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Hi
This is my first time on this thread. I wanted to thank Mikeheel for all his info on the Brightleaf community. I almost ruled it out because of some negative feedback I got from my realtor. She said it is not a good location as far as resell, schools and crime are concerned.
I am currently in temporary housing in one of the Brier Creek apartments. I love being here because it is close to EVERYTHING! That is one reason I like Brightleaf. Also the model homes that Shea have are GORGEOUS and affordable (even after all the upgrades)!!! I believe (and maybe i am wrong) that being so close to the Brier Creek area, purchasing a home in Brightleaf can only be a good investment. As far as crime, let's be real crime is everywhere. Schools, they are building a new elementary school right in Brightleaf (I read somewhere may be done by Feb. 08).
Can't wait to bring my husband to Brightleaf this weekend. I've been talking his ear off this whole week.
Mikeheel - how's the house coming along?
Hi
This is my first time on this thread. I wanted to thank Mikeheel for all his info on the Brightleaf community. I almost ruled it out because of some negative feedback I got from my realtor. She said it is not a good location as far as resell, schools and crime are concerned.
I am currently in temporary housing in one of the Brier Creek apartments. I love being here because it is close to EVERYTHING! That is one reason I like Brightleaf. Also the model homes that Shea have are GORGEOUS and affordable (even after all the upgrades)!!! I believe (and maybe i am wrong) that being so close to the Brier Creek area, purchasing a home in Brightleaf can only be a good investment. As far as crime, let's be real crime is everywhere. Schools, they are building a new elementary school right in Brightleaf (I read somewhere may be done by Feb. 08).
Can't wait to bring my husband to Brightleaf this weekend. I've been talking his ear off this whole week.
Mikeheel - how's the house coming along?
I'm glad you're considering Brightleaf. I'm guessing your realtor is not located in Durham, based on that advice. There really is far too strong a local prejudice against Durham. As tons of posts on this forum have shown, there are actually some good schools in Durham and it not an unsafe area.
Be that as it may, if all things were equal, North Raleigh, Cary, and Chapel Hill would still be more desireable locations to most folks. But all things are not equal. If you look at it, I think you'll find the value in good Durham locations (like Brightleaf, Hope Valley, and such) just can't be beat - in fact, you won't find similar quality anywhere close in price.
The house is moving along. They are framing at this point. At the start of the week, we had some simple framing around the garage. Now, they have begun on the second floor. We're very happy with how the brick looks. No other house in the region had the brick we choose, so it was tough to envision how it would look when all we had to look at was a relatively small set of bricks.
I will note we have had to check on the construction regularly. The crews so far have not been able to speak or read English; so they sometimes miss what would seem to be fairly basic instructions. For instance, we paid for an optional door going out the laundry room; they framed it for the standard window. We paid for an optional full bath downstairs. They framed it for a half-bath.
I learned long ago to not stress about such things; we just check on it regularly, document the mistakes, have them correct it, and move on. The work itself seems to be good. I would expect silly errors like that with any builder, but not all do a decent job with the actual construction or correcting the mistakes.
The customer service and support has been wonderful. If you talk to anyone at the sales office, ask for Catherine. She is the very pregnant one and has really impressed my wife and I with her great attitude and helpfulness.
If you guys decide against Brightleaf and you can stand the airplane noise, I'd suggest you look around Leesville Road off 540. It's close to Brier Creek, too, and there are some decent houses at relatively good prices for the area there (b/c they're right under the landing path). There is also an interesting new KB development just a little further up Strickland Road just off 540.
I'll be heading out tomorrow to take some pix, check on the work from the last two days, and check in with Catherine.
If you really want to sell your husband on Brightleaf, take him to the Shea development in Cary/Morrisville first. It's called Magnolia Place. Great houses. Small lots. No amenities (you even use a small pool located in another neighborhood across a 4-lane road). Get a price list. Then, go to Brightleaf. You'll find exactly the same houses in Brightleaf for 100k - 150k less than at Magnolia. Plus, Brightleaf has much better lots and will have tons of amenities (pools, tennis courts, hiking/biking trails, fitness center, public art, lots of greenspace, etc). There simply is no comparison. Looking at those two really sold me on Brightleaf in a huge way. I love getting high quality at a "value" price.
HI!
Mikeheel- Thank you so much for your quick response! Congrats on getting your home started. When do they expect to finish? We will be headed out to Brightleaf tomorrow. Can't wait to show my husband the Shea homes, I am in love with both model homes. Love their upgrades!!! Just worried it may be too expensive once you start adding them on.
Catherine is so nice, I've been there twice so far and she has been very sweet and helpful. Not pushy or making me fill out loads of paperwork and millions of questions. Loved that!!
Oh and yes my realtor lives by the Crabtree mall. She seamed to push Cameron Pond quite a bit. Don't get me wrong Cameron Pond is nice but my eye kept on going to the most expensive side of the community. Not to mention 540 will be running right through it. The homes in the $500 range had a cookie cutter feel and the lots were small. Not to mention most yards were facing the neighbors, so close you can have coffee in the morning. The Shea homes give you more of a custom home and you get to pick the lot, at least at this phase.
Keep us posted on your home and I'll let you know if the hubby is sold!
OH one more question - This weekend is the Parade of homes wouldn't you think my realtor would have loads lined up for us to look at? It would be a great opportunity to visit other communities but she hasn't even called us.
Lots of folks rave about Cameron Pond; I looked at it and just don't get the fuss. The less expensive side looks cheap. The more expensive side looks crowded and the houses are rather plain unless you spend a ton. Even then, you don't get much of a yard.
Anyway, they cleared the lot around the first of September, had the footings poured by 9/10, and are framing now. Our initial completion date was something like 1/6. But, as of now, we are ahead of schedule and could be finished by mid-December.
As for upgrades, you can get by without a ton of money in upgrades. However, we ("happy wife = happy life") wanted the most expensive countertops, more expensive hardwoods (5" Brazillian Cherry plank) for the first floor, more expensive carpet & padding, an extended garage, several bay windows, bigger water heater, brick fireplace, built-in home theater system, and so on; plus, we wanted one of the bigger plans on a large cul-de-sac lot on the all-brick side. Including the lot, our upgrades totaled about 77k, which was far less than similar upgrades when we priced Centex homes (looked at Grandale). But you can easily get by with far less in upgrades and still have a very nice home. We didn't have a real reason to move unless we built something really nice, though; so we added a good bit.
Anyway, here is a little more info I sent another member via PM in response to some specific questions she asked me about Brightleaf (I have edited it slightly to post publicly):
Quote:
Pools: There will be 2 pools. One is a junior olympic competition pool. The other is a large resort-style zero entry pool. There will also be a substantial workout club/facility.
Parks: I do not believe there will be a park, per se. But there will be a lot of greenspace and open areas with artwork. There will also be hiking/biking trails. There will also be tennis courts and a tennis training program by a USTA pro.
School: There will be an elementary school on the property, too. But I don't think there will be a middle school (I could be wrong about that). Someone said the elementary school would be a magnet school, but I never confirmed whether that was accurate. Fwiw, there are some good schools in Durham, but it's very hit-and-miss. If you have kids in school right now, I would make the decision based on the schoool system. If you don't have kids in school at this point, it's hard to project 3-5 years down the road now, so I wouldn't worry as much about it. If schools are an immediate concern, I would be ok w/BL if the kids are HS aged, but if they're younger, I don't particularly like Bethesda Elementary (not sure how long it will take to build the new one at BL).
Appreciation: I think BL will appreciate very well at this point. The development is brand new and will have a lot of nice stuff in a year. Right now, it is under-priced b/c the amenities are not there yet; but the prices should go up substantially over the next year. So, I think you will see decent appreciation. However, I think the more expensive homes will likely appreciate faster than the less expensive ones in BL. Even with the less expensive homes, I think BL will appreciate a good bit better than most other locations in the area.
Traffic: You didn't ask this, but I *hate* the traffic in North Durham. It is horrible; lots of stop-and-go. Guess Road is the only ok northern route at this point, but anything up Roxboro or Duke should be off limits. It is a nightmare up that way. The area around Brightleaf, meanwhile, is heavily traveled, but traffic flows pretty well; so I'm not worried about it there.
Thank you so much for all the info on BL. Can't wait to get there today with my husband. I think this is the perfect location for us and like you said you get a great deal since they are still in Phase 1. And WOW i can't believe your home may be done by Dec. that's awesome! I'll keep you posted.
Hopefully soon to be neighbor!
Thanks for you valuable information on BrightLeaf and good luck on the construction of you new home. My wife and I are from NJ and we are planning to move to NC in 2009. We visited BrightLeaf in June 2007 and loved the community. We also looked at Stonegate in WakeForest and were impressed. The Builder at Stonegate is McCar Homes. He is also building another community 10 minutes from BrightLeaf called Ashton Hall. I found a lot of complaint about McCar homes on the City Data website. Do you know anything about McCar’s communities and his homes? I was also told that most of the builders hire the same contractors. Base on what you are experiencing with the construction of you home, do you think this is true?
I'm sorry, but I don't have any experience or feedback on McCar; however, I don't view them as a generally high-end builder. Maybe I'm wrong.
Yes, most builders use many of the same contractors. The difference is how closely they supervise the work and the specs they are required to follow. Shea, for instance, uses more wood than a lot of other builders (so the houses feel more solid). Again, though, I can't directly compare that to McCar.
Schools, they are building a new elementary school right in Brightleaf (I read somewhere may be done by Feb. 08).
I live in Durham and am a proponent of Durham Public Schools. However, if you will have children in school by Feb 08 I would recommend calling DPS regarding this date. School projects do not always move along as quickly as they are suppose to, regardless of the county or state. Also check with the builder... they might be building the school instead of the district. I really liked this area but we my oldest is in 2nd grade and the current elementary school for this area was just not acceptable for us. I couldn't see being happy with that school choice until the new school opened. But that is me. But if we had not needed public schools for a few more years Brightleaf would have been at the top of the list.
I think St. Lawrence has some pretty good deals in Brightleaf right now, too; but it seems like Drees has really dropped prices. I don't think Shea is doing much in terms of buyer incentives, other than a 3k credit if you use their inhouse mortgage. I have no idea if Standard Pacific is doing anything.
fwiw,
Mike
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hi
