Southlake subdivisions

[hereticiam]

I liked the kitchen, master bathroom, backyard, and excellent public schools. I am more willing to compromise.
For the price, my wife did not like the upper level. She also did not like the size of family room and tiny area next to the stairs.
They did a good job in some areas but cut corners in some.
This home did sell this weekend so our search will continue.

We do have a realtor who was introduced to us by an acquaintance. He has done virtual showings for us.
He loves each home and wants us to buy them. He has not given us negative feedback about any home.
He even told us that 23-mile commute from Sunnyvale to Plano will not be bad because Dallas has great highways.
We are stuck with him due to family connection so we cannot find a good home without this forum.

I cannot thank you enough for your valuable feedback.

[loves2read]

Originally Posted by hereticiam

I liked the kitchen, master bathroom, backyard, and excellent public schools. I am more willing to compromise.
For the price, my wife did not like the upper level. She also did not like the size of family room and tiny area next to the stairs.
They did a good job in some areas but cut corners in some.
This home did sell this weekend so our search will continue.

We do have a realtor who was introduced to us by an acquaintance. He has done virtual showings for us.
He loves each home and wants us to buy them. He has not given us negative feedback about any home.
He even told us that 23-mile commute from Sunnyvale to Plano will not be bad because Dallas has great highways.
We are stuck with him due to family connection so we cannot find a good home without this forum.

I cannot thank you enough for your valuable feedback.

Too bad that you can’t drop that realtor—
Family connections are more trouble than they are worth at times
I know great realtor—helped us with two homes and others I know
She has office right off 114 between Southlake and Trophy Club

All I can say is
1–you need to make sure any living room/den has at least one floor plug so you don’t anchor your furniture along walls and don’t run lamp wires under rugs—that is the pits

2–hope to get home with heat shield barrier on roof decking and foam insulation—that means more than a basic builder even in 1.5 million house and hard to find—but good because electric/heating is going to cost more

3–you can upgrade paint, and some finishes like handles and change out carpet pretty easily
Changing to wood floors is much more expensive as is doing wholesale remodel of kitchen or bathrooms to change from “outdated” granite to Quartz—not really worth it IMO—most of the time painting cabinets and adding new door fronts is just as good a fix as replacing all cabinets—and most people have paint that isn’t really color-coordinated so they aren’t in tune with some of the finishes like flooring or countertops—sometimes the right paint choice makes a BIG difference
Be realistic—
If you don’t like much of anything —you might as well look in lower price homes to start with and lump in your remodel
You likely won’t get all that money back but you likely won’t get it all back in more expensive home either
Just depends on what the market does—
And your taxes are likely to be lower if you go in at lower price point and remodel interiors

4–pay attention to your parking spaces—look for house that has longer drive way or parking court in front of garages so friends can park off street

5–ask about any remodeling work done since home was built
Should have permits filed if anything serious like adding electrical outlets or water points were done—
Ask for the insurance claims—
Some people won’t file an insurance claim because of high deductible so there could be damage that was repaired sub Rosa so to speak—
You want an inspector that has engineering experience—
In TX an inspector can’t move furniture to check behind or under, but they can go into the attic and check the insulation and check the trusses
The inspector who looked at our house for people we sold to said that the chimney flue needed to be cleaned—
We had a gas fireplace (really just fancy heater) w/o any chimney needed—
he was pretty stupid I thought not to notice that—

6–most people are looking for a second master downstairs—it takes a larger lot to give you the floor space for that and say a 3 car garage—that is a valuable design aspect worth paying for IMO
We had one at our Hurst house which came in very handy when our son was ill and couldn’t walk up stairs

7–room sizes are something you can’t really fix that easily—but most bedrooms don’t need to be that large
We had huge closet w/three dressers and triple hung rods—so we didn’t need lot of bedroom furniture for clothing storage and our bedroom was smaller in our Hurst house than one we moved from—it had SMALL closet and we needed drawer space in bedroom to compensate…

FWIW—just my thoughts
And how long as your realtor been working—sounds like he needs a sale and expects you to be naive and desperate enough to believe what he tells you

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by hereticiam

He even told us that 23-mile commute from Sunnyvale to Plano will not be bad because Dallas has great highways.

That commute would be absolutely hell to make on daily basis. Your realtor has no clue what he is talking about!

[DFW_FTW]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

That commute would be absolutely hell to make on daily basis. Your realtor has no clue what he is talking about!

Realtor knows exactly what he’s talking about.

It’s just the mortgage payment he needs to make on his own house is more important to him then your daily commute for the rest of your life.

It’s just business, no hard feelings.

Realtors needs the cash and doesn’t want you wasting his time with more virtual viewings.

So of course, he will tell you every house is perfect.

Just buy it and let him get paid so he can kick you to the curb after.

[warrenbuffoon]

Hi all,

Taking a lot of input in this thread to heart, and reconsidering our wants/needs, we're now also looking at Flower Mound as another option. Lots of homes in our budget with big acreage, mature trees, and Flower Mound ISD looks to be a pretty good school district. I also see that it leans more red than blue which for us is a plus.

Would love any insight from folks on what it's like to live in Flower Mound -- safety, comfort/infrastructure, demographics, school ratings etc.

Thanks again, very much appreciate the insights I've been gleaning from this forum.

[loves2read]

Originally Posted by warrenbuffoon

Hi all,

Taking a lot of input in this thread to heart, and reconsidering our wants/needs, we're now also looking at Flower Mound as another option. Lots of homes in our budget with big acreage, mature trees, and Flower Mound ISD looks to be a pretty good school district. I also see that it leans more red than blue which for us is a plus.

Would love any insight from folks on what it's like to live in Flower Mound -- safety, comfort/infrastructure, demographics, school ratings etc.

Thanks again, very much appreciate the insights I've been gleaning from this forum.

You could also consider Argyle—further out but you work from home, leans more red that blue (but so does almost any area in TX where homes are as $$ as you are looking at—except maybe Austin—), decent schools

You should look at a map for the road situation in Flower Mound—getting in and out can be a hassle because of its location by Grapevine Lake and roads in the area—Flower Mound has lot of infrastructure—so if you are working from home you don’t really have to go outside the area

[ChristieP]

Flower Mound is part of the Lewisville ISD. The schools that serve FloMo are very good, although others in Lewisville ISD are marginal. It's a very safe city, and has a good sense of community. My friends who live there (and keep their horses at Bridlewood) really like it. There is plenty of shopping and restaurants, and you're close enough to Grapevine, Southlake and Lewisville in case you need something that isn't in FloMo.

As mentioned above, the roads in/out can be a challenge, and there are definitely bottlenecks on 121/2499/3040 during rush hours. If you're working from home, that will be a non-issue.

As for the red/blue situation, Tarrant County is defintiely turning "purple" over the past few years and election cycles. That's one of the reasons we moved away.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

The far west side of Flower Mound, south of Cross Timbers and moving down toward the lake, is excellent. Most of the construction is a bit older, but you can easily find 1-3 acre lot on nice custom homes with big trees. And many of those older homes have been updated. It's not diverse, but it is conservative. IMO, this is one of the prettiest parts of DFW.