My 3 years in wichita KS (Andover, Galva: real estate, crime rate, new house)

[quesera]

I didn't read through all the posts, so this reply is semi-blind... if you don't want to pay HOA dues, don't build in an association. There are plenty of places where you can have new construction and not be in a home owners association. Personally, I'd never build in one. Who wants to be told what flowers they're allowed to plant in their own front yard? Not me! Special taxes and assesments are to pay for the new streets that you new homes are being built on. They also are to cover sewer lines and utility lines that are newly installed to supply the services required by the new home residents (can you imagine not having a toilet, or no electricity to power your A/C unit?).
You can complain about shoddy housing all you want, but you have to investigate the builder before you sign on the dotted line. Ask current owners of properties built by the company, what their experiences have been. It's part of being a responsible home buyer. Learn everything you can so you can make an informed decision! Then take responsibility for your decision, good or bad.

[cjones15]

First of all, to the OP - that was one of the hardest post to read!! Maybe you should take as much interest in grammer lessons as you do new home construction. A few periods and a capitol letter at the beginning of a new sentence would be very nice and make for a much easier read.

A lot of your complaints are your own fault! Taxes!! We all pay them and we have a pretty good estimate of what they are going to be before we sign paperwork, along with what your mortgage payment will be. It isn't like you sign on the dotted line and then they tell you what your payments will be. I understand the special tax assessment sucks but that's life. Where I'm originally from we don't have special tax but our "standard" tax is much higher then the average around Wichita with the special tax added in.

KB Homes??? They suck!! They were one of the big builders where I use to live and I can tell you there is no way I would every select them. Talk about shoddy workmanship. They were constantly under fire for poor craftsmanship. Looking at a model would give you a general idea of what the builder expects out of his crew but you have to remember the same people who built the model probably are not building your house. Different crews do different things. A builder should stand by their crew/work. It sounds like your problems are with your specific builder not Wichita!!! Why is it Wichita's fault your builder sucked and you have to pay taxes???

I really get tired of people blaming problems on where they live!!! You would more then likely have the same issues in any other town you lived in. My family lives in Cali. My cousin just bought a "cheap" home, it was only $850K. Sorry but that isn't cheap to me but in Cali it is. Best of luck with the low cost of living in Cali.

[College Hill Mom]

Holy Moly! The typing, grammar, and spelling on this thread.....I'll refrain from making stabs at the out of towner's and their lack of writing skills here because I'm a nice gal. Fercryinoutloud.

OP, sounds to me like your problems with Wichita are self-induced. At the last of your post you said that the good parts about Wichita were good jobs, nice people. One of the bad things you listed was the weather. Well, we all know we can't help that, right? ( did you do a search on the area before you moved here? Did you not know what you were getting into? )

I have a friend from Fresno, CA. She spends several months a year here in Wichita. She's amazed at our low cost of living, affordable housing, and for the most part, can't find anything wrong with Wichita as a mid-sized city. She's out there in CA right now dealing with blistering heat, wildfires, high prices and TOO MANY PEOPLE. There is no way in the world that I would ever trade her places, not even for a two hour drive to the coast where there are TOO MANY PEOPLE and blistering heat, high prices, wildfires. Yes, the Sierra's are within driving distance too, as are Yosemite, San Luis Obispo, Morrow Bay.....but she never goes because of all the people in line ahead of her. The first time she came out here and I drove her out to the Flint Hills she was amazed that we could see for miles ahead and not another car in sight. Out there it's bumper to bumper.

I'll take my flat land, prairie view, sunsets, cat-fishing, Flint-Hills spendor any day over all that mess in Califoria. It was a beautiful place to be back in her heyday but those days are long gone. All the smart folks have realized this and are headed east. Or north to Oregon.

[Will66]

Originally Posted by drjones96

The sad thing is, man, that some of those immigrants work a hell of a lot harder and do a better job than some of their domestic counterparts (this is coming from a red blooded american). They'll do the worst grunt work and not complain. They'll do the jobs that most of us wouldn't bother doing....because the pay sucks (some of us could do better working at McDonalds...or earning unemployment). I'm sure living in CA you're familar with 'guest' labor. Having just lived in Texas I sure am.

KB builds in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas btw...where you're highly unlikely to find an english speaker on the jobsite. And to be honest I looked at their product and did not care for it in comparison to what I ended up buying. For the money I liked several other builders better (at least around FTW). Why they choose not to build in Kansas? I don't know. Why do they choose not to build in Missouri? Or Oklahoma? Or Arkansas? Or Alabama? Or Mississippi? I don't know man. They just don't. Why can't you find a Steak N Shake in New York?

But why should I defend the product because it's what I'm buying? True I've decided to buy here....but I own no stock in my builder's company. I'll be quick to drag their name through the mud if they do not give me the service as advertised....however I've seen several of their homes in various ages in this area (from brand new up to about 5 years old). They seem to be holding up fairly well.

I understand you've had your problems with YOUR builder. It sounds like from what you've said he's blowing you off on his quality saying "everybody does it". I can tell you that not everybody does things the exact same way. Some builders demand better from their labor. It may sound like an off topic observation but most brands of bicycles have their carbon fiber frames built in china. Even some competitive brands are built under the same roof. But even though that's true it doesn't mean that the processes to build the two frames are the same. In fact if the two companies own proprietary manufacturing processes and layup schedules they WILL be made differently and with different quality.

I can tell you I would expect and demand much better quality out of a $1mil home regardless of what nationality the labor was. I'm not saying there would be zero defects...it's really impossible when you're talking about building something the size of a house. It's not like building something easy like a cardboard box. There are so many elements to a house that can and will go wrong. It's how your builder chooses to remedy the situations as they arise....sounds like yours didn't do squat for you....which is why you're on here draging his name through the mud.

The reason that these company do not build these is that these states have laws that state you cna not hire illegal immigrants. And that is all they want to hire. That is why you get so many problem with you house, no matter what the price is.

[Will66]

You check there work site and you will find very few Amercan worker there.

[drjones96]

Originally Posted by Will66

The reason that these company do not build these is that these states have laws that state you cna not hire illegal immigrants. And that is all they want to hire. That is why you get so many problem with you house, no matter what the price is.

I think you missed the point I was trying to make. The OP stated that a particular builder strays away from building in Kansas where he states that the problem with quality is that builders use immigrant labor. Well the same builder does in fact build in Texas where you can't throw a rock without hitting a mexican on the job site and the Builder he mentioned clearly DOES build there and clearly DOES use immigrant labor. So how can that be that the reason they don't build in KS is because they disallow the use of immigrant labor? I can tell you for a fact that there are 4 of these immigrant laborers working on my house right now. The argument that they do not build here because the state will not let builders use immigrant labor does not hold water. It's a buisiness decision. If it was profitable they would build here, no?

[KevK]

I never had any problem with houses in Wichita. Ours was 100 years old and never had a plumbing leak. They didn't use that crap plastic back then. All pipes heavy iron. No insulation either. In the winter it was warm in the center and cold by the walls and windows. No AC in the summer either.
Funny you say jobs are good. They weren't when I lived there. That is why I left. And yes, the weather is horrible most of the time. Other than that, it was a pretty good place to live.

[averagejoe76]

I agree with you on Weather thats my number 1# gripe.
Its July and it rains every 2 days lately.Then there's 50mph winds,hail,icestorms..
Dont forget Tornado's

[Brasidas]

Funny, I always loved the weather here in the plains. Especially the tornadoes.

Then again I grew up in the Tulsa area, and it's not too dissimilar in most ways.

Helped my dad build his dream house, so I have a pretty good idea what builders are putting together. Kansas is actually pretty decent. You wanna see cardboard, hit some of the recent additions on the east coast and you'll see shoddy construction galore.

Before anybody tries to tell you how great SoCal is, it ain't. Went there every summer from 12 to 21 years of age, and I got to watch it change gradually into what it is today. Arizona and Colorado didn't get a population boom because people in SoCal thought it was a great place to live.

Unfortunately, both of those states have also gone downhill as a result of their new citizens/refugees from the SoCal socialism experiment.

My little brother lives in SoCal, and he'd do anything to escape, and he married into money, so he has a very nice house and a great job, but I know he'd bail in a heartbeat if he could convince his wife to leave.

[Modron]

Name ANYPLACE you'd rather live than California. I suspect comparing Wichita to Detroit, MI would get completely different results. There are people who've moved to more metropolitan places, like Dallas, from California and wished they'd never done it, just because it's not California.


[quote=dguz;4216890]READ THIS ONLY IF YOU ARE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING TO MOVE TO WICHITA OR BUILD A NEW HOME THERE


I lived in wichita KS for a little over 3 years i just moved back to California.