East Texas small towns (Tyler, Kilgore: rental, chapel, house)

[okiemomof3]

Hi everyone I need some advice and opinions....My husband and I and our 3 kids (ages 2,4,7) moved to East Texas last August. We found a rental in Bullard and thought the town would work out pretty good since its smaller. We like it here but my husband is based out of Kilgore (although he mainly works in Arp, Troup,Kilgore) but the taxes seem super high (5200 for a 165k house) in town and land in Bullard is just ridiculously priced imo.

My husband talked about maybe moving closer to his job because he spends so much time driving. He's a oil field Tech so he mainly drives around the Arp, Troup, Kilgore and sometimes Center areas and fixes things. We have looked into Kilgore schools but they don't seem to be very good so we crossed that town off our list. Ideally we would want a small town school accepting of new people that is at the most 3A but also close enough to Tyler for our kids soccer and gymnastics. We are looking for a place that we can build or buy a house on some decent priced land but also still have some neighbors and not be too secluded. The areas we have looked at are
Diana, TX-We LOVED it here but it may be too far north and just as much drive as Bullard
Kilgore-schools are not very good from what we have heard around town
Lindale-nice but similar to Bullard in the taxes and distance issue

We have lived here 8 months but really don't know much about the area yet and could really use some help and opinions if anyone has time Thanks

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by okiemomof3

Hi everyone I need some advice and opinions....My husband and I and our 3 kids (ages 2,4,7) moved to East Texas last August. We found a rental in Bullard and thought the town would work out pretty good since its smaller. We like it here but my husband is based out of Kilgore (although he mainly works in Arp, Troup,Kilgore) but the taxes seem super high (5200 for a 165k house) in town and land in Bullard is just ridiculously priced imo.

My husband talked about maybe moving closer to his job because he spends so much time driving. He's a oil field Tech so he mainly drives around the Arp, Troup, Kilgore and sometimes Center areas and fixes things. We have looked into Kilgore schools but they don't seem to be very good so we crossed that town off our list. Ideally we would want a small town school accepting of new people that is at the most 3A but also close enough to Tyler for our kids soccer and gymnastics. We are looking for a place that we can build or buy a house on some decent priced land but also still have some neighbors and not be too secluded. The areas we have looked at are
Diana, TX-We LOVED it here but it may be too far north and just as much drive as Bullard
Kilgore-schools are not very good from what we have heard around town
Lindale-nice but similar to Bullard in the taxes and distance issue

We have lived here 8 months but really don't know much about the area yet and could really use some help and opinions if anyone has time Thanks

I just checked your taxes on a house that is on the tax rolls evaluation of 165,000 with no exemptions, such as homestead exemption. Your taxes would be about 4268. So your actual taxes would be much lower, rarely yes, it does happen, would your home be on the tax rolls at 165,000 so your taxes would probably be around 3,000. The taxes I included was for Bullard ISD, City of Bullard, Smith County and TJC taxes. If, as you would like, you did not live in any city, your taxes would be about 1,000 less than the above figure total 2,000 to 3,000 at most.

Did you consider Arp or Troup ISD not IN the towns? The area your are in, Southern area, it the highest demand area in the county, so highest prices for land. Good luck, it least taxes are not as much as you thought.

[KathrynAragon]

I don't know about the schools in various areas but you may want to look into Overton, Chapel Hill, Chandler, Brownsboro, Liberty City, Mt Pleasant, Hawkins, Van, Edom, even Gladewater, Hallsville, and Henderson.