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08-30-2005, 05:26 PM | #26 | |
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08-30-2005, 06:09 PM | #27 |
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The good thing about rain-racer's posts is, they should get folks to think about their desires and lifestyle PLUS the commute to work. Arlington is the largest city in the US without government mass transit. At least in FT.W. you COULD ride mass transit to/from a few reasonable destination. And the point about land is good, IF you are not a careful shopper of older properties, you will not get a large lot in close to the metroplex. All the new construction is on quite small lots. I have a 4 bedroom house that is single story . Nowadays it's unlikely a 4 bdr would not be 2 story. I still have quite a samll lot and my house was built in '74. BUT, I can return movies on my bike in just a few minutes more than in the car. And bring home milk and a Sunday paper. I can walk to a branch library, chose among 4 movie theaters within 12 minute drives - one of which serves food and beer and wine and shows football games for free. But I can't set off fireworks or raise Emu.
Carl |
08-30-2005, 06:23 PM | #28 | |
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yeah I guess in my own blowhard kind of way I was trying to say that commute and lifestyle should be the biggest factors, but too often people ignore one or the other (or just don't realize it untill it is too late), I have been in situations where I ignored both and I was very unhappy. |
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08-30-2005, 06:29 PM | #29 | |
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its a 4/3/3. almost 3k sf. i think there is one or two house left for sale that are new in my neighborhood. but there are several houses up for sale that people lived there less than 2 yrs so practically new and my whole subdivision is set up the same 4/3/3. rumor has it that there is a housefor sale down the street from me that is going for $170k. its 4/3/3 again but more sf but has a smaller back yard. the family moved in there for like 6wks then moved out again. also all of these houses are set up for gas appliances even tho they all have electrical appliance and so u just have to change them over. and are u sure electricity costs more than gas.? i would think with the price of oil now, gas is hella more expensive. anyways, mansfield is just exploding in size and its only getting bigger. they are currently building a 5th HS and just finished building a 21 movie theater, on the border rest w/ a soon to be applebees. best buy is opening up soon right next to these places and they started to break ground on building a new hospital. there are also 9 starbucks in a 6 mi radius from where i live too. |
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08-30-2005, 06:38 PM | #30 |
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I agree with you 100% on finding the right place for you regarding lifestyle. I don't agree with the commute part, because very few people are going to keep the same job for 20 years. Whereas most people will keep a house that long(save the interest only loan deals, ya know?). Had I bought a house regarding my commute, I would have bought a house in Mesquite(with my fiancee working in Terrell at the time, that was ok). But now she works at Harris Methodist HEB, and she'd have one hell of a commute, going through Dallas(ugh). My commute wouldn't have changed much, since I work off of Lemmon, but hers would be out of control.
As far as traffic goes, any city with a decent population is going to have traffic problems. Just try to find the places that you can go against traffic, and not with it(if that's possible). 183 is no picnic, but it sure ain't I-285(perimeter) Atlanta. 8 lanes going 1 way, and it's all bumper to bumper from 6-10 in the morning, 3-7 in the evening(sometimes longer). I guess I've grown an immunity to traffic living in big cities. Carl, doesn't it suck that we can't raise emu? Tarrant County is a bunch of emu haters... Mika |
08-30-2005, 06:53 PM | #31 |
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rain racer is exaggerating about 121/183... you think its bad? try the 101 in downtown San Francisco... now you're playing with the big boys son.
I drove from Haltom City/ Ft Worth to downtown dallas everday.... 55 minutes if I got it right, 1:10 if I got it wrong. Before that I drove from Haltom City to Lewisville always within an hour and 1:45 when I worked in Plano coming from Ft Worth. |
08-30-2005, 10:01 PM | #32 |
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Austin...
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08-31-2005, 01:37 AM | #33 |
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I probably won't worry too much about commute times for the time being. After all, Southern Cal is the commuter capital of the world. One of the freeways I use frequently (Hwy 91 between Riverside and the Long Beach/Santa Ana region) is notorious for its "parking lot". Everybody here likes to call it the "Corona Crawl" since you're basically crawling through the city of Corona.
stickman: I've already found a few houses that were or are still on the market in the last couple of weeks that met my requirements (4 bed, 3 bath, 4000+ft, cul-de-sac, newer than 1985). All looked great in the pics I saw on realtor.com. They're all on cul-de-sacs off of Spring Lake Pkwy east of Holland. So which areas specifically in Mansfield do you believe the houses are all plumbed for gas despite having electric appliances? I'll definitely put more on my list if I know they're already plumbed for gas. My buddy also says if there is a gas water heater, it's also easy to plumb it for gas yourself. My thing is, there are houses there that are already plumbed for it and even have the appliances that use it. Not sure I'd want to spend the time or money replacing electric appliances with gas and/or adding gas lines. |
08-31-2005, 01:42 AM | #34 | |
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08-31-2005, 02:39 AM | #35 |
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dude...look in Haslet/Blue Mound. North of Ft. Worth on 287.
Freekin nice. big yards. New. |
08-31-2005, 02:42 AM | #36 |
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Western Lewisville. You're kinda near I35W. That or Valley Ranch or Coppell
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08-31-2005, 08:10 AM | #37 |
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My house is the same as Stickmans, well I did alot of custom work to mine so its not all electric. It came with all electric but I had them put in all gas except for the oven (don't like gas ovens). Alot of the places I looked when I was building had electric appliances but gas was running to the house, not sure why. I don't agree with the electric appliances mean cheap either, I looked at plenty of very nice houses that had all electric appliances when I was building, I think it is just a preference thing. If you need anymore information about Mansfield drop me a PM if you want, I would be happy to help.
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08-31-2005, 08:55 AM | #38 |
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Something else to consider: does your wife work? We live in Castle Hills, which is unicorporated, but basically east of Lewisville, north of Carrollton, south of The Colony and west of Plano. I currently commute to north Dallas, and will soon be commuting to Frisco. My wife works in Coppell and will soon be working in Irving. None of these commutes is too bad, the longest will be her Irving commute, which will still be around 45 minutes.
The lesson here? Don't assume you will work in the same place forever, or that your spouse will work close to you. We built new and paid a premium to live in a great commuting location. We are in the box formed by 121, I-35E, GBTP and the tollway. Our house is probably 50% more expensive per sq ft than a house in Mansfield, but we live within commuting range of way, way, way more professional jobs. And the kicker is it is still not very expensive compared to most of the country. (And by the way, we have gas heat and water heaters, but a smooth top electric range. Way easier to clean and neither one of us is a gormet anyway. Plus, it looks cool.) |
08-31-2005, 09:50 AM | #39 |
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yeah we definitely need the smooth top electric range thanks to my wifes many cooking experiences.........hahaha....
our house is already hook up for gas in the way for our kitchen appliances. our water heater is gas (i think) and we have a gas fireplace. if we got our house in the very beginning of the building process we would have probably got gas but we bought it during the 9th out of 14th building phase and everything was already hooked up and basically ready for move in. InsaneZane, im not sure what area you are talking about but i live in a subdivision called tanglewood. built by lennar. did i mention we all have 3 car garages!!! that is what made up my mind. anyways, i think the website is www.lennarhomes.com and look for tanglewood in texas. they also have a subdivision right across the street from us called willowbend. those house come with either 2 or 3 car garages and were less than us. i do think we got a good deal on this house we paid less than 195K for a 4 bedroom, 3 full bath, 3 car garage w/ almost 3k sf. this was brand new. it came w/ everything: sod, sprinkler system, wood fence all the way around the back yard. all kitchen appliances except for the fridge, and we sit on almost 1/2 acre. |
08-31-2005, 02:19 PM | #40 | |
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I stayed in Corona and commuted to Anaheim 2 yrs ago. Going to Anaheim wasn't so bad but coming home.... 1hr 30mins minimum. N. Ft. Worth, more specifically, Keller is getting huge. I live in The Villages of Woodland Springs and our community has 10 builders and 10,000 homes when all is said and done. The price range starts in the mid-120's and goes up from there. I bought my house for $140 and it has already gone up $15K in less than a year. It's a great community with a great HOA and pretty quiet. Good luck with your decision! |
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08-31-2005, 02:36 PM | #41 |
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Nice part of Forth Worth? Defintely dallas.
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08-31-2005, 07:51 PM | #42 | |
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I've been looking only at 4000ft+ houses, but I may go down to 3000+ just so I can get more hits. Realtor.com doesn't seem to list much new in your guys' area that often. Plus, I might be more willing to take a house with electric appliances if the overall price is low enough and it's worth the time/money to set it up for gas. I do almost all of my own automotive work, so a 3-car garage would be a major plus too. Most of the ones I've been seeing only have 2-car garages. |
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08-31-2005, 07:54 PM | #43 | |
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08-31-2005, 10:01 PM | #44 |
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InsaneZane,
use this website: www.lennar.com then go under communities >Texas>DFW>southwest area my subdivision is not on there so im gonna find out whats going on with that. |
08-31-2005, 11:23 PM | #45 |
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Are those Lennar homes HOA homes? If so, what kind of fees do you pay?
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09-01-2005, 12:50 AM | #46 | |
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Location: Dallas, TX
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The colony has a LOT of weed Plano has a LOT of heroin Dallas has a LOT of crack Frisco has a LOT of alcohol, so if i were to choose i would go with frisco. frisco and plano people are very snobby, to the point where i have to wait on cars to drive by so i can walk out of walmart because they dont yield to foot traffic. But at least in frisco their are things for people to do, you can see a baseball game, go to the mall, watch a hokey game, go get some good food, and you can do all this without even having to drive. Everything is so close and the houses there are beautiful. And since the city is relatively new (the booming part at least) there is still plenty of real estate that is undeveloped that you can live far away from the city if you want. |
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09-01-2005, 12:53 AM | #47 |
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the colony also will be under construction with 121 for the next year or so.... man i wish that highway was complete when i went through there all the time.
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09-01-2005, 08:48 AM | #48 | |
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09-01-2005, 09:00 AM | #49 |
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I think Lennar is the best of the "bang for your buck" builders. They keep the costs down by tightly controlling the building process instead of cheaping out. One thing to note: they have almost no options--what you see is what you get. Keeps the price down, but can be a bit limiting.
(Disclaimer: I work for a construction subcontractor that does work for Lennar, their Village division in particular.) HOA are obviously a doubled-edged sword. Since the area we live in is unincorporated, we need a pretty strong HOA to keep people from raising cattle in their yards and catfish in their pools. The covenants (sp?) for Castle Hills are nuts. There are ten pages devoted to how rooflines need to look. But the HOA kicks ass. We get "to your door" mail delivery and free basic cable. Use of the community pools is only $100 per family. Every street is lined with the same species of tree, so it will look great in ten years. But they have weird stuff about hiding the AC units, etc. I am probably breaking a rule by having a hose reel on my front hose bib. Last edited by brizey; 09-01-2005 at 09:08 AM. |
09-01-2005, 10:13 AM | #50 |
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1) the average person stays in a house for 5 years... that is a statistical fact.
2) I don't understand how people can say "don't buy based on commute" Why is having a bad commute NOW better than the possibility of having a bad commute in a few years?? I love HOAs that offer jack squat. mine are 550 per year and that goes for the following: Private gym, 3 Pools with 2 and 3 story water slides, 3 private mini fishing lakes, 1 private large fishing/boating lake, 1 neighborhood park for about every 75 houses, baseball field, basket ball courts, tennis courts, soccer fields, covered gazebo bus stops for school busses, private community FM radio station plus other stuff I can't remember. I have never heard of HOAs plus pool fees heh that sucks. It kinda makes me feel bad for people who pay more for their HOA and get "common area gardening" and "Home owner harassment letters" and nothing else. |
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