Miramesa - Cypress TX (Houston, Spring: houses, neighborhood, buying)

[haudi]

Rennel and Anthony are fantastic.

Originally Posted by Fernandabr

Elementary is Rennel (I read somewhere that they might move some students to Postma), Middle is Anthony and High School is, in fact, Cypress Springs.

[haudi]

Honestly you need to be out at the construction site at least twice a WEEK during the construction phase if you can be. Twice a month just isn't close to enough. Construction moves very rapidly and you need to document and convey any concerns you have to your builder as soon as you can. You also should not rely on your dad to inspect your home, but also have an inspector local to Houston that is familiar with Houston builders, and the construction processes of Houston homes. Homes built here can have very different standards than those built in other places due to being built to deal with hurricane force winds, different foundation types, etc... Ideally your inspector would visit at least twice - Pre-Sheetrock and Pre-Close. If you opt for the foundation inspection that would be the third, but a lot of inspectors/engineering firms (Even VERY good ones) question the value you are getting out of the foundation inspection.

Originally Posted by Fernandabr

We are not in a hurry, in fact we are trying to slow things down so we can move after the summer. We are doing a LOT of negotiaton and trying to consider everything before signing anything. We are really planning on having the inspector on early stages, my dad, who is an engineer in Brazil (we have really high standards on contructions back there) will come before we receive the keys and we plan on being at the construction site at least 2 times a month, but that's just how we are with things in our life (kind of neurotic).

[mcfroggin]

Originally Posted by haudi

I think what's likely to happen is that Cy-Springs gets balanced out better with the upscale neighborhoods once one of the new High Schools opens. Some of the lower income areas over there will get shuffled to the newer school on 529 making more room for the Canyon Lakes/Miramesa areas. While it's not necessarily great right now I think we'd all be guessing what that school would be like in 10 years. I suspect it will be much better than it is now, but that's purely based on speculation.

I'd be concerned that it will do the opposite. Bridgeland HS is highly unlikely as it will pull Bridgeland and Fairfield neighborhoods. Both neighborhoods are massive, and it could be full with those alone. Cypress Parks is likely to become a hotter area as it is closer to major freeways and newer. Access and newness will Drive population. In 10 years, Cy Springs could be worse.

[haudi]

Either way, 10 years is a HUGE difference in terms of what will be built out there. There are neighborhoods that will be built that haven't even been conceptualized yet popping up in that 10 year span. There's just simply no way of us knowing one way or another what will happen to those schools in 10 years.

Originally Posted by mcfroggin

I'd be concerned that it will do the opposite. Bridgeland HS is highly unlikely as it will pull Bridgeland and Fairfield neighborhoods. Both neighborhoods are massive, and it could be full with those alone. Cypress Parks is likely to become a hotter area as it is closer to major freeways and newer. Access and newness will Drive population. In 10 years, Cy Springs could be worse.

[mcfroggin]

Originally Posted by haudi

Either way, 10 years is a HUGE difference in terms of what will be built out there. There are neighborhoods that will be built that haven't even been conceptualized yet popping up in that 10 year span. There's just simply no way of us knowing one way or another what will happen to those schools in 10 years.

Any investment 10 years out comes down to a risk/benefit analysis. If the home can be had for a great discount, it may be worth the risk. Currently, it is not a sought after area.

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by Fernandabr

Oh God! That's really bad!

We chose them because they have the exact floorplan we were looking for, below our desired starting price and they even offered further discounts since that was a new floorplan in the Houston area. Negotiations are going pretty fast so we are trying to gather as much information as we can in order not to make a bad deal.

We went trough the upgrades prices with the sales rep. As well as the price for structural changes. Everything is going well and we really like the guy, but I guess that's what normally happens.

We don't have a lot of extra money if something like what happened to you happens to us, so we were thinking about trying to have that in the contract so we have a document forbidding them to do so. Is it something possible?

Right now we don't have a realtor primarily because we were just starting looking at homes and thought we didn't need one at this point. They are suggesting we get a realtor to get us out of our apartment leasing and said they would recommend someone. We really don't know any good Realtors in the area and it worries me to see that they could bribe yours to get you in a bad deal. Where can I find a good recommendation for a realtor that will work for us?

One more question, did you do the early inspections on your home with an independent inspector? We are definitely doing this, but would like to hear more about your experience.

Thank you!

This builder is certainly not one of favorites. Good builders take care of their customers - others not so much.

Yeah, the sales people usually are congenial people, but remember who they work for. Hint: not you.

Realtors can't get you out of your lease. Sometimes the apt. manager will let you out if you give a long notice and pay a re-letting fee. If you take the builder's recommendation, they have a relationship with that realtor and there is a reason they want that realtor. Again, probably not really working for you.

On inspections, YES get your own independent inspector. Do a 3 point inspection package - prior to foundation pour, again right before sheetrock goes up, and final. Visit the site as often as you can. A good realtor will also hit the site frequently. Let the builder know that the realtor is your extra set of eyes. I have had builders act like a problem is none of my business, and I had to call and bother the client. Other builders don't behave like that - I'll let the client know, but the builder took care of the problem.

[Fernandabr]

Originally Posted by haudi

Honestly you need to be out at the construction site at least twice a WEEK during the construction phase if you can be. Twice a month just isn't close to enough. Construction moves very rapidly and you need to document and convey any concerns you have to your builder as soon as you can. You also should not rely on your dad to inspect your home, but also have an inspector local to Houston that is familiar with Houston builders, and the construction processes of Houston homes. Homes built here can have very different standards than those built in other places due to being built to deal with hurricane force winds, different foundation types, etc... Ideally your inspector would visit at least twice - Pre-Sheetrock and Pre-Close. If you opt for the foundation inspection that would be the third, but a lot of inspectors/engineering firms (Even VERY good ones) question the value you are getting out of the foundation inspection.

We can definitely go more, I just thought twice a month would be enough, goof to know that we need to be there every week. We are definitely doing this!

We were planning to have the professional inspector doing all the phase inspections and the one year after we move in and my dad would come just because he is very attentive to small details and he could help us with the cosmetic finishes.

[Fernandabr]

Originally Posted by cheryjohns

This builder is certainly not one of favorites. Good builders take care of their customers - others not so much.

Yeah, the sales people usually are congenial people, but remember who they work for. Hint: not you.

Realtors can't get you out of your lease. Sometimes the apt. manager will let you out if you give a long notice and pay a re-letting fee. If you take the builder's recommendation, they have a relationship with that realtor and there is a reason they want that realtor. Again, probably not really working for you.

On inspections, YES get your own independent inspector. Do a 3 point inspection package - prior to foundation pour, again right before sheetrock goes up, and final. Visit the site as often as you can. A good realtor will also hit the site frequently. Let the builder know that the realtor is your extra set of eyes. I have had builders act like a problem is none of my business, and I had to call and bother the client. Other builders don't behave like that - I'll let the client know, but the builder took care of the problem.

We are really having second thoughts.. this whole process is SO overwhelming. We really like the floorplan and, honestly, that's probably the best we can get with our money and the amount of upgrades we want to do.

We decided to look for another realtor to help us instead of the one they wanted us to use. She was very nice and said she would see if she could find other options close to what we want.

We will for sure hire the inspector for all the phases of the construction, we are just not sure anymore about the neighborhood... we really like Miramesa but the whole school thing is driving us crazy. We don't need the house to double its value in 10 year, but we don't want to have to sell it for 50k than what we paid.

[Fernandabr]

Originally Posted by mcfroggin

Any investment 10 years out comes down to a risk/benefit analysis. If the home can be had for a great discount, it may be worth the risk. Currently, it is not a sought after area.

They are offering us a discount because it is a new floorplan for the builder and they don't have any to show us. It is a really good price for us, less than what we were thinking on spending for the base price of the home. It is not a big floorplan (about 2200 sqfeet) but its just the size we wanted. Being in another neighborhood we would've already bought it.

The floorplan we are looking is the Sabine and the base price is about 253K, not bad at all... but we don't want to buy the house and have to sell it for 50k less in 10 years.

[Fernandabr]

Originally Posted by haudi

I think what's likely to happen is that Cy-Springs gets balanced out better with the upscale neighborhoods once one of the new High Schools opens. Some of the lower income areas over there will get shuffled to the newer school on 529 making more room for the Canyon Lakes/Miramesa areas. While it's not necessarily great right now I think we'd all be guessing what that school would be like in 10 years. I suspect it will be much better than it is now, but that's purely based on speculation.

We really want to think that that's what is going to happen.. with all the nice neighborhoods surrounding the area, Miramesa would benefit from that and become a more desirable neighborhood, but we don't want to be too optimist and make a really bad decision based on that.. we just don't see other alternatives as nice as this one.