McKinney- Harvest Bend- Near Craig Ranch (Frisco, Keller: for sale, credit, lender) - Dallas - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

SpOoky13 · 09-07-2007, 06:32 PM

I have just purchased a home from KB Homes in the community of Harvest Bend in McKinney. I did my research and I know KB's reputation. However, with being 26 years old and purchasing my own home on my own, I had to make sure it was no more than $175,000. I have also hired my own inspector.

I have a few concerns. The man who originally sold me the home was "let go" for ethical reasons. We will just leave it at that. Basically, there were a lot of "unanswered questions" and empty promises on his part. There are things that I am trying to get a grasp on while my home is being built. Not that I don't trust the new representative I am working with- I am just a bit leery.

Now, on to my questions. Property Taxes for McKinney are 2.76% currently as I understand it. However, I was informed that since I am in an area that is Frisco ISD, my property taxes are 2.5% since their school taxes are lower. Can anyone confirm this?

In addition I was wondering if any of you have had any experience with electing to go with an outside lender and still keep your incentives. The original person who is no longer with the company promised that this would be no problem. This is part of the unethical treatment I was speaking of. As of right now- this is the battle I am struggling with from KB. I have excellent credit and Countrywide was not going to offer me what I deserve for my credit.

So, any help on this and any general experience you guys have had with KB would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance

socketz · 09-08-2007, 10:59 AM

I believe that southern part of Mckinney along the 121 belongs to the Frisco School District, so your property taxes will be lower if your school district is n Frisco. 2.5 vs. 2.76 is what it was when I was shopping a few months back, so that sounds right.

David Weekly builds in that area as well, so go to their website and find a community close to you and the total tax will be listed in a simple to read format.

jcl_cls01 · 09-08-2007, 11:10 AM

Was your sales rep Eric Johnson? When I visited the KB Harvest Bend models, he was not very courteous and welcoming. He's the reason why my mom didn't buy in that development. I live in that area and taxes are 2.5%. Also, the field across the street from you will have more residential and retail in the future according to the proposed McKinney maps. That area will be called the McKinney Ranch section.

SpOoky13 · 09-08-2007, 04:23 PM

No, Eric is who I am dealing with now. From what I can tell he is being very straight forward and not telling me what I want to hear. I do think that he wants to make right what the 50+ buyers were promised. The man who is no longer with the company is Godfrey. I guess I really will not know until I am at that closing table. However, I have no problems walking away from an already built house and loosing my earnest money if some sort of attempt is not made to give me what I was told I would have.

CallMeLaura · 09-08-2007, 08:07 PM

You can take the incentives to another lender, although you'll more than likely have to fight for it.

Jeanine Alexander · 09-16-2007, 07:33 PM

Spooky13,

My husband and I (including our 3 children) have been looking at Harvest Bend homes and really are considering an S series there. How are things currently working for you? You are right, Harvest Bend is a Mckinney address but a Frisco School district so the property taxes are lower. Today we were told at a community in Frisco that the current tax rate in Frisco was recently lowered and is now 2.36%. What series home are you purchasing at Harves Bend if you don't mind me asking? We want to go with Harvest Bend but are unsure if Mr. Johnson is going to work with us on the things we "need" for our new home which aren't included in the standards, such as blinds. I know for the month of Sept. they are offering granite counter tops. But, Mr. Johnson told me today that the standards list is always changing (which I found to be quite weird) and that they are no longer building the W series (which is what we were orginally interested in when we went there a month ago and he didn't inform us of that then), so today we looked at the S series and liked them and all their floorplans. Mr. Johnson also told us that we wouldn't be able to get into an S series until the soonest May, which we were wanting to move in to a home in January. How long is your estimated time from building to end? Did you buy from scratch or an inventory home?

Thanks for your post and hope to hear from you soon

SpOoky13 · 09-17-2007, 06:32 AM

For the most part things are going well. We are just taking it one day at a time. We have purchased the W series. It was the model next to the office.

Our home was purchased in July. We should be ready to move in during December or January at the latest. We were told 4-6 months.

I hope you have some luck getting the things you need. I know that right now the incentives are not very high because they have pretty much finished out Phase II and are about to start on Phase III.

We started from scratch on our home. I don't even know if there are any inventory homes. May doesn’t seem too far off since it is almost October. I know that they try to allow themselves a little more time during with winter months due to the weather.

I can confirm that the list is always changing for what incentives they give. I am currently dealing with that with the previous gentlemen who worked there. He offered me one incentive and my paperwork showed a completely different one.

Let me know if you have any other questions!! It's nice to know someone else shopping the same community.

Lacyttfn · 09-17-2007, 10:50 AM

Spooky13 and Jeanine- My husband and I are also building in Harvest Bend right now. Godfrey was our original sales rep and we had some problems too in the beginning (we signed our contract back in June) but Godfrey actually fixed everything for us before he was let go. We are now dealing with Eric and he has been great. He calls every week and so does our construction manager John. We have been a little sad because stuff keeps getting delayed but none of us can control the rain right?

Jeanine- I can confirm the construction timeline for you. Right now they are finishing Phase II, like Spooky said. This is a few S series houses but mostly W Series. They have 54 houses under construction right now. Once those are getting closed to being finished, Phase III should be ready to sell. They have just finished the road to it and are currently installing the plumbing lines, etc to the lots. So it will be January before they can sell them, and then 4-6 months construction time after that. I will tell you that there is one W lot that isnt being sold right now because it is a corner lot next to the new models that are being built. It isnt supposed to be for sale until Phase III finishes selling. If you have your heart set on a W series that could be an option, but of course you will have to wait. Also keep in mind that the 2 W series models will probably go for sale around Jan or Feb. I know one of the S series models is listed with Keller Williams right now.

Overall, I am happy with everything so far. There have been some problems in the beginning, and then of course all of the rain delays but they are working hard to get things done. Our foundation was finally poured on Friday so we went out there on Saturday to see it and talk to Eric for a bit. We will still be hiring an independent 3rd party inspector to do a final inspection just in case though.

I hope things will work out for yall and get to see you as neighbors soon!

SpOoky13 · 09-17-2007, 05:23 PM

You're right behind us! We signed our contract on July 6th. We were supposed to have foundation last week... but with the rain... We are stuck with dirt and plumbing for now! Please, please keep me updated on your progress and how things go for you along the way. It's nice to be able to relate to someone moving into the same place!

zelaromd71 · 09-26-2007, 04:19 PM

Hello all. My family and I are getting ready to close mid next month. That will take us close to 7 months to complete building. We got bogged down due to all the bad weather. Other than the delays, our experience has been pretty good. Our Construction Manage Luis has been pretty good. We were dealing with JB when we started building, but he left the company, I don't know why. Which I guess its a good thing, because I didn't hear very good things about his work. There is another family that was building the same S-series home we are building, but due to all the issues she had during their building process, they have yet to close. JB was the construction manager for most of their construction. I was also dealing with Godfrey and I was promised a 3% rebate that could be used at closing. I guess I will find out during closing what if I'm getting it or not. Like Spooky, I have no problem walking a way from a built home. It's a long term committment and you want to make sure you get what you want.