Plano has a huge Chinese pop., I am Chinese yet I have reason to go up there but I don't. Richardson wouldn't be a bad place. But like I said Coppell or Norther Irving is what I would recommend.
and 125k for Plano is hard to get, everyone is going to Plano and Richardson (just like Ya'll heh)
thing have probably changed in Dallas houses since then...but feel free to ask around.
I go to CFBISD, I'm in high school. I'd say CFBISD is good, Coppell ISD will suit you fine, and so will Plano IDS.

Dallas_Guy · 11-20-2007, 11:44 AM

Expect your payment to be roughly 1% of the loan amount.

$100K = $1,000 per month.

More or less depending on down payment and credit.

Plano area tax rate should be about 3.15% or so. So if you have an idea on homeowners insurance, you can run some scenarios with the online mortgage calculators.