Out-of-towners need your input on these two houses in Dallas area! (Plano: HOA, appliances)

[movinghomemommy]

[SIZE=2]We would REALLY appreciate your input based on your insight of the area or knowledge about houses in Dallas in general.
We have been looking at homes in the north Dallas area and after having seen lots of homes, have boiled down to 2 choices. We like both equally for very different reasons and while we know that in the end, a lot is a matter of preference, we are very much hoping that perhaps some insight we might gain from your input might alert us to any potential issues or something worth considering about either choice. To make it easier, I will just give some bullet points about each house in brief below, in order to be able to compare the main differences between the two:

House 1:
-East Allen, Allen ISD (Chandler elementary, Ford middle, Allen high school)
-An older home (10 years old) and doesn't have great insulation etc (I'm not sure how much of this can be upgraded to function at the level of a new home)
-closer to everything than house number 2 (job areas, retail etc). Everything we need is within 5-25 minutes. About 8 minutes from main highway. Location proximity-wise is better.
-neighborhood unfortunately doesn't offer much for the relatively high HOA (no clubhouse or swimming pools or anything)
-offers more square footage than house 2 and is actually cheaper

House 2:
- wylie area, Wylie ISD (Rita Smith elementary, Mcmillan middle, Wylie high school)
- pretty much a brand new home, with good construction and everything new
- definitely further away location-wise, drives are doable overall, just longer. Places we would drive to are 15-35 minutes away. Probably 15 minutes from main highway.
- neighborhood definitely looks better and offers a lot more than for house number 1
- we like the layout of this home slightly better, but its not that we dont like the layout in house 1
- this is the more expensive home of the two. Both are in our range, but of course this needs to be mentioned, since we will definitely be paying quite a bit more for this one.


Some people have told us that in this market we should keep looking until we find "everything we want", but this is impossible. Every house out there has some pros and cons and these are the two that we have found that come the closest to what we would want to buy.

Our main concerns are schools for sure, since we have 2 school age children (elementary at this point, but we hope to stay in the home for 10 years or more). We have been told both school systems are good but would definitely appreciate any comments on this, and your personal preference of where out of these two options you would place your own kids...

Our other concern of course is the fact that one home is 10 years old, while the other is brand new and whether buying a home that is 10 years old is not a smart thing to do? We would definitley try to upgrade some things if we went with option 1, but would like to know if it's just best to avoid an older home in your opinion for any reason. House number 1 does have the better location in terms of drive times and of course this matters a lot. But the neighborhood (while a nice one) isn't as impressive as that for house number 2.

We would very much appreciate any pointers to things we might not have considered from your knowledge of the Dallas area, and of course any suggestions on things to investigate would be highly appreciated too.

We need to make the decision as soon as possible and proceed.
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[compSciGuy]

I don't really consider 10 years old that old for a house. I don't know your budget, but it appears somewhat constrained. You can get better schools if you are willing to sacrifice on age. I recommend schooldigger.com & greatschools.net to look up more information on specific schools.

[movinghomemommy]

better schools? Would the 2 options I mentioned not be good? And how do they compare to each other?
Home in Allen ISD is in the low 400s and the newer home is high 400s. We really wouldn't want to spend more than that, but like I said out of all the homes we saw - those two are what we like best.

[bookworm2768]

For 400K you can probably get something in a better school district. But everyone's criteria for a good school district are different. . .

About the 10 yo house - I've been told (and have learned from experience with our last home) that around the 10 - 12 year mark things start going - water heaters, furnaces, appliances, etc. In a 400 K home though hopefully you have decent quality items that will last longer. A plus for an older home is that kinks and problems have already become obvious and have either been fixed or will be caught easily by a home inspector. A newer home comes with a home warranty but getting the money or service from the warranty company or builder can be hell.

I don't know where 'out-of-towner's' places you but DFW has a lot of issues with foundation movement. I don't know if these are chronic problems with the areas you are looking at but it may be worth having a foundation engineer look at the houses. It may make your decision for you!

As to the drives, that is personal preference as well since some people don't mind a commute and other's do. I personally prefer to burn as little gas as possible whether gas is $1.60 a gallon or $4.60 a gallon

Adding insulation is really not that expensive and you can get blown in insulation in your attic for surprisingly reasonable prices. Windows can be a different issue and cost a bomb and walls are extremely difficult to reinsulate. A 10 year old home, though, is not really that old where the insulation standards are concerned. It may not be super green but I don't think it will be a huge financial leap to bring up it's efficiency.

As to the school issue, I would do a bit more research on it. Greatschools.com does a good job of comparing schools for you and breaking down information. Do remember though that an exemplary or good rating is entirely dependent on the TAKS score for the school so a school with exemplary ratings may mean a school where pressure to perform well on the tests is huge and the TAKS will take precendence over PE and other 'unnecessary' subjects. Also, even if a district is good it does not mean that a specific school within it is good.

[Korel]

I agree with compSciGuy, 10 years isn't that old. The newer home in Wylie might not have all the newer energy saving features either. The required energy codes haven't changed that much in the past ten years, although there are newer features that could be in the newer home, but most Home Builders will not spec them just to keep the price down. In the older Allen home, the A/C could be coming up for a new one. If there is a good difference in cost between houses, maybe a newer 16 (or greater) SEER A/C could be installed in addition to added attic insulation. Don't settle for anything less than 16 SEER if you choose to replace it. You said you plan on living there for maybe 10 years. You'll have the ROI in the added expense of 16 SEER over 14 SEER in just a couple of years then you're saving money after that. The new home in Wylie I betcha has a 12 SEER (it's cheaper). The windows we use today are no different than the windows we used 10 years ago. Ask the Wylie builder to see the "Res-Check" sheet to see what went into it energy-wise. Does the new home have Energy-Star appliances? That will say alot about the builder.

If I had to select between Allen High School over Wylie, it would be a no brainer, Allen High School. Although Wylie isn't that far behind. That's just my opinion. It could be worse. You could be faced with Dallas ISD!? My oldest son, his wife and two of my grand babies live and go to school in Wylie and I know it's a bear getting across town to see them from Plano.

And there is this stigma about Wylie. I don't understand it but my other daughter-in-law refuses to consider a house in Wylie. They bought in Craig's Ranch in McKinney. (less house for the money, but she got the address she wanted).

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by compSciGuy

I don't really consider 10 years old that old for a house. .

Me neither. Our house was built in 1999. We bought it in 2002. Been GREAT! And I still don't see any issues w/ any kind of problems like less insulation.

Originally Posted by bookworm2768

About the 10 yo house - I've been told (and have learned from experience with our last home) that around the 10 - 12 year mark things start going - water heaters, furnaces, appliances, etc. In a 400 K home though hopefully you have decent quality items that will last longer. A plus for an older home is that kinks and problems have already become obvious and have either been fixed or will be caught easily by a home inspector. .

Our current house was built in 1999, our last house we built brand new and within 4 years the hot water heater went out and the a/c had problems. So far in the current 10 year old house the original hot water heater is working great w/ no leaks. I replaced appliances only because I wanted to and so far that has only been refrigerator, dishwasher and washer/dryer. Only the builtin dishwasher would come with the house. Just all depends on the quality of the builder and how well they oversaw their jobsites.

[movinghomemommy]

thanks so much for input so far.

In terms of the energy efficiency, we have checked to know that the home in Allen does have the much lower end stuff.
The home in Wylie area is a custom home with a great energy package built into it. (the builder did not go cheap)
House is Allen is built on slab, while the newer house is on piers...

Schools are of course a big concern. We don't know how long we will ultimately live in the house, but I think at least 10 years will be a nice bet.
I have tried to research the schools and from what I see both elementary schools are exemplary (what affects us most in the near term) but then going on to high school, Allen is rated higher than Wylie although neither is exemplary.

[loves2read]

dont' see any mention of where you need to commute TO--
I am one of the ones that would pick Allen over Wylie for location/schools/resale
but your price range should open up lots of other areas for you to consider

[movinghomemommy]

we would need to commute to west plano for work. And obviously Allen mostly for retail.
We do realize that there are lots of homes out there, but after looking a lot, those were the two we "fell in love" with.

Our concern with option 1 is just a fear that over the next ten years everything might start breaking on us. And like I mentioned we like the layout a little less than with house number 2 (which is practically perfect).

I dont' know whether also the actual subdivision's amenities are important to think about, or whether ultimately they really don't matter near as much as schools and location. The house we are looking at is in a community called Seis Lagos which really has impressed us. But the home is in the Wylie school district.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by movinghomemommy

House is Allen is built on slab, while the newer house is on piers...

Schools are of course a big concern. We don't know how long we will ultimately live in the house, but I think at least 10 years will be a nice bet.
I have tried to research the schools and from what I see both elementary schools are exemplary (what affects us most in the near term) but then going on to high school, Allen is rated higher than Wylie although neither is exemplary.

As for the piers..................... ONLY if they did a soil survey of THAT exact property and went to the proper depth on each pier for THAT property will it do any good. I know of houses that were built with piers that they just came in and went a flat say 25' but did not do a survey to find out how far they needed to go for them to be effective and those houses DO have foundation problems. While the house right next door with a slab on grade has not a single issue. I'd ask to see the soil survey and the engineered foundation plans.