Meritage Homes VS Westin Homes (Spring, Center: best neighborhood, lender, how much)

[LML1919]

Building a house exciting yet crazy because you have sooooo many choices.
Here's my problem....
I could build a Westin Sedona in a neighborhood I think is okay or I could build a Meritage Longhorn in a neighborhood I love. The Westin has a wow factor and the Meritage is just simply huge.
My questions are:
Which is a better builder?
Anyone have any thing to comment on their home (good or bad)?
Electric bills who has a better rate?
Energy saving, I don't want to install anything solar however I do want to save energy...
Would you have your second fav home in a subdivision you love or your fav home in an okay subdivision?

Any insight is greatly appreciated! I feel like I've been racking my brain like crazy lol

[cheryjohns]

My first impulse was to tell you Westin - but the neighborhood part of it is slowing me down. What are the two subdivisions?

[honycombe]

I would go with the neighborhood you love. You can make a house a home, but you can't change any of the surroundings once you step foot outside the house. Fingers crossed you aren't talking about my neighborhood!

[LML1919]

Thanks so much for your inputs (:
The subdivisions are North Crest Village off 2920 and The Chancel off Spring Cypress. I'm in love with the Chancel!

True statement, I can change my home but I can't change the surroundings. Deff makes me think.... (:

[honycombe]

Keep in mind the neighborhood affects your resale value. Better investment to be the smallest house in the best neighborhood rather then the biggest house in a not so nice neighborhood. Though let me state that I know nothing about either neighborhood...just quoting what I have always been told!

[LML1919]

That's very good advice! Thanks!
Deff makes sense. In that case, I'd be better off with The Chancel.
Decisions, decisions...
I've sat down with the Westin homes and tomorrow I sit down with the Meritage homes tomorrow. I'm thinking I'm going to play them off of each other. See what the best deal is. There are a lot of options, incentives and plus I have to be careful about going to the Design Center and how much I spend there as well!
Thanks a ton for your help!

[a_guerrajr]

Ha ha , i was in the same boat. However we didn't like "The Chancel" , there so called lakes are ponds. Meritage is a pain to deal with when it comes to options and upgrades. You can ask "saltyleaf" , she ended up choosing Meritage and is having some bumps getting things the way she wanted to. Chuck is a nice guy, but something doesn't convince me about him. The neighborhood backs up to a Cemetry, think about that when it comes to resale also. There isn't anything nearby, looks like they started tearing down off TC jester, to put a shell gas station. Who knows what they will build next to it. The parks aren't going to be much, so i wouldn't get excited about that. It has walking paths and is enclosed to a certain extent. The low tax rate is a good advantage, but NCV isn't much different. The longhorn is the most expensive house in that neighborhood, aside from a few of plantations floor plans. As for energy savings, Meritage does good in that aspect, but Westin isn't bad at all, I upgraded the Insulation for my Westin and made sure to get the radiant barrier. I've compared the materials and quality from both, and they are pretty evenly matched. Hell some of the same contractors were at both places, so not much difference there.

NCV has nearby schools, alot of shopping and services near by. Low tax rate, community pool. Cheap HOA. I've met 4 of the neighbors there and all nice, people seem to take care of their homes. Then the builder gave us more incentive, their lender was easier to work with, and we have more flexibility to make changes in the floorplan than with Meritage.

PM if you have more questions. Glad to help.

[LML1919]

Thanks a ton for all your help! Soooo much to take into perspective when buying a house!!! Never know what's going to come a long years later and effect where you built... Hmmmm, much to consider!
I will deff continue to weigh my pros and cons and do a little more research before I pick which neighborhood!
This forum is great, pointed out things I didn't think about!
Thanks to all!!

[lhafer]

When we first built our home, the builder (which happened to be Meritage) who had the floorplan we loved wasn't in our dream neighborhood.

We ended up choosing the house plan in an okay neighborhood. We LOVED our home. We LIKED our neighborhood well enough in the beginning. Then I began noticing stuff that bothered me more and more, and stuff grated on my nerves (train tracks nearby, golf carts driven by teenagers and young kids around the neighborhood who would drive wrecklessly, lack of sidewalks, lack of amenities, etc).

Less than 5 years later, I had had enough and we moved to our dream neighborhood. We managed to find a house that kept everything we loved about our first house, and is actually better! We LOVE our neighborhood and we really couldn't be happier.

So - move to the neighborhood you love. YOu can always do things with your house to make it a home. But you really can't change your surroundings to make them better.

ETA: my second piece of advise is: do NOT buy the most expensive house/plan in the neighborhood either. It's way better to be the cheapest house in the most expensive neighborhood than it is to have the most expensive house in the cheapest neighborhood.

[LML1919]

Deff perfect advice! Thanks a ton!

After lots of consideration...
We decided to build in The Chancel and build a Travis Home.
The Chancel is the subdivision we love, it's exclusive... just right for us!
We saw a ton of home builders and Travis offered us the class of Dunn & Stone or Darling with the reasonable price of the Westin or Meritage.
The home we love in the subdivision we love...

We are happy!

PS Check out Travis Homes.... great... We customized everything. Who offers that at a great price?