Grand Mission Estates in Richmond, TX (Taylor, Pecan Grove: new house, neighborhood, buying)

[sugarlandresident11]

Originally Posted by butterflies105

Hello all,

I have several questions would like to ask about this subdivision:

1) If anyone is living or knows someone is living in Brookstone subdivision, and builder is Lennar. Please let us know about this area. How is it? We drove around and spoke to the sale manager. The house looks very nice with all the upgrades that included in the price. Free stainless steel refrigerator, free washer and dryer. All granites, mosaic backplash are free. The house is 1620 sf for $217,990 for the elevation that we liked. I just wondering, what do you think about this area? Please help us out!

2) Our parents will be moving in. They will be retired in a few months and like to buy the house in this subdivision. They don't have any young kids so school is not a mandatory issue, but must be in a safe neighborhood.

3) My friends are also interested in this subdivision, they are first time home buyer, however, they are going to lease it out for now. Do you think it's a good idea to buy a brand new home 2047sf for $235,990? They already have a place to live and just like to rent the house out. What do you think? Please help us out! The Sale Manager said they are going to have a price increase in this April 1st so we must make decision by this Friday March 27th. We tried to negotiate to have the incentive from $3000 to $8000 but she said no, she can't do that, not at all.

Thank you everyone for reading this!

Regards,

Just moved in about a month ago along with several other people, and I definitely love it. Location is great being off Mason & Beechnut ... head up Mason to get to I-10 or take the Westpark Tollway or Beechnut with easy access to 99. There are tons of Lakes (plus the ones in Lakemont with even better scenery!) there's plenty of trails to get a good exercise.

There's lots of young people moving in so yeah tell your friends to move!

Originally Posted by daisee1203

We actually laid earnest money down here and frankly, I'm glad we didn't buy. Not only did Lennar give us the wrong lot number and took our money and then said, "Oops. Sorry. That one isn't available anymore, unless you want the house I picked for it". We were beyond irritated. We specifically picked the number off the map, confirmed it, gave the check, etc and then oops! wrong one!

Anyway, we later found out the elementary school for this neighborhood is horrible. And I know you said that your parents don't care about schools but you should all care because that is what partly affects property values. You WANT highly rated schools for when you sell or have new neighbors. You want the people that care about schools even if you personally don't care or won't be using them. At the time we looked, there were no plans to put in a new school and the one that is there is overcrowded already. It's called Sequin elementary.

I can see why it is appealing. It's right down the road from an entrance of Cinco. I'm sure overall it will be ok...I mean look around...it's not the slums, ya know?

But if you are looking for something that will feel like Cinco this won't be it. To be fair, we drove around and we ran into some really friendly folks that had some nice yards. I guess it just wasn't meant to be ours.

Oh and asking the incentive to be increased is weird to me. I would ask for lower earnest money or something else than the incentives to be higher. Especially for Lennar - they really do include so much already. $3k is what we were quoted so it's not unusual for them. They might have different ones next month.

PS - the Lennar homes were really nice.

Lol ... not surprised

Originally Posted by stevep65

We did buy from Lennar in Grand Mission Estates back in October 2014. We love the area and the closeness to Katy, Cinco Ranch and the West Park Tollway. 20-45 to get back and forth to work (Richmond and the Beltway). We do not have kids so the school district was not a top concern but as others have said it could matter to the next buyer.

Keep your earnest money as low as possible. We put down $1k. If there is something wrong with your house that you don't like something like Lennar putting the wrong stone on your house, most likely Lennar will not change anything after the house is built. They will tell you to accept it as is or they will cancel their side of the contact. They do have a warranty service and so far everything we asked to get repaired has been repaired. They do take some time to get out to you to get it fixed.

Would we buy from Lennar again, most likely not. The issues we had may have be common for other builders in the area but I can only comment on our Lennar experience.

All that being said, now that the house has "settled" and the issues are being resolved we love the area and our property.

Hey neighbor

Originally Posted by butterflies105

Daisee: We are looking a house for my parents. They like to stay some where convenient and close to Katy where we live. Yeah, 45 ft is small compare to other lots, but their budget is below $215k, I looked at Lost Creek and Taylor Morrison just sold the last one in our price range $184k. I think Lost Creek or Lake Mont, or Grand Mission Estate would be a great location for them.

Cardiff Ranch is out of their price range.

Are you still looking or just wait for Harvest Green?

At first I liked the look of Grand Vista especially the TM homes wow! The floor plans are far better than Lennar's, but what I didn't like about GV is how the houses were so close to together and the layout of the neighborhood, it just seems so cramped. GME just has a better feel IMO. The only thing I do not like at the moment is there are no other builders for the Brookstone Collection so it has that cookie cutter look.

[v2four]

The wife and I took a ride through Grand Vista yesterday, and while they are doing incredible work getting houses up, the first thing I noticed were the small lots...45 foot lots and they are charging north of $230k? for that price, you need to be on a 55 foot lot in my opinion..

It appears they are putting up a lot of spec homes...I doubt if they have contracts on all those homes, so build it and they will come I guess.....Grand Mission Estates looks to be a little "cleaner" than Grand Vista, meaning the lots are larger and you will get more for your money...the homes are not up against each other or packed on the street either.

Finally, the elementary school that is zoned to both Grand Mission Estates, Grand Mission and Grand Vista is Juan Seguin on Grand Mission Blvd....Seguin currently has an acceptable rating and meets requirements(basically, enough students passed the STAAR test like every other school).....Im sure those in the new neighborhoods cant wait for the new elementary to come online, but they still have a problem...they are zoned to Bush high school....which did not meet state standards last year

[stevep65]

Originally Posted by butterflies105

May I ask, how much the price have they been increased since you bought your home? I looked online and saw it used to be $180's and now has increased to $212's...sigh ...

Our house was way more than that and since we bought the values have went up about 10%

[swopoe]

I had 2 kids attend seguin for several years. And I have friends with kids still there. If you want to know about the school or about the time my kindergartener's class had to run and hide in the resource room because one of her classmates tried to attack her teacher with a pointed pencil, just ask me.

[stevep65]

Originally Posted by ronaldmco

Just moved in about a month ago along with several other people, and I definitely love it. Location is great being off Mason & Beechnut ... head up Mason to get to I-10 or take the Westpark Tollway or Beechnut with easy access to 99. There are tons of Lakes (plus the ones in Lakemont with even better scenery!) there's plenty of trails to get a good exercise.

Agree with everything you said. We moved in, in October and love the area for the same reason. We are usually on the paths with our two dogs.

[key2thecity]

Originally Posted by butterflies105

oh I called TM, they said the Elementary school will be opened in year 2017.

Just an FYI from someone that lives in the area... I'm not sure where the Taylor Morrison rep is getting their info, but there is no school slated to be built in or near Grand Vista in 2017. They just did a huge overhaul and rezoning for FBISD. They will finish Aliana's school and that should open for 2015. Harvest Green will get an elementary school in 2017. No other new elementary school was in the report for this immediate area. Actually, for those specific neighborhoods, they are slated to have the same group of schools (Seguin, Crockett, and Bush) for years. Be careful when listening to sales people!

[Bentley2013]

Originally Posted by key2thecity

Just an FYI from someone that lives in the area... I'm not sure where the Taylor Morrison rep is getting their info, but there is no school slated to be built in or near Grand Vista in 2017. They just did a huge overhaul and rezoning for FBISD. They will finish Aliana's school and that should open for 2015. Harvest Green will get an elementary school in 2017. No other new elementary school was in the report for this immediate area. Actually, for those specific neighborhoods, they are slated to have the same group of schools (Seguin, Crockett, and Bush) for years. Be careful when listening to sales people!

Yes, I doubt that that Grand Vista will have it's own Elementary. FBISD has Aliana ES almost done, the next one will be in Riverstone for 2016.

[daisee1203]

Originally Posted by BilInSaf

Are you talking about Windsor Estates? If so, it's cute, but very pricey IMO.

No. It's called Mission Trace. It's near Beechnut and 1464. It's all Express homes. Huge yellow flags out front and waterfalls. It's right outside Aliana.

Windsor Estates is closer to the GP and 1464 and is all DR Horton homes, which owns Express homes. We too find that it is too expensive for what it is vs. other areas.

[daisee1203]

Originally Posted by Bentley2013

Yes, I doubt that that Grand Vista will have it's own Elementary. FBISD has Aliana ES almost done, the next one will be in Riverstone for 2016.

I don't know that GV will have an elementary school anytime soon but it WILL have one. Just because it's not slated for the next few builds doesn't mean it isn't happening. There is no reason for them to lie when there is a HUGE map of the entire build out for the entire community. As I explained earlier, it will not be in the first big phase and they made that really clear. It will be in the 2nd big phase. And the entire community will not be built out until 8-10 years at the least. They estimate 12-15 years. So, to anyone thinking of buying, understand that it could be a few years.

I've had sales people promise some grand things but lying about a school isn't one that I have experienced - especially when you can see the blueprint, displayed for all to see. They might be lying about how fast it will go up, but there will be one.

[daisee1203]

Originally Posted by key2thecity

Just an FYI from someone that lives in the area... I'm not sure where the Taylor Morrison rep is getting their info, but there is no school slated to be built in or near Grand Vista in 2017. They just did a huge overhaul and rezoning for FBISD. They will finish Aliana's school and that should open for 2015. Harvest Green will get an elementary school in 2017. No other new elementary school was in the report for this immediate area. Actually, for those specific neighborhoods, they are slated to have the same group of schools (Seguin, Crockett, and Bush) for years. Be careful when listening to sales people!

I haven't heard any elementary school information for Harvest Green in terms of time. Just that it will have one.
You need to actually go to the neighborhood and see what they have slated. I don't believe GV will have an elem school in 2017 but they will have one. It just won't be until they open the next big phase, which I estimate at least another 2-3 years, depending on sales.

There are 4 new elem schools to go up that were approved in the latest FBISD bond but they didn't name them. I don't think Aliana was on there b/c it was already under construction. High school and middle schools, will stay the same for GV, unless something changes over time.